To price scones, cost a whole batch, divide by the scones it makes, add the time it takes to mix, shape, bake and glaze them, the bag and a share of the oven and rent, and price for the margin you want after card fees. Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees). Scones are rich and quick, and a small batch is where they lose money. In the example below, a batch of 12 blueberry scones uses $8.38 of flour, butter, cream and berries, 70 cents a scone, and 35 minutes of work adds 97 cents. With the bag and overhead, each scone costs $1.97. At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, that's $4.69, rounded up to $4.75. A café paying $2.75 leaves 70 cents. Below is a batch's cost, the time, the price, bigger batches, wholesale, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Cost a whole batch: flour, butter, sugar, cream, eggs, leavening, and the fruit or chocolate.
- Divide by the scones it really makes, 12 here.
- Time the hands-on work for the whole batch, and divide by the scones.
- Add the bag and a share of the oven, power and rent.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − card fees), rounded up to a quarter.
- Bake two batches at once: the time per scone drops faster than anything else.
- TaroStack costs every batch from what you paid for the butter and cream. More below.
What a batch costs
Casco Bay Scone Co., a made-up bakery in Portland, Maine, I use in these examples, bakes blueberry scones 12 to a batch:
| A batch of 12 | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1.5 lb at $0.60 | $0.90 |
| Butter | 0.75 lb at $4.50 | $3.38 |
| Sugar | 0.25 lb at $0.80 | $0.20 |
| Heavy cream | 1 cup | $1.10 |
| Eggs | 2 at $0.30 | $0.60 |
| Baking powder and salt | $0.20 | |
| Blueberries | 1 cup | $2.00 |
| Ingredients, a batch | $8.38 |
The butter is 40% of the batch and the berries another quarter. A plain or cheese scone costs less; one with chocolate or a thick glaze, more. Price each flavor from its own batch if their costs differ by more than a few cents.
The time, the bag and the overhead
The batch takes 35 minutes of hands-on work: cutting in the butter, mixing, shaping, cutting wedges, baking, glazing and bagging. At $20 an hour, that's $11.67, or 97 cents a scone, more than the ingredients in it.
| A scone | Cost |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | $0.70 |
| Your time | $0.97 |
| Bag and overhead | $0.30 |
| Full cost | $1.97 |
How to put labor into any baked good is in how to compute labor cost in baking.
The price
| Scone | |
|---|---|
| Full cost | $1.97 |
| Price at a 55% margin after 3% card fees | $4.69 |
| Rounded up to a quarter | $4.75 |
| Left after the cost and fees | $2.64 |
| At $4.00 instead | $1.91 left |
The same arithmetic for the rest of a bakery's menu is in how to price baked goods.
Bigger batches
A batch of 24 doesn't take twice as long: the mixing, the oven and the cleanup are shared. If two batches together take 50 minutes instead of 70, the time per scone drops from 97 to 69 cents, the full cost to $1.69, and the price for the same margin to $4.25. The ingredients barely move; the time is where a scone gets cheaper. Freezing shaped, unbaked scones and baking them to order does the same job: one long shaping session, short bakes after.
Wholesale to cafés
| Price a scone | Left after cost and fees |
|---|---|
| $4.75, retail | $2.64 |
| $4.00 | $1.91 |
| $2.75, to a café | $0.70 |
At $2.75 a café scone leaves 70 cents from a batch of 12, and 98 cents from a double batch. Cafés that buy every morning are worth baking bigger batches for. How to set wholesale prices is in how to price baked goods for wholesale, and whether scones can be baked at home for sale where you live in how to start a cottage food business.
Get the calculator
Download the scone pricing calculator. Type what goes into a batch, the scones it makes, the hands-on minutes, the bag, overhead, your hourly rate, card fees, the margin you want, a wholesale price and a price to test; it works out the full cost of a scone, the price for your margin rounded up to a quarter, and what each price leaves. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator uses the butter and cream prices you type in. Butter is the biggest cost in a scone and its price moves; with six flavors and cafés on standing orders, keeping every scone's cost current by hand is a weekly job.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs every batch from what you paid for the butter and cream.
Recipes costed from real prices. Each scone is a recipe, so each batch takes the butter, cream and berries off stock and is costed from what they cost, and the cost updates when the next case of butter costs more.
Price rises spotted. The price-creep report shows each supplier's prices over time, and margins are reported by product and by customer, so the café's scones show what they really earn.
Frozen scones dated. Shaped scones in the freezer are a batch with a lot and a date, and the oldest are baked first.
| The job | Calculator | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a batch costs | Prices you type | Costed from what you paid |
| Butter going up | Noticed later | Price creep by supplier |
| What a café's scones earn | Worked out by hand | Margins by customer |
| Frozen scones, oldest first | A marker on the bag | Each batch dated |
Recipes, costing and lots 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.