Can anyone help me with this maths question? (cost per cake)

Nathanial Essex

Nathanial Essex

Joined
Jul 28, 2018
Location
London
Hi all

I built an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the cost per cake for a business I am doing. I am by no means a maths person, worst subject at school, so thought I would double check before I took it as gospel.

Step 1

What I first did was list out all my ingredients and their cost and size (by grams as purchased in the store)

Ingredients SizeCost
Flour1500£0.80
Butter250£1.80
Caster Sugar1000£1.60
Brown Sugar1000£2.30
Chocolate200£1.50
Cinnamon39£0.99

Step 2

I then listed my ingredients by the amount of it takes to make one batch.

Chocolate ChipUsage
Flour250
Butter200
Caster Sugar62.5
Brown Sugar62.5
Cinnamon6.25
Chocolate11

Step 3

I used flour initially to figure out how many batches 1 packets produces. 1500g of flour produces 6 batches as I use 250 grams per batch. I then calculated how much of the other ingredients I need to create 6 batches.

6 BatchesQuantityBatches CreatedHow many packages needed
Flour150061
Butter120065
Caster Sugar37560.4
Brown Sugar37560.4
Chocolate6660.3
Cinnamon37.561

I then multiplied the amount of packages needed by the cost of each package and got the below.

Flour
£0.80​
Butter
£8.64​
Caster Sugar
£0.60​
Brown Sugar
£0.86​
Chocolate
£0.50​
Cinnamon
£0.95​

The total for the above £12.35.
Each batch creates 9 cakes
6 (batches) x 9 (cakes) = 54
£12.35 / 54 = £0.23
So my cost per cake is 23p

Make sense? If there is a simpler we I am all ears!
 
You listed the ingredients by the amount needed to make one batch. Each batch creates nine cakes. Divide by nine the amount needed for each ingredient to make one batch.

So, 250/9, 200/9, 62.5/9, 62.5/9, 6.25/9, 11/9. This gives you the amount needed for each ingredient to make one cake.

Divide the answers by the amount of the ingredient for each that you purchased from the store.
Then multiply these answers by the cost of the ingredient for each from the store.

Eg. For flour
250/9 x 0.80
1500


Do this for each, add up the numbers and that will give you the cost per cake which should come to 0.2381321224 which, rounded up, is 0.24. So your cost per cake is 24p. Hope this helps!
 
Last edited:
The easiest way that I know:
1) Cost/Size (0,80/1500; 1,80/250; 1,60/1000; 2,30/1000; 1,50/200; 0,99/39) and you get the cost of one gram for each ingridient.
2) (cost/size) x usage. For example, Flour = 0,00053 x 250, Butter = 0,0072 x 200 and etc. This gives you the cost of 1 batch or 9 cakes.
3) Sum all numbers you got in step 2 / 9 = 0,2285 or 0,23 per cake.
 
Last edited:
Assuming 0 wastage, your cost per cake...
Flour - 1.5p
Butter - 16p
Caster Sugar - 1.1p
Brown Sugar - 1.6p
Cinnamon- 1.8p
Chocolate - 0.9p
Total - 22.9p

That tenth of a penny might not seem like much, but if you’re making thousands of cakes it might start to add up 😂
 
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