I'm going to bake for people- what do I charge? And interesting bread ideas?

Cafe Society
1

I’m going to start baking and selling to people I know. I mean- I’ve been baking for years and years, but I’m going to start charging. The problem is that I have no idea what is reasonable to charge for homemade bread and baked goods. So, what would you pay for large or small loaf of bread, focaccia, cinnamon buns, or whatever?

I currently make, fairly regularly

Foccacia (herb and garlic)
Half white/half whole wheat
White with cornmeal
Oatmeal cinnamon raisin
Granola bread
Ham and black pepper (bread with chopped ham and lots of pepper in the dough)
Monkey bread (little balls of dough layered in a bundt mold with cinnamon bun filling and walnuts)
Cheddar
Garlic potato bread
Gingerbread
Sponge cake

I can also do breads wrapped around fillings: I’ve been thinking about egg bread/ganache or nutella, pizza spiral, apricots and almond cream, stuff like that.

So, how much and what?

I want to emphasize that I intend this to be small, and people that I know or my husband knows. I am not buying an industrial mixer, switching to a restaurant kitchen, or putting in huge hours. I just like baking, need a little money, and know quite a few people who like to eat.

2

That’s not nearly enough stuff to bake four people…

Oops, nm.

3

Why not go to a local bakery and note what they charge and set your prices accordingly? 'Round here, most bakery-made bread goes for between $4-$6/loaf.

4

I would charge more than a bakery, though. A bakery is going to be able to produce more bread in shorter amounts of time invested by the baker than you could because of their available machinery.

Figure out how much ingredients cost per loaf/cake. Don’t forget “hardware” like packaging (aluminum loaf pans, plastic bags, plastic wrap, etc).

Figure out how much your time is worth. Are you an $8/hour sort of person? $10? $20?

Figure out how long it takes to make one loaf/cake (for each type). You don’t have to include baking time if you don’t want. If you get 3 loaves out of one recipe, then calculate the time and divide by 3. Don’t forget prep time and cleanup time.

You don’t want to overcharge your friends, I presume. But you also don’t want to lose money on ingredients. Your time also is worth money.

So figure out all of the above calculations and translate that to price per type of loaf. If you get it right you won’t feel like you’re overcharging anyone and you will be able to make money.