Free tool
See what each slice of cake or traybake really costs you once unsold slices are counted, the GP you make at your price, and the price that hits your target. The numbers filled in are examples: put in what you pay.
Each slice you sell costs you
£1.32
Slice £1.14, unsold slices 13p, box or napkin 5p
59% GP, £1.89 profit per slice
Charge £4.15 to make 65% GP.
Each slice you sell costs you
52p
Slice 45p, unsold slices 2p, box or napkin 5p
80% GP, £2.04 profit per slice
At £2.80 you're on or above 65% GP.
Costs are what you pay, without VAT if you're registered. Cake taken away cold carries no VAT; eaten in, a sixth of the price goes to HMRC. GP is worked out on what you keep.
Start with the whole cake. If you buy it in, that's the invoice price. If you bake it, add up the ingredients: flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and the expensive bits like nuts and chocolate. Divide by the slices you actually cut, not the slices the supplier says.
A £16 carrot cake cut into 14 is £1.14 a slice. Cut into 12, it's £1.33. Two fewer slices per cake can cost you more GP than a price rise brings back, so agree a slice size with your team and stick to it.
The slices left at close still had to be paid for, so they come out of the ones you sell. If 1 in 10 slices goes in the bin, every slice you sell costs about 11% more. On the carrot cake that's 13p a slice.
That's why the cake on the counter at 4pm matters. Fewer whole cakes on slow days, or a late-afternoon offer, often does more for GP than the menu price.
If you're VAT registered, a cold slice taken away carries no VAT, but eaten at a table it carries 20%. A £3.50 slice gives you £3.50 to take away and £2.92 eaten in. The calculator blends the two using your eat-in share. Our VAT guide has the detail.
Bought-in cakes already carry the baker's margin, so 60 to 70% GP is a fair aim. Bakes made in-house usually make more, because there's no baker's margin in them, but they take staff time that this sum leaves out. Our guide to a good GP for a cafe has the ranges, and the recipe costing template costs a bake ingredient by ingredient.
Quokka costs every cake and bake from your invoices, logs the slices you throw away in two taps, and shows which ones make money once waste is counted. Try it free, no card needed.
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