my mom heard from some people who are having a wedding in green bay that they can't make their own wedding cake... it has to be made by a licensed professional or the venue that they're having the wedding at might get sued... i'm not having my wedding there but it kind of scared me... i've never heard of that and don't see how they can control where you get your cake from, besides that, there's a LOT of people that make their own cakes or have friends or family make them... has anyone heard of this? i don't want to call the place we're holding our wedding cuz then they're going to know we're doing it ourselves but it's a little late now... we only have about 2 months till the wedding and i doubt i would be able to find anyone to do it plus i bought all my stuff already... well let me know if anyone's heard of that or not

NO sure havent heard of that.... I dont see why that should matter, but maybe its because they know weddings mean money and everyone wants the money.... greed ya know....

Maybe you can go to your city's website and look at the health dept. for rules and regulations that might apply to this situation. I have never heard of restrictions like that, but some towns and cities have some really weird ones...it seems that the only way they could do that would be through the health dept. Janice

How do you know whether you, a friend or family or even a professional did the wedding cake? Do they have to ask you for a paid recipt where wedding cake was made at and that to (bakery shop) can be owned by a friend or family and of cause they might say yes the wedding cake was made there. So my question is how would they know? I know that some wedding reception places includes in the package deal catering and their weddings, but if a wedding reception does not include the wedding cake in the package, then I believe that you can get from where you want to. At my wedding I had a caterer who just did the food and sweet table, where on the other hand I had a professional baker do my cake, but of cause I did not know how to bake cakes or even knew of any one that could have done for me, otherwise, I would have done either myself and have someone deliver and set up for me, of cause with proper directions or would have gotten a friend to do it all. I understand how some states work and they can have some strict regulations. I went to a wedding where the reception was being held and they told the couple that only license caterers were allowed to bring in the food and set up and if they did not have a license, they were not allow to bring in any thing cause the reception hall did not want to be sued by any individual/s cause the hall allow the food to entered the permisses and the individual/s can also come back on the caterers as well. My opinion, I would not worry too much about it cause you know yourself and whoever is making the cake I am sure you know they well. If it is not too late, you can either bring all the thing that you would want on your cake, that you bought to a professional cake bakery and see if they can use it for your cake and return any unuse things. Or you can sell them to someone on e-bay or anyone you know that can use it. This is only if you think that you might have a problem the owners of the reception hall. Hope that this helps a little.

I haven't heard of that regarding a cake--but I have heard of it regarding the catering.

If I had to guess, I would say that the hall has had some "issues" in the past with food poisoning and they are just trying to cover their butts. In this day and age of lawsuit crazy citizens--you can never be too careful. (Can you tell I am/was a paralegal before kids?) Anyway--if a licensed professional is doing it--that generally means they have insurance and will be able to defend their own claims of food poisoning.

That being said, I have never given anyone food poisoning with one of my cakes--but I do know of a bakery here that did. They used canolli filling and did not refridgerate it. Almost 100 people got sick.

I would just check with your event forum and see if they have rules like that. I would assume those would have been spelled out before you entered into the contract to hold your receiption there.

Lisa

I have. Some halls require that cakes and food are to be catered. They must show license before delivery.. It really bites!

Another possible angle for that is the place where the reception is being held does their OWN cakes (or has someone that they get a "kick-back" from?) and that is one way to make more business for themselves.....

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING QUADCREW!

here it is very common that the caterer will charge a cutting fee for an outside cake.

And yes because of insurance reasons some halls require that food is brought in from a licensed kitchen. this is to cover thier butts if someone gets sick. And it is normally because of the type of insurance coverage the hall holds.

I'm not sure where all of you are from but I'm assuming there are different health code regulations for different states. Here in NY there are A LOT of places that will not let you bring in a cake that is not made by a licensed establishment reason being that if someone gets sick they can have suit brought against them because it was served by them. My sister recently had this explained to her by a vineyard where she is going to have her reception. I was originally going to make the cake and they wanted a copy of my license. Since I don't have one I'm not able to make my sister's wedding cake. To even sell cakes around here you have to have a licensed kitchen (inspected by the state). Some laws just suck.

Well that would be something new for the brides to take into consideration. IF you have someone picked out to do your cake - (like your mother for instance) who isn't licensed, you need to find a place that will allow it.

I wonder if it would still count if the cake decorator made the cake in a kitchen that was licensed (but not licensed to her?) Like in a church kitchen? How would that work?

This is a regular practice, for liability reasons. If going "big" and doing large wedding cakes, make sure to get a licence or bake out of a licenced kitchen. This can be the pits when you want to bake for a friend and give as a gift...I don't think there is any way around it. Blessings on your baking, Shawn <><

Check with the venue where your having the reception. Somitimes caterors reqire that, and venues can require whatever you want. If you were having it a church or at home it wouldn't matter who made it. You just have to check with the facility.

Check with your local churches to see if you can use their facilities. You can use there kitchen and become licensed to sell cakes from that kitchen. Also there are communal (spelling) kitchens where you can rent a time slot so that you can bake all of your cakes. Most places require that you have a license and or even bonded. This helps the venues, because most places give kick backs or referral fees. Check it out and see if it's do-able.

To be liscensed do you have to bake and decorate in a liscensed kitchen or just bake???

I'm not sure, but I would think that it would be both. You would have to check with the kitchen and the board of health.

I will be in a wedding this fall in NY and the hall requires that the cake be made by someone liscensed by both the state and that town. I will be making the shower cakes but not the wedding cakes.

Debbie

well, my fiance called and the lady said "just don't say anything to me"... kinda like don't announce that you're not legal to make a cake but it's ok with her... so yay... i was so worried!!! let the baking begin!

Good for you greencargirl!! I'm so glad things are working out for you!!! You have worked hard for something like this to get you worried!!! Keep on smiling!!! Things will be just fine! Blessings,

that is sooo ridiculous.!!! i wouldn't give them my business!

When my daughter got married last June, we had it catered.... I made her wedding cake..(the 4th mom to make the wedding cake that year for their kids wedding)...anyways, we made all the goodies for the sweet tables too....nothing about having a licensed business doing this..the only thing we paid for was $20 for one of the ladies to cut the cake...my daughter didn't want me doing that...... I hope it doesn't come down to that around here.... People here mostly all do their own goodie baking for the sweets tables....
I feel bad for you just finding something like that out... I think it's just a scam....businesses trying to keep all the business for themselves....

cakegal