I just applied for a license in order to be able to bake/sell cakes from my house. This will be a side business, as I work full time. I am reading references, in order to learn the science/art of cake baking better. The book, The Cake Bible, made me wonder how many of you bake cakes that are not decorated, but are a really wonderful, deliscious cake. I mean a cake that isn't able to be decorated with the bc, RI, or gumpaste decorations.

I do a mean lemon drizzle cake! Its based on a Nigella Lawson recipe. Its really moist because you add loads of lemon syrup to it when its still hot and in the pan. I only decorate it with a glace icing drizzled quickly over the top and dripping down the sides.

I make a lemom-poppy seed cake that gets only a lemon syrup and lemon rind curls.

I'm a Sp. Ed. Teacher in my day job, so I only do the decorative cakes. I used to do the undecorated ones as well, but it became an issue of time v. money for me. I can easily earn in one decorative cake the cost of 4+ undecorated ones. So for me, the decorative cakes won. Teaching is a take home job, so I just don't have the time to do a lot of undecorated cakes while making little money from them.

It's a good thing that you're thinking about this because caking is time consuming. At times it can be rough balancing it with a full-time job.

HTH,

Kim

the only non-decorated thing I'd sell are cheesecakes, which I don't even advertise that I make (though I'm told I should). I mean, I can do regular cakes in my sleep by now, but somehow I dont' find them quite as "fun"

They want it, I make it. Sometimes there is a need for a cake for a small get together that the hostess just doesn't have time to do herself. My theory is that if they know how awesome my cakes taste, then they will come back when they need a showpiece too. Usually these cakes end up costing as much as a fully decorated one though! But I agree it depends on the time you have to devote to it too.

Thanks for all your input. There's a huge part of me that thinks I'm crazy, because I'm already pretty overworked. Am I nuts?

Aren't we all a little nuts?

I have a hard time price matching on the "regular" cakes. The supermarket bakeries do a pretty good job around here. I do have some regular customers that don't want "all those additives". My Tuxedo cake is my best seller..... lots of bang for the buck, ya know?