Why Are Cakes So Expensive?

We often read how expensive a custom cake is and how beautiful it looks in the various forums. But, of course, there is no general answer to this question, as it always depends on how decorated the cake should be and how many people it has to be enough for.

The cost of the custom cake is made up of various factors. First is the respective size of the cake. Then, on the other hand, how difficult it is to make the cake, the cost of supplies being used, the proportions of ingredients used in the recipe, the associated indirect costs, and a lot more like that.

The Top Three Factors That Affect The Cost Of Cakes Are:

Cost Of Ingredients:

These depend on the chosen flavours, fillings and toppings and are directly proportional to the number of servings or units the customer needs. Also, the ingredients completely depend on the customised order given by the customers. For example, the ingredients for a 20-slice cake with vanilla dough and chocolate filling cost exactly half of a 40-slice cake with these same flavours.

Production Costs:

We also have to take into account any extra costs such as utilities. Similarly, some designs require a specialised structure, which increases the cost of production of that specific product (this is the case of some sculpted or gravity-defying cakes).

In addition to products, the price of a custom cake includes electricity, gas, water, transportation costs: for each specific order, you need to go to the store, and usually more than one, including specialised ones, because each order is unique and exclusive, let's say so.

It will not be possible to buy products in bulk (only a small part); it is impossible to predict what the customer prefers. The order's packaging is also included, be it a gift or ordinary.

And finally, the last and most important component is labour costs! To a person ignorant of baking and decorating cakes, the process of making an order may seem quick and uncomplicated.

Total Processing Time:

It is the most relevant factor in the price of a custom product. However, it depends on the complexity of the required design and is not always directly proportional to the number of servings (especially with cakes).

Like any other job has a salary and an equivalent hourly payment, we must also consider how long it takes us to make and decorate a product to calculate the price. It may be much more than some people imagine.

It is worth mentioning that this factor of labour time is the main reason why the price of a cake does not depend on its number of servings since the same design usually takes the same amount of time for a small or a large cake.

For this reason, if two customers want the same cake, but one of them has 50 guests while the other has 100, the person with 50 guests would surely have to pay much more than half of what the other would pay.

Why Are Custom Cakes So Expensive?

Supermarket bakeries sell various popular baked goods to help balance their costs. They also offer ready-to-decorate cakes with edible prints and generic designs that can be mass-produced.

Often, this is because supermarkets have to prioritise budget limits and quick, efficient ways of offering baked goods due to time restraints.

With custom cakes, you're getting a one-of-a-kind cake. At Candid Confections, cake batters are made with quality, fresh ingredients consisting of dozens of eggs, cups of fruit filling, pounds of butter, flour, icing, colouring, and fondant.

But, of course, this is just the base of a simple cake — not including details requested by clients or the number of tiers needed to feed everyone attending the occasion.

Depending on the scale of the cake, cake decorators could spend, on average, more than 20 hours customising and perfecting a cake order.

Every custom cake order is uniquely tailored to a client's specific needs while also creating an experience for guests.

Pricing accounts for the cake decorator's time to fulfil the order from the beginning stages of design to the presentation of the final product, as well as the overhead costs of running a storefront. In addition, cake bakers put time into consulting and designing specific decorations to make your special cake unique to your celebration.

Aside from having artistic sugar skills, bakers with experience have learned the skills necessary to manipulate sugar, chocolate, cake, fillings, and frosting combinations.

Depending on how special and elaborate clients want cake details to be, it can increase the cost because it is labour intensive, and it may require new tools necessary to create intricate designs. Clean edges, perfect lines, realistic flowers, figurines, and colour matching require artistic skill and time.

We understand budgets, and most cake decorators are willing to work within your budget.

However, before meeting with a cake decorator, figure out what works best to stay within your budget, research the cake decorator's gallery, and remember you get what you pay for — cheaper is not always better.

Despite how expensive a custom cake may seem, the reality is that many cake decorators don't make a profit that's large enough to make a living off of a single cake order.

Most of the cost goes to quality ingredients and investing in tools to make certain details, while the remaining amount covers consulting, labour, and skills that brought the cake together.

Regardless, we continue doing what we do because we love working with customers that recognise our talent, quality service, and hours of dedicated attention to detail. We're driven by a passion for the trade and knowing we did the best we can to create a dessert that perfectly matches a client's special occasion. So, it may seem expensive, but depending on your values, the quality product and service you receive can be well worth it.

The common misconception about custom cakes is that it's just a cake. In reality, a custom cake is more than just a cake. It's an edible work of art. Every detail that goes into a cake is customised to a client's preference.

Custom cakes aren't mass-produced in factories; they don't go through conveyor belts; they aren't kept in walk-in chillers, together with other similarly decorated cakes. Every custom cake is handcrafted and one-of-a-kind.

Custom cake pricing is based on different factors. It's safe to say that there is no clear-cut rule, and every cake artist has their pricing method. No two cake shops will quote the same price for the same cake design.

People think that a bakery that makes cakes from their home should charge less than a storefront bakery. That is not the case for several reasons. First, a home baker can make the same cake a bakery can. It requires the same tools, pans, an oven, mixer, measuring equipment. A home baker does not just bake one cake size; they bake many, so they need multiple pans.

There are hundreds of decorating tools, including tons of icing tips of all different sizes and shapes, piping bags, icing spatulas, storage containers, knives, tons of flower making tools, rolling pins etc. A home baker also uses electricity, gas, water, dish soap, and paper towels just as a store would need, and they have to have a location to bake in as well.

The only difference is a bakery cooks in mass amounts, so they have larger everything to make more in the same amount of time.

Still, when you look at the big picture and calculate it, each cake from a home baker and a store require roughly the same amount of money to make. Finally, home bakers will put the same, if not more, dedication into your cake.

A cake artist does not just wake up one morning knowing how to bake every recipe and properly pipe icing using every tip in different ways. It takes time, practice and patience.

That also means it takes many baked cakes to practice decorating, many pounds of icing, many piping bags and countless sleepless nights trying to perfect the art of making a beautiful buttercream rose or a beautiful basketweave on the side of a cake.

There are so many cake flavours a baker needs to be able to offer, so they must practice over and over again every flavour until they have the perfect recipe.

Not to mention training classes, food safety courses and cake decorating expos they need to go to to keep up with the current trends. It takes many hours, many dollars in testing cakes and frostings and many attempts to perfect the art of cake decorating.

When a customer places an order, designs are drawn up and often re-designs as many people change their mind between their initial order and the time their cake is made. Countless hours are spent to match the exact colour in the napkins or dress or to copy the lace pattern in the picture the customer provided.

And then--oh, the beautiful details that make a cake a one of a kind, pop out of the crowd, jaw-dropping cake. A single life-size rose made of gum paste takes about 2 - 2 1/2 hours to create, of course, after countless months of practice.

Every petal must be pressed in a silicone mould to vein it perfectly, and each layer of petals must be coloured to look like real rose petals.

Then, each petal is hand glued using hand-mixed edible glue and shaped and curled to look just right. Each animal on a baby shower cake requires perfect precision and weeks of practice to get the correct proportions for the head, body, arms, legs, tail, eyes and ears.

If something is not quite right, that cute little monkey could end up looking like a cat or, worse, an unknown breed.

Larger cakes require what most people don't even realise--an entire internal structure of dowels and support to keep each tier perfectly level and structurally sound. A designer's job is a cross between a baker, an artist, an architect, and a mathematician. And every tier must be trimmed and levelled to make building this wonderful work of art structurally safe.

And the ingredients for made-from-scratch cakes are not inexpensive boxed cakes. The best cakes are homemade using bakers' sugar, sifted cake flour, real butter, pure vanilla, homemade fillings and organic eggs. Something like chocolate ganache is made from the best quality chocolate; fruit fillings are created using fresh, carefully handpicked fruits; cream fillings or lemon curd are hands made from endless egg yolks and lemon zest.

Then the frosting--real butter or whipping cream or both, double sifted sugar, creamed until it is perfectly smooth, not too little, not too much. Over the frosting on many cakes is fondant.

Any good fondant is made from scratch, and it takes much time to knead, roll and apply it perfectly to achieve the beautiful smooth look that only a fondant cake can give.

Quality Ingredients, Homemade Recipes, Guaranteed Freshness

A Cake Beats custom cake is more than just eye-candy. We make sure that it tastes equally good and satisfying on the inside. We only use the finest ingredients in making our cakes. Everything, including our fondant, is made from scratch.

The recipes have been carefully developed and repeatedly tested to ensure a perfect balance of taste, texture and aroma. For example, the moist and decadently delicious Devil's Food Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache didn't come to be overnight. Instead, it spent countless hours in the kitchen formulating and testing recipes to ensure that every element of a custom cake order is spot-on.

Your local bakeshop can provide you with a birthday cake that's cheaper than a Cake Beats custom cake. But will they be able to provide you with the 3D toppers that you want for your cake?

Will they be able to accommodate your request for a specific colour scheme, flavour and design?

As I previously mentioned, a custom cake is an edible work of art. It takes a creative mind, an artistic flair and exceptional cake decorating skills to create a custom cake that embodies a client's vision. A cake decorator is a baker, an artist, an architect and an engineer; all rolled into one. There is so much maths and science involved in ensuring structural integrity and precision.

High-Quality Service; Tailor-Fit To Your Needs

A custom cake project doesn't start with baking and end with decorating. Our work starts the moment we answer custom cake inquiries. Everything is customised and creatively designed depending on our client's budget and preferences.

We usually ask for our client's budget then we provide several options for them to choose from. Then, to ensure that we can design the best cake we can, we research the specific theme.

Multi-themed cakes are a challenge to make. As much as we want to make our clients happy and include all their requests, we must ensure that the overall design is coherent.

For example, you designed the custom cake on the photo based on the client's requests - ninja, Japanese and teal.

We watch cartoon videos for character cakes that we're not too familiar with to help us in our creative process.

Time & Labour

Clients often don't realise the amount of labour involved in cake projects. Even the simplest cakes can take at least 6-8 hours to make.

So when evaluating custom cake prices, you have to consider the amount of time it takes to prepare the batter and bake the cake; make the filling & frosting, and trim the cake into even layers before assembling it.

Then comes the meticulous process of cake decorating.

A cake design similar to this photo takes roughly 12 to 15 hours to decorate. We had to cut and shape hundreds of petals for this wedding cake order, place them on the cake, and then paint them one by one.

The stripes were also carefully measured, individually cut by hand, then placed on the cake. It was a slow process, but it ensured a neat and clean finish.

While it is more convenient to use ready-made rolled fondant, we prefer to make our own from scratch.

We always make a fresh batch for every custom cake order. If you're familiar with using fondant in cake decorating, you would know how temperamental it could be. It also takes a lot of muscle to knead and roll fondant.

Conclusion

Cakes can be expensive because of the ingredients, labour, and equipment used to make them. However, there are ways to save money on cakes without sacrificing quality or taste.

For example, choosing a smaller cake size can save money on the cake itself and the decorations. You can also order a cake from a bakery that offers lower prices or buy generic baking supplies instead of name brand products.

Ultimately, it's important to find a baker you trust and work with them to create a cake that meets your needs and budget.

FAQs

Why Is Cake So Expensive?

Depending on how special and elaborate clients want cake details to be, it can increase the cost because it is labour intensive, and it may require new tools necessary to create intricate designs.

Clean edges, perfect lines, realistic flowers, figurines, and colour matching require artistic skill and time.

Why Are Home-Baked Cakes More Expensive?

The cost of the custom cake is made up of various factors. On the other hand, how difficult it is to make the cake, the cost of supplies being used, the proportions of ingredients used in the recipe, the associated indirect costs, and much more.

What Is A Customised Cake?

A custom cake is any cake that goes above and beyond the call of regular cake work. It can include handmade fondant pieces, flowers, or attention to detail that is a little bit extra than a traditional style birthday cake. Tiered cakes and wedding cakes are also considered custom.

Are Our Fondant Cakes More Expensive?

Fondant is more expensive than other icings, which is why most bakers recommend buttercream instead for budget-savvy brides. The good news about fondant is that, since it doesn't require an almond meal, it's the go-to choice for those with nut allergies.

Is A Bakery A Good Business?

The bakery business has long been considered recession-proof. It is based on the fact that people have to eat and many enjoy and pay for fresh products. In addition, baked items are comfort foods that you can prepare as nutritious and tasty.