Whether you're selling cakes from home or running a full bakery, of course you'd like to earn more for the time, energy and love you pour into every cake. The good news? You don’t need to work twice as hard to make twice as much. Here are 10 simple ways to make more money selling cakes without burning out and I’ve used all of these strategies myself throughout my cake career, from baking in my kitchen at home to running a busy storefront and helping others grow their cake businesses.
Ready to grow your cake business? Here are 10 tried-and-tested cake business tips to help you increase your prices, sell more cakes, and create extra income streams with your cake skills.
Let’s start with how to make more money for what you’re already doing. To raise your prices strategically, increase the value of what you offer.
One of the easiest ways to do this is through customization. You can charge more when you offer personalized cakes, from names or messages on the cake to specific colour themes or designs for birthdays, baby showers, weddings and other special occasions. As your skills improve, you can offer more advanced styles like sculpted or 3D cakes, double barrel tiers, fondant designs or on-trend looks like vintage piping or comic-style cakes. These extra touches let you increase cake prices compared to offering standard menu options.
Next, set yourself apart with something unique. When your cakes look and taste just like everyone else’s, you have to compete on price and that often means lowering it. But if you can offer something others can’t, like rare flavour combinations, fast delivery, or early adoption of trending styles, your prices can go up instead of down. For example, remember the striped cakes of 2019, comic cakes in 2022, or the recent wave of zodiac-themed vintage cakes? Being the only person in your area to offer something unique gives you a huge advantage.
Of course, if you want to start offering more detailed or elaborate designs, that might mean improving your cake decorating skills. My online cake school is here to help with that! I teach hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs in my online courses and you can try everything with a free 7-day trial of my AYCC membership. It’s the easiest way to gain confidence and watch your cakes (and your cake prices) improve.
Don’t underestimate the power of your reputation. Encourage reviews on platforms like Google and Yelp with signs in your shop or stickers on your boxes. Be quick, helpful, and friendly when replying to messages and grow a presence on social media to show potential customers that others already love your cakes. Social proof builds trust and people are willing to pay more when they feel confident in what they’re buying.
Let’s talk about how to sell more cakes without lowering your prices. Yes, dropping your prices could bring in more orders but that just means working harder for the same money. Instead, try these strategies to bring in more sales without reducing prices.
Word of mouth is free and incredibly effective. Take cakes to events, give them as gifts, or offer one as a prize for a local competition. Reach out to newspapers, magazines, blogs or local online communities to share your story or see if they’d feature your work. I started this way when I ran my home cake business and it really worked! Within a year I had more orders than I could handle and opened a storefront. Check out this tutorial on 10 things I wish I'd known when I first started making cakes!
If you’re into social media, start thinking about content creation. Sharing photos and videos of your cakes can bring in new customers while also growing your audience. Use location tags so locals can find you and post popular themes like Minnie Mouse or Mario cakes so potential customers see something they’d love to order. This is just scratching the surface! Content creation for bakers involves lighting, setup, strategy, editing, and much more. I teach all of this inside Creator Academy - join the waitlist now if you’re curious about building a cake business through content.
Networking is another brilliant way to grow. Partner with non-competing businesses like an ice cream shop, florist, or balloon decorator. Recommend each other to customers and create packages or cross-promotions to boost each other’s sales. You’ll be surprised how fast this kind of collaboration can grow your customer base.
Upselling is a quick way to make more from each customer. Offer matching cupcakes at a discount when someone orders a cake. Suggest a birthday smash cake alongside an order of cupcakes. And you can upsell decorations on cakes like cake toppers, custom characters, or adding an extra tier. The more you offer, the more you can earn from each order without finding a brand new customer every time.
Selling cakes isn’t the only way to make money as a baker. If you’ve built up skills decorating cakes, you can use those in other ways to create income streams that complement your business.
Teaching is one of my favourite examples of how to make more money selling cakes. Host in-person cake decorating classes in your kitchen or at a local venue. Offer online classes on platforms like Zoom. You can teach a specific technique, recipe or full cake design. People love learning from someone with hands-on experience, especially if they've eaten your cakes or seen them on social media.
Photos, videos and blogs can all bring in money if you share them in the right places. You can earn through platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or even your own website. If you’re already decorating cakes and sharing photos, why not turn those posts into profit? It can be more lucrative than cake sales and you don’t have to choose between the two, you can do both!
I teach everything you need to know to turn your cakes into content in my content creator course. Join the waitlist now and get notified when it becomes available later this year!
There are so many ways to grow a cake business, from increasing cake prices to upselling, marketing, teaching and content creation. You don’t have to do all of them at once but each one will take you closer to the income and lifestyle you want from your baking. I hope these cake business tips help you earn more from your cakes while doing what you love. Ask me any questions in the comments!
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on how to make more money selling cakes:
