Free template
Recipe costing format for bakers
A recipe costing format is a sheet with one row per thing a batch uses: the amount used, the size and price of the package you buy, the cost per unit (package price divided by package size) and the cost in the recipe (cost per unit times amount used). Add up every row, including packaging, your time, the oven and a share of fixed costs, and divide by the yield to get the cost per piece. Download the sheet below as a CSV and fill it in with your own prices.
| Item | Type | Amount used | Unit | Package size | Package price | Cost per unit | Cost in recipe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | Ingredient | 300 | g | 2000 | $3.00 | $0.0015 | $0.45 |
| Sugar | Ingredient | 300 | g | 1800 | $3.60 | $0.0020 | $0.60 |
| Cocoa powder | Ingredient | 75 | g | 250 | $5.00 | $0.0200 | $1.50 |
| Eggs | Ingredient | 3 | each | 12 | $3.60 | $0.3000 | $0.90 |
| Butter | Ingredient | 150 | g | 454 | $4.54 | $0.0100 | $1.50 |
| Milk | Ingredient | 250 | ml | 1000 | $1.60 | $0.0016 | $0.40 |
| Chocolate frosting | Sub-recipe | 400 | g | 800 | $6.00 | $0.0075 | $3.00 |
| Cake box and board | Packaging | 1 | each | 1 | $1.50 | $1.5000 | $1.50 |
| Your time | Labor | 1.5 | hour | 1 | $18.00 | $18.0000 | $27.00 |
| Oven | Machine | 0.75 | hour | 1 | $0.80 | $0.8000 | $0.60 |
| Fixed costs share | Overhead | 1 | cake | 1 | $2.00 | $2.0000 | $2.00 |
| Total batch cost (12 slices, $3.29 each) | Total | - | - | - | - | - | $39.45 |
What each column of the recipe costing format means
The sheet works for any bake, from a dozen cookies to a tiered cake. Each row is one thing the batch consumes, and the columns turn what you pay at the store into what the recipe really costs.
- Item: the ingredient, sub-recipe, package, task or cost, named the way it appears on your receipt.
- Type: ingredient, sub-recipe, packaging, labor, machine or overhead, so you can see where the money goes.
- Amount used: how much of it this batch takes, in the same unit as the package size.
- Unit: grams, milliliters, each or hours. Weigh instead of using cups; it is the only way the math stays honest.
- Package size and package price: what you buy and what you pay for it, from your latest receipt.
- Cost per unit: package price divided by package size.
- Cost in recipe: cost per unit times amount used. The total of this column is your batch cost.
How to fill in the recipe costing format, step by step
Start with the ingredients. Write each one with the amount the recipe uses, then look up your last receipt for the package size and price. If you buy flour in a 2 kg bag for $3.00, the cost per gram is $3.00 divided by 2,000, or $0.0015, and 300 g costs $0.45.
Fillings, frostings and doughs you make in batches are sub-recipes. Cost them on their own sheet first, then bring them in as one row: in the example, 800 g of frosting costs $6.00, so the 400 g on this cake costs $3.00.
Then add what most bakers forget: the box and board, your hours at the hourly rate you want to earn, the oven time, and a share of fixed costs such as utilities, phone and fees. Divide your monthly fixed costs by the number of batches you bake in a month to get that share.
Finally, add up the last column and divide by the yield. In the example the cake costs $39.45, or $3.29 per slice.
Read next: Free recipe costing template for bakers
From cost to price: a worked example
Cost is the floor, not the price. A common way to price is to pick the margin you want to keep and divide: price equals cost divided by one minus the margin. With a 60% target margin, the example cake is $39.45 divided by 0.40, which is $98.63, so you might round it to $99, or about $8.25 a slice if you sell by the slice.
Notice that labor is $27.00 of the $39.45. If you leave your time out, the same cake looks like it costs $12.45 and a $20 price feels fair, when it pays you about $5 an hour for an hour and a half of work. These are example figures; use your own prices and rate.
Mistakes that make a costing sheet lie
A spreadsheet is a good start, and it is only as accurate as the numbers you keep in it.
- Mixing units, such as a recipe in cups and a package in pounds, without converting.
- Using the price from months ago: when butter goes up, every recipe that uses it gets more expensive.
- Leaving out packaging, labor or the oven because they do not feel like ingredients.
- Forgetting yield loss: trimmed cake edges and broken cookies are not sold, so divide by what you actually sell.
When the spreadsheet gets too big: Farinu
The sheet is free and works. The trouble starts at twenty recipes, when one price change means opening every file. Farinu keeps the same structure, ingredients, packaging, sub-recipes, labor, machines and overhead, but each price lives in one place, so updating butter updates every recipe that uses it, and when an ingredient goes up, a margin alert tells you which products now sell below your target and what to charge instead.
From the cost, Farinu suggests a price from the markup you set over cost, not from a margin: to keep the 60% margin above, you set a 150% markup, and $39.45 times 2.5 gives the same $98.63. It also keeps a price list for each channel, such as retail and wholesale. Costing is free for up to 10 recipes. On Team, if your recipes are already in a spreadsheet or in a photo of your notebook, the AI assistant reads them and proposes them for you to approve.
Questions
- What is a recipe costing format?
- It is a sheet that lists everything a recipe uses, with the amount used, the package size and price, the cost per unit and the cost in the recipe. The total, divided by the yield, is the cost of each piece.
- Should labor go in the recipe cost?
- Yes. Put your hours at the hourly rate you want to earn. If you leave it out, your price only covers ingredients and you work for free.
- How do I cost a frosting or filling used in several recipes?
- Cost it as its own recipe, work out the cost per gram, and use it as one row in every recipe that needs it. In Farinu, sub-recipes update everywhere when an ingredient price changes.
Related pages
Cost your recipes without the spreadsheet
Create a free Farinu account and cost up to 10 recipes, with costs that update themselves when an ingredient goes up.