Have been lvling my character instead of cooking lately. So I'm only up to 48 right now. On cerebrus
43.1-48 Apple pie: 1 fire crystal + 1 fiary apple + 1 pie dough + 1 maple sugure + 1 lizzard egg + 1 cinnamon = 4 Apple pie.
Even money, or a very slight loss if you do a little shopping for your ingredients and sell at the AH in the city that offering the best price. At least they sell really fast. Every mage and their mother seems to be eating these. :D
Apple pie, using bird egg can take you to 50. But I'm having second thoughts at 48. Since apple pie is some what expensive to make, and 1 failure can mean quite a noticable loss.
I'm thinking maybe crayfish balls to hit 52 instead. Very cheap to make.
Crayfish balls: 48 (47) - 52. 1 earth crystal + 3x crayfish + 1x distilled water + 1x sandurian flour = 1 stack of 12.
Earth crystals is basically free. 200-300 per stack. Crayfish sells for about 800-1000 per stack at AH. Distilled water = 11 g at the store south of the guild. Sandurian flour imported from mule in Sandoria = 76 per bag. Total cost of 1 stack = 25 for the crystal, 250 for the 3 crayfish, 11 for the water, and 76 for the flour = 362 per stack. Factor in image support and 10% failure = 440 per stack. In AH, these sells pretty fast for 500 gil per stack. So you should make a little profit, if not break even.
I think I might go make a bunch, and everynight before I go to sleep, I'll just park my naked character, Bazaar loaded with Crayfish balls right at the Fishing Guild in Windurst, and see how well it sells.
For hitting 55-56, I'm eyeing Beaugreen Saute. But I heard Yugado Drink is a very popular mage drinks, so I'm looking at that as well.