Food

How Much Does a Cupcake Cost?

Cost of Baking Cupcakes

Cupcakes are a great treat for everybody. Whether it is for a children’s birthday party or a wedding, you can never go wrong with baking cupcakes! They’re so much simpler than cake and they are just as delicious! You don’t need to worry about remembering a knife or deal with the extra expense or purchasing plastic plates and silverware. They’re individually wrapped and can be eaten with your hands with little to no mess involved. It’s also easy to make several different flavors to satisfy everyone’s cravings!

Factors of Cost

Cupcakes can be baked at home with very little effort and cost or they can be purchased from a bakery with even less effort but a slightly higher cost. Professionally baked cupcakes can be purchased in what seems to be hundreds of flavors and can also be decorated to match your color scheme and special event’s theme. When purchasing cupcakes from a bakery, expect to spend around $1.50 up to $4 each depending on the quantity and variety you purchase.

At most bakeries, you will find mini cupcakes around $1.75 each or a dozen for around $19. You’re not going to get much of a price break for purchasing them by the dozen but the savings will add up if you are purchasing hundreds of cupcakes for a wedding or a corporate event. Regular cupcakes are on average $2.50 each, or $27.50 for a dozen. These are the costs for common flavor such as chocolate and vanilla but if you are looking at specialty flavors such as Red Velvet, the cream cheese frosting will boost the price up significantly since it is a more expensive ingredient.

What’s Included

Many times, when you are ordering a large quantity of cupcakes, there are unlimited customization opportunities. The flavors to choose from are endless from carrot cake to red velvet, to oreo! You can also mix and match frostings and colors for the perfect variety for all your guests to choose from. Cupcakes are much more practical in that aspect than cake is as nobody will ever be disappointed with the flavor selection.

There are also many sizes to choose from when ordering from a bakery. When baking cupcakes at home, more than likely you are baking standard sized cupcake as that’s the size baking pan that most people own. Bakeries tend to have 3 or more sizes to choose from including mini, standard, and jumbo, which will be much larger than anything you would normally bake at home. Also, if you are baking cupcakes at home, the only thing included in the box is the dry mix and you will need to purchase all the other ingredients for the frosting and additional decorations separately.

Additional Costs

Just a plain cupcake made the way the bakery traditionally bakes the cupcakes is included in the above costs. If you want to add special business logos, names, or decorations, the cost will go up as additional time and materials will be involved.

Rushed orders also add substantially to the price. Calling ahead at least one week will give you the best price on your order. If you call an order in last minute with only a couple days’ notice, the chances of an extra .50 cents up to $1 per cupcake should be expected as it is an inconvenient to a bakery to put together an order that quickly. Delivery fees will also add to the cost unless you are able to pick them up directly from the bakery.

Additional costs for baking cupcakes at home include purchasing the extra ingredients that aren’t included in the box which are normally eggs, milk, and oil. Frosting will also cost extra along with the cupcake papers and cupcake pan

Ways to Save

Buying in larger quantities such as 50 cupcakes or more should give you a better deal. Although there are discounts when ordered by the dozen, you should still be able to receive a larger discount when ordering more than 50. Also eliminate the delivery costs by just picking up the cupcakes at the store. Just plan ahead and place your order at a bakery that is located conveniently to your home or event.