If you want to do the business of specialty cake baker, you have to do some things and think about the marketing and the plans. In here, you can start locally by advertising your services on bulletin boards at community centers and schools. Place ads in newspapers and shopping guides. Make contact with area party planners and caterers. Offer a commission for jobs they send your way. Ask satisfied customers to recommend you to their friends and acquaintances; offer a discount or bonus for business they refer to you. Rent a table at wedding and holiday shows to display photos and actual examples of some of your work. Consider offering a “sample day” where, by appointment, customers can try some of your cakes.
In most situations you can set a fixed price for creating specific types of cakes at particular sizes. Add a fee for special icing or decorations and/or for special ingredients such as costly marzipan, fudge, or liqueur. For local customers you can include charges for slicing the cake and renting display dishes and utensils. For customers out of your area, add to the price charges for packaging, dry ice, and shipping. Prices for custom cakes deserve to be somewhat higher than for off-the-shelf offerings from commercial bakeries or out-of-the-box cakes from supermarkets. However, keep in mind all these competing prices your customers will find if they shop around. Typical prices for customized sheet cakes start at about $20 to $25; image cakes typically cost about twice as much. Fancy multilayer cakes can rise in price to hundreds of dollars.