When Should You Raise Your Prices in Your Cake Business?
Let's be real – I find that so many cake designers have serious drama, pain, and confusion around pricing their cakes. Does this sound familiar?
You struggle with setting prices, feel uncomfortable asking for what you're worth, or simply don't know if your prices are right for your business.
Here's what I've discovered: when you don't have clarity about pricing your cakes, it usually means you don't have a good understanding of your money and how much it actually costs to operate your cake business.
Think about it – do you truly understand everything that goes into pricing your cakes? I'm talking about:
Your ingredients costs
Your supply expenses
Your time (design time, baking time, decorating time)
Administrative work
Utilities
Business overhead
Marketing costs
And so much more!
When you really understand everything involving money in your cake business, pricing actually becomes easier. You can make decisions based on facts rather than emotions or what you think the market will bear.
If you need help with this, I've created a free cake pricing checklist that you can download from my Cake Business Library (click here to access). This guide will help you check off everything you need to consider when pricing your cakes. It's completely free, so make sure you grab it!
Okay, let's dive into the signs for when it is time for you to raise your cake prices.
Sign #1: You're Not Making a Profit
The first clear sign you need to raise your prices is simple: you're not making a decent profit on each cake. I'm talking about at least a 30% profit margin after ALL expenses.
I see this scenario play out all the time. Many of us start our cake businesses because we love making cakes – it begins as a hobby that gradually transforms into a business. But the problem is, many cake designers keep that hobby mindset when it comes to pricing, believing they can't charge higher prices for their creations.
Does this sound familiar? Month after month, you're:
Barely scraping by
Not having enough money to operate your business
Using your personal funds to grow your cake business
Not seeing a meaningful profit
Feeling exhausted and underpaid
If that's happening, you are simply not charging enough for your cakes. In a real business, you MUST make a profit! You need to treat your cake business as a legitimate business that deserves to charge appropriate prices with good profit margins.
Your business should be supporting you and your family – not draining your personal resources. Remember, this isn't a hobby anymore; it's how you make your living.
Sign #2: You are Resenting Your Work
The second sign you need to raise your prices happened to me in my own cake business, and it might be happening to you too. You start to resent the cakes you've agreed to make because you're not charging enough for them.
It plays out like this: You quote a price for a cake design, the client books it, and then as you're working on it, you realize: "This is taking WAY longer than I thought. I should have charged so much more for this cake."
That sinking feeling when you realize you'll be making pennies per hour on a complex design? That's your intuition telling you your prices are too low.
When you find yourself thinking:
"I should have charged more for this cake"
"This is taking too long for what I'm being paid"
"There's so much going into this and I don't feel compensated properly"
That negative energy is actually valuable feedback! It's telling you exactly what you need to know – your prices need to go up.
I've used this feeling as motivation to raise my own prices, and it made a world of difference. When you're charging properly, you feel GOOD about the cakes you're creating. You're excited about the amount you've quoted, and you feel the cake is genuinely worth $800, $1,000, or $2,000 – whatever price point you're at.
If you don't feel that way about your prices, you're almost certainly undercharging and need to raise them immediately.
Sign #3: Your Prices Don't Match Your Vision
The third sign is about alignment with your bigger vision. Ask yourself: "Are my prices really a reflection of the cake designer I truly want to become?"
Think about this carefully.
How are you branding yourself?
What kind of cake designer are you aspiring to be?
Do you want to have a high-end, luxury cake business where you're only working on designs you love and charging what you're truly worth?
Those cake designers we all admire on Instagram and social media? I can guarantee they're charging their worth! They've become the type of cake designers they want to be, and their pricing reflects that vision.
Many of us want to be that type of business owner – creating stunning, high-end cakes that command premium prices. But here's the truth: you can't become that designer without aligning your prices to that vision.
If you want to be the cake designer who consistently charges $1,000+ for wedding cakes, you need to adopt that mindset first. You must truly believe:
"I deserve to be that type of cake designer"
"My work is worth premium prices"
"I am a luxury cake artist who provides exceptional value"
This is a mindset practice you need to embrace in your cake business. Your prices aren't just about covering costs – they're a statement about who you are as an artist and business owner.
It's time to Leap into a Price Increase, Now
I know raising your prices can feel scary. You might worry:
"Will anyone book me if I charge more?"
"What if my clients all disappear?"
"Do I really deserve these higher prices?"
Let me tell you what actually happens when you raise your prices appropriately:
You attract better clients who value your work and cause fewer headaches
You can afford to take fewer orders and give each cake more attention
Your work improves because you're not rushing through cakes to make ends meet
You have resources to invest in better tools, education, and ingredients
You start enjoying your business again instead of feeling trapped
Your confidence grows as you see clients happily paying your worth
The cake designers charging premium prices didn't get there by accident. They made a conscious decision to value their work appropriately and stick to it, even when it felt uncomfortable at first.
Pricing your Cakes is a Business Journey, Not a Destination
Remember, pricing is an ongoing journey in your cake business. As you grow your skills, as your demand increases, and as your business matures, your prices should continue to evolve.
I recommend reviewing your pricing structure at least twice a year. Look at your costs, your time investment, and your profit margins. Are they where they need to be? If not, it's time for an adjustment.
Many successful cake designers I've worked with implement regular, small price increases rather than dramatic jumps. This approach allows your market to adjust gradually while steadily improving your bottom line.
Your To-Do List to Raise your Prices, Today
If you've recognized that it's time to raise your prices, here's what to do next:
Download my free cake pricing checklist from the Cake Business Library (cakebusinesslibrary.com) to make sure you're accounting for all your costs
Calculate your current profit margins on different types of cakes
Determine what profit margin you want to achieve (aim for at least 30%)
Set your new prices based on those calculations, not on your emotions or fear
Implement your new pricing confidently – remember, you're worth it!
I hope these strategies have helped you think about whether you should be charging more for your cakes. This ongoing process will help you grow your cake business income, book more orders that you love, and feel that you're truly being paid your worth.
As always, I'm here to support you on your cake business journey.
Comment below, have you sigificantly raised your cake prices in your business? How did that feel?
I’d love to know.
You sharing helps the entire cake community collectively raise our prices together!
How to Book More Orders by Doing Less Work
How to Book More Cake Orders While Doing Less Work
Who doesn’t want to book more cake orders while doing less work?
Heck, I want to always do less and get way more in return for everything in life!
And today, I will show you how you can book more cake orders by doing less work.
Yes, you read that correctly.. book more by doing less so you can reach your income goals.
Start With a Clear Vision
One thing that you're going to thank me for later, but you have to commit to doing it: you need to think about how much money you want to make in your cake business. You need to have a vision of you earning that money, actually having that money, and the type of cake business that you want. You must have a clear vision and know how much money that you want, what you're actually going to do with the money, and you need to format this in your mind.
One thing that trips up a lot of people—and I will say this really tripped me up a lot—is you're taking all this action. You're doing this, you're doing that, you're posting on Instagram, you're posting on Facebook, you're advertising, you're networking, you just want more cake orders, but cake orders are not coming in. You really need to have a vision of what you're really looking to go for, and you need to have that in the front of your mind at all times.
This principle comes from Napoleon Hill from Think and Grow Rich or Wallace D. Wattles—but you need to have a vision of the star that you're actually aiming for.
With a clear vision, you will have laser focus on what direction you are headed. With clear focus, you will know what’s working for you, what’s not, and attract in what aligns with your bushiness. And repel anything that does not align with your overall vision.
Trust me with this first step.
This is manifesting 101. When you are crystal clear on what you want, you will ignore what doesn’t matter and begin to attract exactly what you need to make your cake business run more efficiently and build the profit you truly desire.
Evaluate What's Actually Working
Next, while you're owning a cake business, you need to actually evaluate what's working and what's not working. Because 80% of your cake orders are actually coming from 20% of the work that you're actually doing to obtain those cake orders. We're going to use this 80/20 rule in this blog, but it really does work.
A lot of times we're doing many things to get our cake business out there, when a lot of times many things you're doing aren't actually bringing you any results. This means you need to sit down and really evaluate:
What am I doing that's working?
What's bringing in the cake orders for me right now?
What's really working for me?
When you get clear on what’s working and what’s not working, you can eliminate what’s not working because it is wasting your precious time. And, you can put more focus on what is working and amplify your cake sales. Trust me, this works every time.
If you are still struggling to book more cake orders in your cake business, I’m here to help! I have a FREE eBook, My Top 4 Strategies to Double your Cake Orders in your Cake Biz. Click here to download, it’s located inside the Cake Business Library.
Focus on What Makes You Money
Then you need to stop doing what's not making you money and you need to do more of what IS making you money.
For me, it's going to be actually going out networking, getting more people to know about my cake business because I believe and know that networking and word-of-mouth is going to be the best form of advertising for my business because that has actually worked for me.
It's going to be keeping up with paying my advertising on sites like The Knot and Wedding Wire—just really paying for advertising because I believe that my clients are out there who actually go on those sites.
And it's also going to be just consistently giving good energy to my cake business, which kind of goes back to that first step of having that vision but also putting in good energy for my business. So that I know it's growing and everything versus having a negative, struggling mentality about my cake business.
I know what's really working for me, and now I'm going to actually help you take it back a few notches and to really evaluate how you're actually growing your cake business. Ask yourself, What is really working for you? If it's not working for you, then you need to stop doing it.
You really need to realize that not all strategies work for all cake business owners. I believe that they don't. You need to really focus in on what's really going to work for you. So make sure that you take stock on what's working and what's not working.
Reach More People By Doing Less
The next thing is going to be to really think about how you can reach more customers by doing less, and that's going to be: you need to advertise your cake business so more people are going to see you just by you investing in your business and your advertising.
I do believe that your cake business is going to grow after you have done a lot of focus on marketing, advertising, and getting your cake business out there. It's going to grow. You're going to get repeat orders from referrals and everything like that—just people knowing more about your cake business.
But you need to understand that the more people that you reach, the more chances those cake orders and inquiries are going to come back to you. So that means you need to consider what channels you can actually use so you're reaching more people:
Is it going to be through a wedding show?
Is it going to be advertising your business on popular wedding sites or blogs or local blogs?
Is it going to be advertising in a magazine?
You need to think bigger. You need to think expansion. So more people are aware that you are in business, so you're getting more inquiries.
This is a strategy that I love. One thing that you just need to probably admit is: I have to invest in advertising in my business so more people actually know that I exist. Because a lot of times people don't book their cakes with you because they don't even know that you're in business or that you even exist. That's a lot of times what can happen.
Let’s Pull this All Together and Take Action
I hope this blog post really helped to give you an awareness on how to actually grow your cake business by doing less work and really just evaluate what's really working in your cake business. Remember, it's not about working harder—it's about working smarter and focusing your energy on the strategies that bring real results.
When you take the time to step back and honestly assess what's working versus what's not, you'll be amazed at how much unnecessary effort you can eliminate. This isn't about cutting corners—it's about being smart with your time and resources so you can achieve greater success with less burnout.
And if you're looking for more resources to help you build an amazing cake business, charge premium prices, and maintain a fully booked calendar, I've created a comprehensive Cake Business Library filled with ebooks, templates, guides, and so much more. You can get access to all these resources by clicking the link below.
As cake designers, we often fall into the trap of thinking we need to do everything: perfect our recipes, master new decorating techniques, post on every social media platform, network at every event, and still find time to actually bake and decorate beautiful cakes. But the truth is, identifying your most effective strategies and doubling down on those will bring you far better results than spreading yourself too thin.
Remember these key points:
Have a clear vision of your financial goals
Use the 80/20 rule to identify what's actually working
Stop doing what's not bringing in orders
Invest in advertising to reach more people with less effort
Keep a positive, abundant mindset about your business
Follow a proven system (like my workshop teaches!)
Your dream cake business is possible, and you don't have to work yourself to exhaustion to achieve it. By being intentional with your efforts and investing wisely in advertising and growth strategies, you can book more high-value orders while actually enjoying your business again.
I will see you in the next post, and I truly hope these strategies transform your cake business the way they've transformed mine and so many of my students'. Until then, have a great time building your cake business!
Remember, you're not just making cakes—you're creating art that brings joy to people's most special moments. That's worth doing.
Take care and happy baking!