Selling and marketing
Wholesale Cakes for Restaurants: Price and Margin Math
A clear way to price cakes for restaurants so each order pays you after ingredients, labor, and overhead.
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What to remember
- Restaurants order the same cakes again, so price for repeat orders.
- Your labor is a real cost, not a favor.
- Packaging and delivery change the price per cake.
- A small margin per cake adds up across a weekly order.
You already bake cakes people ask for, and wholesale cakes for restaurants turn that into steady weekly orders instead of one-off custom work. The hard part is not the baking. It is quoting a price that still works when you sell twenty cakes, not one.
What restaurants actually buy from a home baker
A restaurant does not want a custom cake for a birthday. It wants the same chocolate cake, carrot cake, or pound cake every week, sliced and ready for the dessert menu. They care about consistency, delivery day, and a price that fits their food cost. If you can hit those three, you are already ahead of a bakery that cannot deliver on Tuesdays.
Start by picking two or three cakes you can make well in large batches. A smaller menu makes your shopping, baking, and packing simpler. It also makes your price easier to defend. You can read more about how to sell cakes to restaurants before you make the first call. For more selling guides, see the selling guides.
How to price one cake for a restaurant order
Price from the bottom up. Add the cost of ingredients for one cake. Add the cost of the box, board, and label. Add your labor at an hourly rate you would pay someone else. Add a share of your overhead, like the Brevl $20 a month, electricity, and delivery. Then add your margin.
Cost one cake
List every ingredient in the batch and divide by the number of cakes. Do not guess.
Add packaging
Box, cake board, label, and any tape or bag. These are small but real.
Pay yourself for time
Track mixing, baking, cooling, and decorating. Multiply hours by your hourly rate.
Add overhead
Brevl, power, water, and delivery miles. Divide by the number of cakes in the order.
Add your margin
This is your profit. Pick a percentage that makes the order worth your time and still fits the restaurant’s budget.
Your price per cake should be the same for every restaurant, unless the order size changes. If one restaurant orders 20 cakes a week and another orders 5, you can give the larger order a lower price per cake. But do not lower your price just to win the account. A low price that loses money is worse than no account.
A worked example: 10 inch cake at $45
Say you bake a 10 inch chocolate cake for a restaurant. Ingredients cost $6.50. Packaging costs $1.50. Your labor is 1.5 hours at $15 an hour, so $22.50. Overhead is $2.00 per cake, which includes your Brevl $20 a month spread across ten cakes. Total cost is $32.50. You quote $45. Your margin is $12.50, or about 28 percent of the price. That margin is what pays you after every cost is covered.
What to check before you say yes
Before you agree to a weekly order, check three things. Can you bake that many cakes without losing sleep? Can you deliver on the day they need? Will they pay in 14 days or 30 days? A restaurant that pays in 30 days means you front the ingredients for a month. That can be tight if you are small.
Ask for a sample order first. A restaurant that will not pay for a sample is not serious. A sample lets you test delivery, packaging, and their payment process. Charge for the sample, even if it is a small amount.
Mistakes that cost you money
The biggest mistake is pricing one cake as if it were a custom order. Wholesale is a different business. You are not charging for a one-time design. You are charging for a repeatable product. Another mistake is free delivery. If you drive 20 miles each way, that is time and gas. Add it to the price or set a minimum order.
A third mistake is not tracking your actual costs after the first month. Butter prices move. Box prices move. If you set a price in January and never check it, your margin can disappear by summer. Use a simple cost sheet or a tool that updates your recipe costs. You can see how how to price baked goods for wholesale works with real numbers.
Another mistake is not writing down the order. A text message is not a system. Use a simple order form or a tool that tracks what you owe and what you have delivered. Brevl has a weekly planner and order tracking.
How Brevl helps you quote and track orders
Brevl is one flat $20 a month with no cut of your sales. You can take card payments through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash. Your shop is yours to customize with your photos and your web address. Recipes have real costing, ingredient inventory, and a weekly planner, so you can price and plan. We set it up with you and move your old shop over. A real person answers, usually within minutes. Try it with a 14 day free trial.
You can also use Brevl to send invoices and take payments. It works on a computer and on a phone. The full desktop workspace is not a phone only app. That matters when you are doing cost math at the kitchen table.
Try the free bake pricing calculator
Free, no signup.
Common questions
How much should I charge a restaurant for a whole cake?
Start with your full cost per cake: ingredients, packaging, labor, and overhead. Add a margin you can live with. A 10 inch cake that costs $32.50 to make might sell for $45. That leaves $12.50. Check what similar cakes sell for in your area before you quote.
Do restaurants buy from home bakers?
Restaurants can buy from home bakers if you can meet their needs. They care about taste, delivery day, and price. Start with one restaurant and one cake. Prove you can deliver on time every week before you add a second account.
What is a good margin for wholesale cakes?
A margin is what is left after ingredients, packaging, labor, and overhead. There is no single number that works for everyone. Pick a margin that makes the order worth your time and still fits the restaurant's budget. If the margin is too thin, raise the price or simplify the cake.
Should I deliver wholesale cakes to restaurants?
Delivery is part of the service, but it is not free. Add your miles and time to the price or set a minimum order that makes the drive worth it. If you deliver to three restaurants on one route, you can spread the cost. Otherwise, ask the restaurant to pick up.
How do I get paid by a restaurant?
Send an invoice with the order. Ask for payment within 14 days, or on delivery for the first order. Brevl lets you take card payments through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash. Keep a record of every payment.
This is general pricing information, not legal or tax advice. Check your state and local rules for selling wholesale.