Choose up to three tiers, and this calculator counts servings from Wilton's serving chart, estimates batter, adds your ingredient, frosting, decoration, packaging and labor costs, and suggests a price per cake and per serving at your target margin.
Servings and batter cups come from Wilton's published serving chart for 2 in. deep pans, with a standard tier being 4 in. tall (2 layers). One layer counts as half the servings, three layers as 1.5×. Guide only; your slices and pans may differ.
Pricing more than one cake, or quoting custom orders every week? The workbook (Excel + Google Sheets) costs every recipe line by line with automatic cup-to-gram conversion for 84 ingredients, prices per item, per dozen and per serving, builds custom-order quotes, plans tiered cakes by pan size, and tracks orders and monthly profit. No macros, no subscription. Built and formula-tested by an AI.
See the workbook on PayhipTotal cost = batter (cups needed × cost per cup) + frosting/filling + decorations + boards and box + overhead + (hours × hourly wage).
Cake price = total cost ÷ (1 − margin). Price per serving = cake price ÷ servings.
Batter cost per cup is your batch cost divided by the cups one batch makes. Many 2-layer 8 in. recipes make about 5 to 6 cups of batter; measure yours once and reuse the number.
| Pan | Party servings | Wedding servings | Cups batter per 2 in. pan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round 4 in. | 8 | 8 | 0.75 |
| Round 6 in. | 12 | 12 | 2.25 |
| Round 8 in. | 20 | 24 | 4 |
| Round 9 in. | 24 | 32 | 5 |
| Round 10 in. | 28 | 38 | 6 |
| Round 12 in. | 40 | 56 | 8 |
| Round 14 in. | 63 | 78 | 11.5 |
| Round 16 in. | 77 | 100 | 16 |
| Square 6 in. | 12 | 18 | 3 |
| Square 8 in. | 20 | 32 | 6 |
| Square 10 in. | 30 | 50 | 9 |
| Square 12 in. | 48 | 72 | 11.5 |
| Square 14 in. | 63 | 98 | 16 |
| Square 16 in. | 80 | 128 | 22 |
| Sheet 7 x 11 in. | 24 | 32 | 5.5 |
| Sheet 9 x 13 in. | 36 | 50 | 10 |
| Sheet 11 x 15 in. | 54 | 74 | 11.5 |
| Sheet 12 x 18 in. | 72 | 98 | 16 |
Source: Wilton cake serving and batter guides (wilton.com). Numbers rounded as published.
Count the servings your pans give (this tool uses Wilton's party and wedding serving chart), add up your true cost including your hourly wage, divide by (1 minus your profit margin) to get the cake price, then divide by servings. Compare the result with the per-serving rate bakers charge near you.
Yes. Labor hours times an hourly wage is a real cost. Profit is what is left after ingredients, packaging, overhead and your wage, which is why this calculator applies the margin on top of a cost that already includes labor.
Wilton's chart assumes about a 1.5 x 2 in. slice for parties and about a 1 x 2 in. slice for weddings, both from a 4 in. tall cake (two 2 in. layers). Wedding servings are smaller, so the same cake yields more of them.
No. A 40% margin means profit is 40% of the selling price: price = cost / (1 - 0.40) = cost x 1.67. A 40% markup would be cost x 1.40, which leaves you less.