To make cupcakes in bulk, write the batter and buttercream as one recipe by percentage, fill every liner by weight with a scoop or depositor, bake full oven loads, and frost by weight too. Two cupcakes that look the same but differ by a quarter-ounce of batter bake differently; at 600 that's a tray of dry ones. Done this way, a cupcake bakery that baked 24 at a time makes 600 for an event in a day, and the cost of a cupcake falls from $2.08 to $0.96. Below is the recipe at three sizes, the steps, the bake loss, what a cupcake costs at each size, and a free scaling calculator.
The short version
- Write batter and buttercream as one recipe by percentage.
- Fill liners by weight with a scoop or depositor.
- Bake full oven loads; rotate trays halfway.
- Cool completely before frosting.
- Frost by weight: about 1.2 ounces a cupcake in the example.
- Weigh what comes out and use your real bake loss to cost a cupcake.
- TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield. More below.
The recipe, by percentage
Cotton Row Cupcakes, the made-up cupcake bakery in Huntsville, Alabama, I use in these examples, baked 24 at a time until an event order for 600 arrived. Cake and buttercream, weighed together:
| Ingredient | % of the mix | Kitchen batch, 5.6 lb | One batch, 40 lb | The run, 141 lb | Cost a lb, bought in bulk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butter, cake and buttercream | 21% | 1.18 lb | 8.40 lb | 29.6 lb | $3.20 |
| Granulated sugar | 20% | 1.12 lb | 8.00 lb | 28.2 lb | $0.60 |
| All-purpose flour | 18% | 1.01 lb | 7.20 lb | 25.4 lb | $0.40 |
| Powdered sugar | 15% | 0.84 lb | 6.00 lb | 21.1 lb | $0.90 |
| Whole milk | 10.1% | 0.57 lb | 4.04 lb | 14.2 lb | $0.40 |
| Eggs | 10% | 0.56 lb | 4.00 lb | 14.1 lb | $2.00 |
| Vegetable oil | 3% | 0.17 lb | 1.20 lb | 4.23 lb | $1.40 |
| Heavy cream | 1.2% | 0.07 lb | 0.48 lb | 1.69 lb | $1.90 |
| Vanilla extract | 0.8% | 0.04 lb | 0.32 lb | 1.13 lb | $25.00 |
| Baking powder | 0.6% | 0.03 lb | 0.24 lb | 0.85 lb | $2.00 |
| Salt | 0.3% | 0.02 lb | 0.12 lb | 0.42 lb | $0.40 |
| The whole mix | 100% | 5.6 lb | 40 lb | 141 lb |
The 141 pounds cost $213.95 in ingredients. Butter is a fifth of the weight and nearly half the cost, split between the cake and the buttercream. How percentages work for other recipes is in scaling recipes for production.
The steps, at 141 pounds
- Cream by the mix. Butter and sugar creamed, eggs added slowly, then dry ingredients and milk alternately on low speed.
- Fill by weight. About 2.6 ounces of batter a liner, by scoop or depositor, checked on a scale every tray.
- Bake by the oven load. Eight trays a load, rotated halfway, until a tester comes out clean.
- Cool completely. On racks; frosting on a warm cupcake slides.
- Make the buttercream by the mix. Butter beaten, powdered sugar, cream and vanilla added.
- Frost by weight. About 1.2 ounces a cupcake from a piping bag, checked on a scale.
- Box with a lot code. Every box labeled with the run's lot and date.
The run takes about 12 hours of labor, baking in the morning and frosting in the afternoon.
What a cupcake costs at each size
| Per cupcake | Kitchen batch, 5.6 lb | Bulk run, 141 lb |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | $0.58 (grocery prices) | $0.36 (bought in bulk) |
| Packaging | $0.25 | $0.20 |
| Labor at $20 an hour | $1.25 (3.75 min a cupcake) | $0.40 (1.2 min a cupcake) |
| Cost of a cupcake | $2.08 | $0.96 |
Butter by the case and sugar by the sack cut the ingredients by about two-fifths, and the labor falls by two-thirds. The event pays $3.25 a cupcake, which leaves the bulk run room. The year is in cupcake business plan, and the margins in cupcake business profit margin.
The frosting and the cooler
Buttercream made from butter and powdered sugar holds at room temperature for an event; cream cheese frosting goes in the cooler. Frost on the day, and box the cupcakes so the frosting doesn't touch the lid. The boxes are in how to package cupcakes for sale.
Get the calculator
Download the cupcake scaling calculator. Two sheets: scale the recipe, where you type each ingredient's percentage and cost a pound and the raw mix you want, and each ingredient's weight for the run fills in, with the mixes, trays, oven loads, what comes out after the bake loss, the cupcakes it fills and the cost of each cupcake; and weigh the loss, where what went in and came out over a few batches gives your average bake loss. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Vanilla, chocolate and a seasonal flavor, an event most weekends, butter from two deliveries, and 600 to frost by four. A sheet can say how much butter a run needs, but not whether there's enough for Saturday, or whether the bake loss crept up in the new oven.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield.
The recipe in the units you use. A recipe holds each ingredient by weight, with butter bought by the 36-pound case and used by the pound, and the cost of every cupcake comes from what you paid. "What could I make right now" says how many runs the butter, flour and sugar on the shelf allow.
Each run a batch. A run takes its ingredients off stock, records the lots of butter and eggs it used, and gets a lot of its own for the cupcakes, with how much came out good, how much was rejected and the labor minutes.
Yield checked from history. From your own batch history, TaroStack says whether a recipe yields what it claims and which ingredient's quantity is off, so a bake loss that creeps up shows in the numbers. A flat of cracked eggs is an adjustment with its reason, spoiled, and shows in the waste report.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients for Saturday's run | Multiply, then check the shelf | What could I make right now |
| Which butter went into a run | Not written down | Lots recorded on the batch |
| The real bake loss | Weighed now and then | Good and rejected on every batch |
| Cracked eggs | Thrown out, forgotten | Adjustment with a reason |
Recipes, batches, lots and yield are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.