How to Price Cake Pops, by the Dozen, With a Calculator

To price cake pops, cost one pop: its share of the cake and frosting, the candy melts that coat it, the stick, the sprinkles, the bag and ribbon, and the minutes it takes to bake, mix, roll, dip, decorate and bag, then price for the margin you want after card fees and multiply by the order. A cake pop is about a quarter's worth of cake and coating and several minutes of work. In the example below, a basic pop costs $1.42 and sells for $2.50, $30 a dozen; a custom themed pop takes twice as long and sells for $4.75, $57 a dozen. Below is what a pop costs, a dozen, custom designs, big orders and favors, bake sales, the rules, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Cost a pop: cake and frosting, candy melts, stick, decorations, bag and ribbon.
• Time a whole batch and divide by the pops: 3 minutes each for basic pops here.
• Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin − card fees), rounded up to a quarter.
• Custom designs take longer: time them and price them separately.
• Big orders save a little time a pop, not much.
• For a bake sale, the time is donated; price for the cause.
• TaroStack costs every batch from what the cake and candy melts really cost. More below.

What a pop costs

Bluebird Cake Pops, a made-up home baker in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I use in these examples, makes cake pops from a cake and frosting batch that costs $4.50 and makes 48 pops, and coats them in candy melts at $3.50 a bag, about 24 pops a bag:

The time covers the whole batch: baking and cooling the cake, crumbling it into the frosting, rolling the balls, chilling them, dipping the sticks, dipping the pops, decorating, letting them set and bagging. Time a full batch from start to finish and divide by the pops; the dipping is quick, but the chilling and setting stretch the day. How to put labor into a cost is in how to compute labor cost in baking.

A dozen, and custom designs

Each price a pop is the cost divided by (1 − 0.40 − 0.03), rounded up to a quarter. A custom design with characters, faces or fondant details is twice the minutes, so it's close to twice the price; quote it from the design, not from the basic dozen. A big order of favors saves a little time a pop, because the dipping and bagging run in long batches, but it's still most of the cost. How the same method prices a whole cake is in how to price cakes.

Bake sales

At a bake sale the time is volunteered, so the cost that counts is the ingredients and the bag: 42 cents a pop here. At $2 a pop, $1.58 of each goes to the cause; at $1, 58 cents. Check with the organizer whether the sale has rules about homemade food.

The rules

Cake pops are baked goods, which state cottage food laws generally allow to be made at home and sold directly to customers, within each state's limits on where you sell and how much. Fillings or frostings that need refrigeration, such as cream cheese frosting, generally aren't allowed, and a label with the ingredients and allergens is generally required; how cottage food rules work is in how to start a cottage food business. This is general information, not legal advice.

Get the calculator

Download the cake pop pricing calculator. Type what a batch of cake and frosting costs and how many pops it makes, what a bag of candy melts costs and how many pops it covers, the stick, decorations, bag and ribbon, the minutes a pop takes, your hourly rate, card fees, the margin you want and the pops in the order. It works out the cost of a pop, its price rounded up to a quarter, the order, and what's left. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Ten flavors, candy melts in twelve colors, orders for birthdays, weddings and showers booked weeks ahead, and a pantry that runs out of pink the day before a gender reveal. A sheet can't say whether there are enough candy melts for this weekend's orders, which colors to buy, or what a dozen cost now that butter has gone up.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack costs every batch from what the cake and candy melts really cost.

Batches at what they used. Each flavor is a recipe of its cake, frosting, coating, stick and bag, and the cake and frosting are sub-recipes of their own, with units that convert: candy melts bought by the bag, used by the ounce. Recording a batch takes everything off stock at what you paid and divides by the pops that came out.

Orders against the pantry. Orders are sales orders for their pickup day that show whether the candy melts and sticks to fill them are on the shelf while you're still typing, and the reorder list works in days of cover so a color doesn't run out the week of a big order.

And what each order earns. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so the custom dozen that took all evening and paid like a basic one shows up.

Recipes, batches, sales orders and margins by product and customer 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.

Questions people also ask

How much should I charge for a dozen cake pops?

Cost a pop with your time, divide by one minus your margin and fees, and multiply by 12. In the example, basic pops costing $1.42 each sell for $2.50, $30 a dozen.

How much should I charge for custom cake pops?

Time the design: custom pops in the example take twice as long as basic ones and sell for $4.75 each, $57 a dozen.

How much does it cost to make a cake pop?

In the example, about 24 cents of cake, frosting and candy melts, 42 cents with the stick, sprinkles and bag, and $1.42 with 3 minutes of time at $20 an hour.

How much should I charge for cake pops at a bake sale?

At a bake sale the time is donated, so cover the ingredients and bag and price for the cause. In the example, $2 a pop leaves $1.58 for the cause.