Cake Delivery Fee Calculator

Why cake delivery deserves its own fee

Delivering a multi-tier custom cake involves carefully loading the cake, driving slowly, finding the venue, waiting for setup, and often assembling tiers on-site. This is 1–3 hours of your time that has nothing to do with baking. Folding delivery into the cake price makes it invisible and leaves you undercharging on every delivered order.

What factors determine a fair delivery fee

• Distance — base your fee on miles or zones from your kitchen
• Travel time — longer drives = more of your day gone
• Fuel cost — calculate at a per-mile rate or use a flat estimate
• Cake complexity — a 5-tier stacked fondant cake requires more careful handling than a single-tier
• Venue access — loading docks, elevators, and venue check-in add time
• Round trip — you're driving both ways

Common delivery fee structures for home bakers

• Flat fee within a zone — e.g., $20 within 10 miles, $40 for 10–25 miles, $60+ beyond
• Per-mile rate — e.g., $1.50/mile round trip. 20 miles out = $60.
• Free pickup, flat fee for delivery — simple and common for home bakers who primarily do pickup

Setup fee vs. delivery fee

Delivery gets the cake to the venue. Setup is on-site assembly and arrangement. These are separate services. CakeQuote has both as separate line items so you can charge for them independently when relevant — a wedding cake at a venue may need both, while a birthday cake to a home address may only need delivery.

How to include delivery in your quote

In CakeQuote, your default delivery fee is set in your pricing settings. You can override it per quote for long-distance or complex deliveries. The delivery fee appears as a named line item in the client-facing quote preview — transparent, professional, and expected.