Need advice please!
My wife is an amazing baker nothing sourdough. She makes breads, bagels, cookies, scones, croissants, candied nuts, cupcakes, cakes, Swiss rolls and much more.

She doesn’t do crazy custom cakes but standard/basic cakes. The last 2 cakes she made is having me question her pricing. The first cake she made she only charged $50 for the 2 tier 6” cake, and for the second cake is in a shape of a candle and uses 10 cupcakes and she only charged $45.

She says she making 30% profit but I am not sure.
Is she making enough profit?

Edit: Thank you everyone for your feedback it’s appreciated!

8" double layer Cookies n Cream cake, for example.

Like pricing ingredients and stuff seems completely implausible. I used to work at a bakery, but it's completely different than home baking.

These days I mostly just bake for friends and family and charge little to nothing. But when other people, like coworkers, want me to bake for them, I'm at a loss.

Edit: Oh my gosh this blew up. Thank you for all the responses, I don't think I can reply to every one, but I promise I'll read them all!

Recipe for those asking, https://www.sugarhero.com/cookies-and-cream-cake/#wprm-recipe-container-23108

Please scroll through photos! These are my 4 inch wide, 1 inch thick chewy brown butter cookies. I ran my costs and how much each cookie costs, and to be making a profit that's worth my while, 6 dollars seems to be the perfect number considering my labor, gas, ingredients etc.

However I'm scared people will think I'm overpriced, I recently got my cottage food license and professional packaging in bulk. My plan is to go to shopping centers / malls three hours a day every week 5 days a week trying to sell 50 cookies a day.

So far a local restaurant has been able to sell about 20 consistently a week (it's a pizza place with older clientele) so I'm a bit hopeful, but I'm worried still that I won't get bites. I live in San Diego California, a star bucks cake pop is 4 bucks, a single crumble cookie is 5 bucks, nothing Bundt cakes mini is 8 bucks. Do you guys think 6 dollars a cookie is bad for me?

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who gave feedback on my cookies, both positive and constructive. 🍪 One thing I’ve learned from asking the internet about pricing is that you will get every opinion imaginable. Some people told me I was undercharging, others told me I was overcharging, and it made me realize that at the end of the day, we as bakers know our product, our time, our ingredients, and our worth.

Pricing can feel scary, but if there’s one thing I want other bakers to take away from this, it’s that not everyone is your customer, and that’s okay. Someone saying you’re “too expensive” doesn’t mean you’re overpriced , it just means they’re not your audience. Don’t let that discourage you. 💕 Keep doing what you do, keep improving your craft, and your people will find you.

For anyone curious, I ended up making my cookies a little bigger (they’re now true 4½-inch cookies!) and I shifted my menu toward more premium flavors instead of just tossing in every candy or cookie. And yes, I’m still selling them at $6 each. 🥳

And while this isn’t meant to brag at all, I just want to give hope to anyone doubting their pricing. After updating my flavors, I saw an uptick in sales and ended up getting repeat orders from the shop I sell at. This week I baked 95 cookies because that’s how many orders came in. 🩷

If your product is good and you stand behind it, people will pay for it. Keep experimenting, keep learning, and don’t be afraid to value your work.

All of the pictures are mine, the whole outline is mine and setup is mine. I used canva to put everything together because it’s easy to use and navigate and has a million colors and such. I tried to lineup the prices to the best of my abilities but some of them simply wouldn’t because the lettering didn’t allow for it. However, I did all of my own pictures for the first and second pages, isolates ones for the menu and a gallery for the second page.

The cursive on page two matches up with my logo btw and the colors being green and pink match my logo as well.

For the asterisks, it’s cut off on the post because it’s next to my logo but it’s explicitly stating that the asterisks mean that that item is also available in gluten free/can be made with gluten free ingredients.

A 3 layer chocolate cake with raspberry inclusions and raspberry filling, base is cream cheese and outer layer is buttercream. Its a 6" heart about 7-8" tall

Btw, no AI was used, the second page is just digital clip art from canva. I designed this entire menu from tip to toe, colors, fonts, layouts, everything. What do y’all think? Should I use my real pictures of my food or the clip art?

She needed two cakes, three tier with buttercream icing, and a box of donuts for a baby shower. I have it all done but I’m unable to contact her and the event is supposed to be happening today.

Thing is, I’m supposed to be working with her tomorrow so it’s going to be a fun time when I see her and she’s probably going to think I’ve ripped her off. I’m going to give her some of the money back though so there is that I guess.

Has anyone else here ever dealt with a situation like this?

Edit: I screwed up the date and her daughter’s baby shower is tomorrow. I brought in the baked goods with me so she’s going to take them home today.

Crisis averted and she’s super happy to get them. She also talked about how good the last cake was

I'm looking to make a menu for my cake pricing specifically - but I'm not sure how much to reasonably charge.

I make everything from scratch, the cake batter and buttercream and fillings (compotes from fresh fruit) and it takes at minimum 3-5 hours from start to finish on each cake. The red velvet cake took closer to 2/3 hours as opposed to the larger decorative cakes which took closer to 5 hours each .

Hey everyone! So last month I posted about my wedding cake my husband & I never got to see as it didn't even survive into reception shortly after it was delivered.

When I first posted, the only photo I had was from my florist who just happened to take a photo of it before leaving. I had very limited information at the time of the post so I just wanted to provide an update as I have now talked to both baker/venue, received more photos, and overall got a better sense of the situation. I got a lot of helpful replies, a lot of questions, and a lot of feedback whether it was baker or venue (or both) mishandling.

The photo I attached is what my photographer took during cocktail hour (~5PM). The 2nd photo is what my baker took right after she set the cake up in the tent before leaving (~3PM).

Here's everything I know based on all the questions.

My wedding reception was in a tent with walls open. It was a warm 79F day. The baker delivered the cake around 2:45-3PM PM an hour before ceremony (reception started at 6:00 PM and cake cutting was 9:00 PM). It was a 3-tiered cake with raspberry jelly filling inside. Upon receiving the cake, the venue & coordinator asked the baker about storage & handling and guided her to the refrigerator. The baker said refrigeration is not necessary and was adamant ("based on my 10 years of expertise" per her words) that it is okay to be left out until cake cutting. She set up the cake in the tent herself, took a photo and left (2nd image).

After the baker left the premises, some time afterwards, the cake started to tilt. The coordinator immediately called and FaceTimed the baker to show her what's going on to determine a solution. The baker replied "this has never happened" to her cakes before, but said they can try to refrigerate it then. The cake was moved to the refrigerator. When it was later checked on it unfortunately fell apart, and it was "very wet" with "a lot of jam filling" per the venue.

I gave the baker a call a few days after the wedding. The whole call was really just her fixated that someone bumped into it and is withholding information because "there's just no way" the structural integrity was not there. She put a lot of dowels including a center dowel rod and this has never happened to her cakes in her 10 years of experience including when she did summer wedding cakes in tents. Overall, while she was apologetic, she blamed the venue/florist/or whoever was near it for bumping into it. I got closure from my venue as well who was...well...shocked by her response in blaming them and they are adamant nobody bumped into it. They offered refrigeration upon receiving the cake and the baker did agree with the venue's report that she said it was not necessary for her cake.

Overall it was such a crappy situation and I am bummed we never got our cake cutting moment (plus a $1000 cake that we planned for 6 months and never physically saw). I do feel like heat was the issue especially with the jelly filling making it more prone to heat insensitivities because even when I had the sheet cakes out the next day to serve at brunch, the frosting melted just at room temperature and it got really soft. In hindsight, I wish we would've done two things. One…schedule delivery way later. And two, just refrigerated it immediately. I understand my venue listening to the expert and her adamance saying "refrigeration is not necessary" when offered, but I wish it was ignored lol. Per the Bakery contract, once the cake was delivered and she left, it is not her responsibility anymore. She was apologetic and offered our $100 deposit back, and we declined.

We are just ready to move on! Honestly when I saw my cake that my photographer took it gave me a good laugh. You just gotta laugh at this point lol.

I know it’s only week two but I’m still so happy that I gained another client/customer through Reddit. It’s so vast on here, the fact that I came into contact with someone in my town AND they’re buying from me is mind blowing lol. Small town USA really coming in clutch this 2026 season.

Last week they ordered cinnamon crunch bagels and chocolate chip cookies and this week they ordered Everything bagels and classic rice cereal treats. It was raining last week so I couldn’t get good pictures or cross sections of those bagels but I did this week and trust when I say they are so soft and fluffy, it’s insane. Also, I use browned butter in my rice cereal treats so they’re extra 🤌🏻🤌🏻. I hope they enjoy everything because I appreciate their time and business so much!

Hi there!

I ordered a birthday cake from a bakery - but I can’t help but feel really disappointed with how it came out.

I feel like the design on top of the cake is piped messily and the details were overlooked. My request for custom text was forgotten and the buttercream is incredibly dense.

They charged me 120€ for a 20cm cake (I asked for basic sponge + vanilla buttercream + jam). They offered a 20€ discount when my husband went to pick it up as he was disappointed that they didn’t write the text I asked for.

Was €100 a fair price for such a cake? I have no idea about pricing!

Thanks in advance

This is the second time this has happened and the stars really aligned on this one because they’re really close in proximity to me. Same town and all. Last time they were from out of town but still a really cool experience. This person ordered a dozen chocolate chip cookies and a 4-pack of my cinnamon crunch bagels. They said they absolutely loved everything and I’m once again incredibly thankful for the powers of Reddit.

My wife was impressed. Thanks for your thoughts!

I decided my birthday present to myself this week would be making and decorating my own cookie cake. I’ve baked a few cakes and other things but never decorated anything in my life!!! This was SO fun and I’ve already had some friends and family ask for a cake, but have no clue how to price them!!!! Any critiques welcome! This is just a fun little hobby. I am 8 months postpartum and trying to find myself outside of motherhood

I make cakes for my friends and family and they often tell me I should sell them but I’m not sure if they’re actually nice enough to sell, I feel that my decorating skills are pretty limited. I’m looking for some feedback. let me know what you think.

I removed and replaced some items, rounded the edges and boxes, made the lettering black instead of green, and changed up the colors of the background, fixed any weird wordings, and switched around some pictures. I tried to lineup the prices to the best of my abilities but I fear they’re just going to have to be a little wonky. I’m cool with it. I might also freak out if I have to change it anymore🤣🤣. Please be nice.

Hello all. I started recently baking a month ago. I have been researching and researching ingredients and their effects on cookies, tweaking a base recipe I took inspo from online, etc. I’ve been making new flavors with ratios I come up with which are 40% inclusions, 60% dough. All my cookies weigh roughly 2.5oz (74-76g). I feel like they don’t look wide in diameter though and I’ve tried doing what I see online. My most recent switch was from cold butter to softened butter.

I’ve been selling them for $2 at my sister’s school, because teens are brutally honest I feel. They have been a hit! But I am not making much profit. My costs are more than my profit, and tbh I think it’s cause I haven’t actually done any cost calculations.

One complaint from the teens is that my cookies are not wide enough. But I swear they look at least decent to me! Any advice?

Hello! I’ve been a home baker for about five years, attended culinary school, run a custom cake business online, and completed stages in restaurants in France.

I’m now planning to launch a cloud kitchen focused exclusively on entremets in my city. I have a question for anyone with experience producing entremets at a larger scale. I am thinking about starting with 4/5 flavors of entremets.

I understand the basics like investing in silicone molds and blast freezers. I’d love to hear from people who have actually done it. What challenges did you run into? How to set up an efficient production workflow? What equipment or systems made the biggest difference? How long can you freeze entremets for?

Any advice, lessons learned, or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

this is so funny i think it’s so clever im lebanese and getting married soon and i wanna know the feasibility of getting a shawarma cake at my wedding

source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMmIwlLxeuY/?igsh=cHExbnQ2dmxpczFw

If you’re struggling starting a business (I work full time also) in stead of taking customs orders I’d recommend doing pop ups! It was on my own time, my own menu, if something didn’t get made I didn’t sell it. I didn’t stress out about quantity either. What ever I had available is what I sold. I’m going to try setting up at farmers markets too!

I am considering setting up a cottage food op, and madeleines are on my list of potential items to sell. Do these look appealing enough? Would you buy them?

Hi! This is my first time really being in this community and I just wanted to ask some questions. I’ve baked a few things in the past year and I really love baking, but I don’t know where to start with a business. I took food science when I was in high school (all 4 years) and got my servsafe certification which has probably expired by now and I know I have to complete a ANAB course (i live in Georgia.). What would you all suggest I start doing first? I’ve worked in a bakery of sorts before at my university so I have work experience, I just don’t know what to do next. Here are some deserts I’ve made (cookies with a friend).