Free template
Free recipe costing template for bakers
This recipe costing template is a free spreadsheet for working out what one batch costs: list every ingredient with the pack you bought and the amount you used, add packaging, your time, the oven and a share of your fixed costs, then divide the total by how many pieces the batch makes. Download it below as a CSV that opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers, no email needed. The line costs, the batch cost and the cost per slice are formulas, so the sheet works out your own recipe as soon as you type in your packs, prices and quantities. It comes filled in with an example layer cake so you can see how each line works before you replace it with your own recipe.
| Type | Item | Pack size | Pack unit | Pack price (USD) | Quantity used | Line cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ingredient | All-purpose flour | 2000 | g | 3.20 | 360 | 0.58 |
| Ingredient | Unsalted butter | 1000 | g | 9.60 | 225 | 2.16 |
| Ingredient | Granulated sugar | 2000 | g | 2.80 | 400 | 0.56 |
| Ingredient | Eggs | 12 | each | 4.20 | 4 | 1.40 |
| Ingredient | Whole milk | 3785 | ml | 4.10 | 240 | 0.26 |
| Ingredient | Vanilla extract | 118 | ml | 12.99 | 10 | 1.10 |
| Sub-recipe | Vanilla buttercream (one batch, costed on its own sheet) | 1 | batch | 6.80 | 1 | 6.80 |
| Packaging | Cake box and board | 1 | each | 1.75 | 1 | 1.75 |
| Labour | Your time at 18 an hour | 1 | hour | 18.00 | 2 | 36.00 |
| Machine | Oven energy | 1 | hour | 0.80 | 0.75 | 0.60 |
| Overhead | Share of rent, insurance and fees | 1 | batch | 3.00 | 1 | 3.00 |
| Total | Batch cost (sum of the lines above) | - | - | - | - | 54.21 |
| Yield | Slices per cake | - | - | - | 12 | - |
| Result | Cost per slice (batch cost divided by slices) | - | - | - | - | 4.52 |
What is in the recipe costing template
One row per cost, and every row uses the same formula: quantity used divided by pack size, times pack price. That single rule handles a 2 kg bag of flour, a dozen eggs and an hour of your time alike, so you never have to convert anything to a price per gram in your head.
The Type column keeps the lines that bakers usually forget next to the ones they never forget.
- Ingredient: everything that goes into the batch, at the price you actually paid.
- Sub-recipe: a filling, frosting or dough you make in bulk and use across products. Cost it on its own sheet, then bring in the share this batch uses.
- Packaging: boxes, boards, bags, labels and ribbon.
- Labour: your hours at the hourly rate you want to earn, even if nobody pays you a wage yet.
- Machine: oven, mixer or freezer energy for the time they run.
- Overhead: a share of fixed costs such as rent, insurance, card fees and your website.
Read next: How to calculate recipe cost, step by step
How to fill in the recipe cost spreadsheet
Type over the example rows, keep the headers and the Line cost column's formulas, and work from your last receipts rather than prices you remember.
- Write each ingredient with the pack size and unit printed on the pack, and the price you paid for that pack.
- Weigh what you use in the same unit as the pack: grams with grams, millilitres with millilitres, eggs with eggs.
- Each Line cost cell works out quantity used divided by pack size, times pack price, to the cent: G2 holds =ROUND(F2/C2*E2,2). Copy it down to any row you add.
- Add a row for packaging, one for your time, one for the oven and one for overhead.
- The Total row adds up the lines with =SUM(G2:G12). Put your yield in the Yield row's Quantity used cell, F14, and the Result row gives the cost per piece with =ROUND(G13/F14,2). Insert new cost rows above the last one so the total's range grows with them.
The example worked out
In the example cake, the six ingredients come to $6.06 and the buttercream sub-recipe adds $6.80, so the food in the cake costs $12.86. Packaging adds $1.75, two hours of your time $36.00, the oven $0.60 and overhead $3.00, for a batch cost of $54.21.
Divided by 12 slices, that is about $4.52 a slice. If you had priced from ingredients alone you would have thought the cake cost $12.86, and every hour you spent on it would have been unpaid. These are example numbers; your prices and times will differ, which is the whole point of filling the sheet in yourself.
From cost to price
Once you know the cost, set the price from the margin you want to keep. The formula is price = cost divided by (1 minus target margin). For a 50% margin on the example cake that is $54.21 divided by 0.5, or about $108, which you might round to $110. A 50% margin is the same as a 100% markup on cost, so do not confuse the two: a 50% markup would leave you only a 33% margin. In Farinu you set a markup, not a margin: for that 50% margin, set a 100% markup.
A wholesale price for a café is usually lower than your retail price, so check the margin on both before you agree to a standing order.
Where a spreadsheet stops being enough
A recipe costing template works well for a handful of products. It gets harder when the same butter appears in thirty recipes and its price goes up: you have to find and update every sheet, and the sub-recipe totals you copied across do not change on their own.
Farinu keeps one price per ingredient, so a new price flows into every recipe and sub-recipe that uses it, and when an ingredient price rises, a margin alert tells you which products now sell below your target markup and suggests a new price from your target markup. It keeps retail and wholesale price lists side by side. Costing is free for up to 10 recipes. On Team, the AI assistant can import this sheet, or a photo of a handwritten recipe, and propose the recipes for you to check and approve.
Questions
- Is the recipe costing template really free?
- Yes. It is a plain CSV file you can download without an account or an email address, and you can change it however you like.
- Does it work in Excel and Google Sheets?
- Yes. A CSV opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice. The line costs, the total and the cost per piece arrive as formulas that recalculate when you change a price or a quantity. Save it as an Excel or Google Sheets file before you add formatting or more sheets, which a CSV cannot keep.
- Should I include my own time if I bake at home?
- Yes. If labour is not in the cost, the price only covers ingredients and you work for free. Use the hourly rate you would want to earn, even if it feels high at first.
- How do I cost a frosting or filling I use in several products?
- Cost it as its own recipe on a separate sheet, then add it as a Sub-recipe row in each product with the share of the batch that product uses.
Related pages
Import this sheet into Farinu
Create a free account to cost up to 10 recipes, see the cost per piece update when an ingredient price changes, and get suggested prices from your target markup.