Bakery to charge consumers more for desserts as egg prices surge: 'Raised cake prices'

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Raising the prices on cakes at Favor Desserts Bakery is not something the owner, Keijuane Hester, wanted to do. It's what he said he had to do because the price of eggs had gone up.

The bird flu has caused the supply of eggs to go down and prices to go up.

"I had to raise cake slices 75 cents and whole cakes to five dollars," said Keijuane Hester. "It's been impacting business tremendously. We're used to paying $100 for a case of 30 dozen eggs. Now, we pay $260."

Eggs are critical to the bakery's mission and are used for nearly every recipe.

With egg prices soaring, there's been a major impact on family budgets and business owners.

Economists predict the prices will eventually go back down.

"People might choose to not have those scrambled eggs for breakfast," said Dr. Gerald Cohen, chief economist of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the UNC Kenan Flagler Business School.
"We've seen this before. We've seen bouts of Avian flu come and we've seen prices come down. They can come down pretty sharply."

SEE ALSO | DOJ investigating major egg producers amid soaring prices

It's something Hester hopes for his bakery. He's admitted to being fortunate that most customers like Dexter Stuart have been understanding of the increased prices.

"It's good cake, man. It's good quality. Regardless of the price you're going to support," said Stuart.

It quickly became apparent that Stuart's four-year-old daughter Genesis would like her dad to continue supporting the bakery as she took a bite out of her red velvet cupcake and smiled.

ABC11 Eyewitness News asked her if the sweet treat was tasty.

"Yeah," she exclaimed.