Hi! First off, I looove CC!!!!

Now to business...I have always baked for friends and family, but recently there have been friends of friends and co-workers that have asked if I could bake them a cake and they would pay me. Now this is something I would do if and when someone would request a cake from me but I think baking from home for profit I have to have my kitchen inspected/licensed- but can't find any information on this!

Only reason why I want to know what to do even if I only bake 3 cakes a year is that I remember watching a story on our local news channel that a 13yr old was selling these cute cupcakes from home to friends and family and a local bakery turned her in for not being licensed. Happy ending for her though, as her family got their kitchen inspected and approved.

So can anyone help me pretty-please??? Any information will help me greatly, I've gotten a major headache trying to find this info!

Thanks in advance!

Contact your local health dept.

Call health department, you will need a serve safe license, kitchen inspection from your town's health department, they will want your recipe's and handling proceedures, and you should have insurance to protect yourself and your family.

Thank you so much for the info!!!!

Check your zoning.

I livei n MA as well and not all towns allow home kitchens so it may not be as easy as getting inspected and getting insurance, etc. Call the health dept as well as zoning.

each town in mass can charge differnent fees for getting liscensed and inspected. mine has a $150 fee just to GET the paperwork, and then had about $500 of other fees after that....other towns were under $300.
go to your town's health dept and they can give you the information.

then there is the cost of safe serve classes and the cost of insurance.

when all was said and done it was going to be about $1500 up front to get liscened, inspected, certified safe serve, and insured.

you could bake your cakes for free and bill your friends for design consultation or delivery . i am not sure if that is completely legal, but i think so. maybe someone can answer that for me.

I think that making cakes for others in your residential kitchen, but getting paid via a consulting fee or delivery charge would still not make your local health department very happy. Could be a big fine.
It may cost a little up front to get your kitchen licensed by your municipality, but it's worth it. Your kitchen doesn't have to be state of the art or anything. Contact your local health department for details on the process. I was able to get my kitchen licensed, inspected plus purchase liability insurance (a must have if you will be providing any of your products to events held at venues like bauquet halls, country clubs, etc.) for less than $1000.
Hope this helps.

not that it makes a difference , but i want to clarify that i was not suggesting this possiblity for a regular business plan, but for baking 3 or 4 cakes a year for friends and co-workers.

Wow! Gotta love CC!!! You all are awesome for responding to my question! I have learned sooo much!

I don't even know if at this time it's even worth it since I'm in school and only have 2 people that want cakes for the fall! From the information provided I think I should just stick to practicing cake decorating with family and friends and once I'm done with school I'll know what to do!