Fortunately I do not get many clients who question the price of my cakes, but the question why are cakes so expensive? is one that many professional cake makers are asked so I thought I’d go through some of the costs involved in making a cake to try to give an understanding of what is behind something that is most certainly a lot more than just butter, flour, sugar and a few eggs.

People frequently say something along the lines of but I can buy a cake for under 15€ in a supermarket. Yes, you can! You can also choose to buy a Tshirt in Primark or one from a designer store. Your choice is whether you wish to pay for something that is mass-produced or something that is bespoke. If you choose to order from a professional cake maker, you have chosen the designer option!

Cakes sold in supermarkets are generally mass produced and made on a production line that will be neither bespoke nor personalized to your specifications. Alternatively they will be those that are offered as handmade, picked out from a range in a catalogue. However, neither of these offer anything close to the size, individuality, quality and skills displayed in a cake made personally for you. I am pretty sure that no supermarket would produce a cake for example that is 3.5'' to 4'' deep (check them out, usually you are lucky if the depth is around 2''). So why are cakes so expensive? In fact, the quote Good cake isn’t cheap, cheap cake isn’t good sums it up pretty well.

Those of you who bake at home will know that good quality ingredients aren’t that cheap and recently there have been huge price hikes in the supermarkets. To make a 2 tier cake, for example, with 9'' and 6'' tiers you are looking at a lot of ingredients; over a dozen large eggs, three of packs of butter, over a kilo of flour, almost a kilo of sugar, not to mention the quantity of chocolate needed if the cake is more than a simple vanilla.

In addition you then need to consider the following.

Plus the time involved learning new skills to keep your work fresh and up to date… and you start to get an idea!

All in all, for a 2 tier cake (9'' and 6'') that is a mix of, for example, vanilla and chocolate mud you are probably looking at 40€ to 55€ worth of materials and ingredients minimum before you take into consideration my time. Making a sugar model can take several hours, depending on how intricate the model is. Decorating a cake is a time consuming task and very often I am working around the clock to produce something that I think is nothing less than fabulous. Time that I am spending away from my family, and time I am combining with running a home and staying on top of all that involves.

However, this is not meant to be negative in the least and you may ask why I’m doing it, and the simple answer is because I love it. I love being creative and I love seeing the look on a customer’s face when they collect their cake. It is my passion and it’s all worth it.

So before to ask why are cakes so expensive, please remember, if you ask an independent cake maker for a quote, you are not going to get it for supermarket prices; but it will look and taste a whole lot better. A cake maker who is passionate about what they do will always go that extra mile. That much I promise you!

Kind regards,