How much should I charge for wedding cupcakes?!
How much should I charge for wedding cupcakes?
I'm making cupcakes for a co-worker's wedding next month and I'm not sure how much I should be charging her, how I'm going to store them, transport them, etc.
They will be jumbo size chocolate and yellow with buttercream and black and white fondant flowers (cut with Wilton cut-outs) on top. I'm making 200 of them.
I'm not sure if I should charge by the cupcake or make an itemized list of supplies and double or triple it. I came up with a tentative supply list and it comes to about $200. If I charge by the cupcake I was thinking of charging $3.00, maybe $4.00, per cupcake. Is that reasonable? Too much? Too little?
If anyone has any pricing advice (and/or advice on how to store them beforehand and actually get them to the hall) I would really appreciate it!! Thanks!!
Answers:
Advice from a semi-retired cake designer:
For simple cakes - not much work - I start at $1.50 per serving for you basic buttercream and increase the price at based on the cost of add-ons (special fillings, upgrades in type of cake and or frostings, special piping work, and other fancy stuff I do). This is basically charging 3 to 5 times the cost of ingredients and where it is 3, 4 or 5 times the cost of ingredients is based on the amount of work I am doing.
Depending on how complicated the flowers will be to make, it sounds like $3.00 per cupcake is a fair price.
One other way to validate you pricing is to call local bakeries. That will tell you if your pricing is competitive.
As for storing them, most craft stores that sell Wilton products carry the cake boxes. Get the Sheet cake box. If you are making ahead and refrigerating/freezing the cupcakes - wrap the box in several layers of plastic wrap to keep them fresh. Do not store them with the fondant flowers, or preset the flowers - if they move in transit and you don't have extra stuff (which reminds me - plan on extra stuff to repair anything at the reception hall. Put the flowers in their own box - use crumpled tissue to keep them safe. I hope you have an SUV or van available to use - you do not want to stack the boxes - they need to be flat - or you will have tons of repair work to do! Recruit at least one friend to help put the flowers on the cakes at the reception. I pay helpers $7.50 an hour - plan on being there about 2 hours to set up the cakes, place flowers and do a general cleanup.
Good Luck!
If you're making basic cupcakes, $3 cupcake is reasonable. If you're making extra fancy ones, you can charge more. For a co-worker's bridal shower, a friend made snickerdoodle cupcakes and charged me $25/dozen. They were devoured instantly.
6 dollars for shure
You can buy a cupcake carrier so look for those now at a party supply store, ebay, etc. There are also stands if you need to present it such as this one...
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/im...
I have seen a variety usually starting at 3.00 a piece. I would call around your local bakeries and get an idea as to what is reasonable.
about $3.50 is what one website charges for wedding cupcakes. so, since she's a coworker, i'd say $3.00 would be good.
okay, another website charges $33.00 a dozen, so that's $2.75 per cupcake.
so, it's really up to you ... it depends on how laborious it's going to be, this job. i think that because you have to bake 200 of them, $3.00 to $3.50 is more reasonable, BECAUSE of so many you're baking, plus the packaging & delivery.
The best way to price your merchadize is adding up the following costs:
1. Cost of all the materials used
2. Cost of labor - you can quantify this by say giving a certain monetary value to your time.
3. Cost of storage - you can work it by the space the product occupies of your storage
4. Cost of transporting the product to the market place.
5. Your profit margin. This should be a percentage of the total cost of production, that is items 1-4. You could take something like 25% of cost of production as your profit.
As to how best to store the cupcakes, this will depend on the length they will be in storage. I suggest you avoid storing the cupcakes. You can program yourself to finish making them on the eve of the wedding.
I love the new Cupcake Courier for traveling with cupcakes. Each one holds 3 dozen cupcakes and makes life a lot easier when trying to transport cupcakes. http://www.cupcakecourier.com/
$3.00 each seems reasonable if the customer is getting the "friend" discount. This sounds like a lot of work so remember to pay yourself a little too so you are not resentful of the time you are investing, as well as the money to purchase supplies and ingredients. Good luck!