Free tool

Cake Pricing Calculator

Work out exactly what your cakes cost to make and what to charge. Factors in ingredients, packaging, electricity, and your time. Built for UK home bakers.

Recipe

Give it a name — you'll see it on the saved breakdown.

Ingredients

The maths is (amount used ÷ pack size) × pack cost, so you don't have to do it in your head.

Ingredient
Pack size
Unit
Pack cost £
Amount used
Unit
Cost

Packaging

Box, drum, ribbon, tags — anything that goes out with the cake.

Item
Cost £
Cost

Electricity

Assumes a typical fan oven at 2.2 kWh. Mixers and fridges aren't included — they typically add 20–30%.

UK average Q1 2026 ≈ 27p/kWh.

Your time

Be honest with yourself. Mixing, baking, decorating, cleaning up.

UK National Living Wage is £12.21/hr. For a skilled, bespoke product we'd recommend at least £15/hr.

Overheads

Covers insurance, subscriptions, kitchen share, wear & tear on kit. A flat 5% of subtotal is a sensible starting point.

Why pricing matters

The single biggest mistake UK home bakers make is pricing from their gut — then wondering why they're exhausted and broke. This tool is designed to take the guesswork out. Fill it in honestly and you'll see what a bake actually costs you, and what a fair price looks like once you've paid yourself properly.

Five things your price has to cover

  1. Ingredients. Not the whole pack of flour — just the bit that went into this cake. Our calculator handles the partial-pack maths for you.
  2. Packaging. Box, drum, ribbon, tags, stickers, delivery crate. All of it is a cost per order.
  3. Electricity. Oven, mixer, fridge, dishwasher. With UK energy prices, ignoring this is leaving £1–2 on the table every bake.
  4. Your labour. Every hour you spend mixing, decorating and cleaning up is work. The National Living Wage is the floor — treat yourself like a skilled freelancer, not a volunteer.
  5. Overheads. Insurance, subscriptions, council registration, website, wear on kit. It looks small per cake and adds up fast.

What's a reasonable markup?

At +30%, you've covered your costs and scraped a tiny margin — fine for friends and family, not a business. At +50% you're running a proper small business with room to invest, upgrade kit, and take a real salary. At +100% you're priced like a bespoke bakery and your customers are paying for your craft, not your flour.

What this tool doesn't include

Delivery mileage, allergen testing, custom branding, prop hire for the photo shoot, emergency same-day orders. Add those as separate line items in your overheads or as a per-order surcharge. We've got more on pricing over on the blog.