Bake sale prices: what to charge
A bake sale has two jobs for a price list: cover what the baking cost, and reach the number the sale is for. Enter each item's cost per piece, how many you will bake and what you plan to charge for one piece, a half-dozen and a dozen. The page shows the profit on every piece, then how much of your baking has to sell to hit your goal. The two starting rows are worked examples: one batch of chocolate chip cookies and one layer cake cut into slices, costed from recipes on this site and priced with a food writer's example prices (sources at the bottom). Labor is left out, on the assumption that the bakers volunteer their time.
Profit on every piece
Price per piece is the price divided by 1, 6 or 12. Profit is that minus the cost per piece, and the margin is profit as a share of the price. A warning row means the bundle price is under the cost of the pieces in it.
| Item | Cost | Single | In a half-dozen | In a dozen | Sell to cover it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chocolate chip cookies | $0.35 |
$2.00 +$1.65 (82.5%) |
$2.00 +$1.65 (82.5%) |
$0.83 +$0.48 (58%) |
7 of 36 |
| Layer cake, by the slice | $0.61 |
$4.00 +$3.39 (84.8%) |
$4.00 +$3.39 (84.8%) |
$4.00 +$3.39 (84.8%) |
4 of 20 |
"Sell to cover it" is how many singles of that item pay for baking all of it: pieces baked times cost, divided by the single price, rounded up.
How much has to sell to reach $100.00
The cost of everything you bake counts, sold or not. You baked 56 pieces for $24.80. With $0.00 of other costs and a $100.00 goal, the sale has to bring in $124.80. Each column assumes every sale is the same kind, which is a simplification, so read the three as a range.
| If | Revenue if all sells | Revenue at 100% sold | Profit after costs | Share to sell for the goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Every sale is one piece | $152.00 | $152.00 | $127.20 | 82.1% (46 pieces) |
| Every sale is a half-dozen | $152.00 | $152.00 | $127.20 | 82.1% (46 pieces) |
| Every sale is a dozen | $110.00 | $110.00 | $85.20 | Warning: 113.5%, more than you baked |
If the share is over 100%, the goal cannot be reached with this much baking at these prices. Bake more, raise a price or lower the other costs. At your expected 100%, the goal is met in the single column with $27.20 to spare.
Where the example prices come from
The prices come from one article, Autumn Swiers' "The Pricing Tip To Keep In Mind For A Successful Bake Sale" on Tasting Table (May 26, 2025). Its examples: a dozen cookies for $10 or single cookies at $2 each, and a whole layer cake for $20 or slices at $4 each, six slices to the cake ($24.00). Its rule is that items sold one at a time can carry a slightly higher price than larger items. It also suggests checking what a local bakery charges and pricing at least a dollar under that. These are one writer's examples. I did not find a second source with bake sale prices to set next to them.
My arithmetic on those examples: the dozen works out to $0.83 a cookie against $2.00 for one, 58.3% off for taking twelve. The $20 whole cake is 16.7% under the same six slices sold one by one. A bundle price gives up that difference on every piece in it, so it pays when it moves pieces that would otherwise go home unsold.
The costs per piece come from recipes on this site. A cookie is $0.35 with its bag: King Arthur's chocolate chip cookie recipe makes 36, as worked through on the cookie pricing page. A slice of cake is $0.61: King Arthur's classic birthday cake as one 8 inch two-layer cake, with ingredients only, divided into the 20 party servings that Wilton's serving guide lists for an 8 inch round (slices of about 1 1/2 by 2 inches). Tasting Table's $4 slices are a sixth of a cake, so they are much larger; cut six ways, the same cake costs $2.02 a slice. Ingredient prices are the September 2026 BLS averages where BLS has them and my own round numbers elsewhere, the same as on the other pages here. Plates, napkins and the table fee go in "Other costs".
With the starting rows, costs are far under the example prices, so the goal depends mostly on how many pieces get baked and sold, which is what the goal table tests. The $4 slice is priced as a sixth of a cake, so the 20-slice cake row is generous.
Other pages for the same table
Price one item in depth first: brownies, cupcakes, a pumpkin pie, or fudge and peppermint bark by the pound. Rules for food sold at fundraisers vary by state and county, so check with the organizer before the sale.