There will always be people who are going to think your charging too much, it’s just the way it is. Honestly, I am willing to bet you at undercharging (many people just starting out tend to, it happens).
Another member put it like this; imagine you at going to a restaurant and ordering a dessert for ever member of the wedding (party, baptism, etc.) and most of those, as well as grocery store cakes, are frozen, shipped, and stuck in a microwave.
You are making fresh, ready to order, custom designed cakes and they aren’t for everyone! The people complaining are not going to be the type of target customers you’ll want anyway.
When I make a cake for someone we have several consultations, design concepts, more back and forth communication, paperwork, etc. Then you have to make sure you have your boards, dowels, ingredients….(which should also be figured into the price. Your time; shopping, planning, kitchen prep, cleaning-and we haven’t even started baking and decorating. Even if you bake from home you still have overhead; gas, electricity, water, insurance, etc. All these things should be figured into your pricing plus what you want to make an hour.
People don’t always realize just how much work goes into making cakes like these. I would step back and price out your recipes, time per project/by piece (like stripes on a cake-time how long it takes you and charge accordingly) obviously the complexity of the design is going to be a major factor in your pricing. I have a list of my base prices per slice stating that each cake is charged according to design but my customers still have a general idea of my pricing.
You don’t want to be known as the ‘cheap cake lady’, you don’t want to undercharge simply to get an order-believe me you’ll be resenting it eventually! It does take a while to build up a customer base but I promise you if you charge accordingly and stand behind your prices people will want to come to you because they know they are getting a quality product and they’ll be willing to pay for it.
Pricing is one of the most difficult aspects of the business side of what we do. If you have local bakeries in your area you can see what their base prices are too, I’m not talking about Walmart or Kroger-I mean a custom cake business. Obviously you don’t want to copy their prices (or undercut them) but it might make you feel a bit more confident about your pricing structure once you get it figured out.
Good luck!
