My my how nice it is for people to comfort each other for doing something illegal and say it's not nice to tell it like it is.

If you are an illegal baker posting a question in the Cake Business forum about selling, pricing, etc., then you may get answers that you may not like to hear. Yes, it's illegal to sell baked goods from home except in a small handful of states. So when someone who has put a lot of time and money into becoming legal tells you that, it's not the "cake police", and that newbie should really see it as sound advice from someone with experience rather than a debate/argument.

My statement wasn't directed at anyone particular but rather the acceptance of doing it illegally. The blind eye and the we know it's not right but nobody is going to say anything... Society has that attitude about a lot of things and people suffer for it.
The "Lots of people did it or started out that way.", doesn't make it OK.

Lots of people doing it doesn't make it any less wrong or any more right. It is what it is. Though people who are selling illegally don't like to hear it or have someone tell them it is wrong, nothing can make it right but going about it through the proper legal channels businesses must go through. It's just an old annoying topic. Right is right and wrong is wrong.



Send those cake police my way- they won't find anything!

@Kitagrl:

Awesome post! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Now I'll admit, I was one of those people that didn't know about that law and probably wouldn't have found out had it not been for this site. However, you are absolutely right.. its one thing to be informative and another to be a police throwing your badge in peoples face. Especially, since this should be a place for support. We all have to start someplace. It's not always what you say but how you say it.

I am going to say something that will probably be unpopular, but this is the only industry I can think of that tolerates unlicensed vendors. Is it because we are mostly women... or more likely, bakers who go into business don't necessarily have to have tough business instinct to get started. Think of other similar industries, massage therapists, contractors(I am one), personal trainers, hairdressers, cosmetologists, just to name a few. If someone was taking money without a license in any of these occupations, they would get turned in by their peers. And why do we need a license? PUBLIC SAFETY!!! You can disagree with the law, just like disagreeing with taxes, but the outcome is the same, it's the law. And although we can debate it, the law does not change.

Do something that does not require a license to fund your savings for a cake business. I am sorry for those of you who lack funding, but we all make choices in our life that put us where we are now. If you want a cake business, save and sacrifice like the rest of us.

This "debate" is ridiculous, because whenever people post about this they're just looking for the answer thay want to hear. If it's illegal in your area it's illegal, so that's it. Not everyone who starts a business sells illegally first, I didn't and I know that there are other people on here who didn't.

Personally, I want to set the right excample for my kids. Do things the right way, and if you don't like the way the laws are set up, work to get those laws changed. If I told my kids "well, everyone else does it" then I'm setting myself up for some nasty "do as I do and not as I say" scenarios when they're older.

I realize that people who are going to sell illegally are going to do it and rationalize it to themselves, but that doesn't mean that it's okay, so don't kid yourself. Also don't expect to come on a business forum and have people tell you to have fun selling your illegal cakes.

I started legal in an approved facility.

Later on when I learned that I could not have a legal place on my property in any way--I got a full time job in front of a computer. Hey it handily paid the bills and I can still do cakes.
When I'm not fully pissed off about the inconsistent unfairness of it.

edited to say--this all way before cake message boards

I have mentioned this awhile back, but in my last business, the IRS seized my books (in a nice way) in a fraud case of another business. They looked at many businesses that he worked with. In their investigation of him, they found cash transactions with my business. The person being investigated had not recorded all of his cash transactions, but I had recorded every penny. People have always laughed at me for recording cash transactions, but that day, I was so relieved to know that I had followed the rules to the letter of the law. What are the odds of this happening? I would have said, "never". If the IRS finds any unreported or improperly (on purpose) reported income, they can go back to "the day you were born" (quote) to find more unreported income. So you can sit back and say, "I don't have to follow the law". And then one day your little cake business gets a knock on the door, and you will wish that you did the right thing. If you have unreported income, the lawyer alone will probably take more than you have ever made. I don't think the IRS will look for illegal cake businesses, but this business being investigated was much bigger than mine. My books (and others) were used to show he commited tax fraud. But I am not so sure that if I had unreported income I would have been at least audited and fined.

I do not choose to do business by looking over my shoulder.

Playingwithsugar, I couldn't think of any more at the time. I know hairdressers in my area turned in all of the improperly licensed cosmetologists when the nail craze started. And I have been in the construction industry for years. If a contractor finds out that an unlicensed person got a job that he bid on, that phone call is made right then. I think construction and baking are similar in that the general public assumes the person has proper licensing and insurance if they look like they have a business. How many people have asked to see bakers' licenses and insurance policies? Again, it comes back to public safety.

Y'know when people pass me speeding,
I say, "Go 'head, hurry, go get your ticket."

I read this far and just had to stop to reply.

Isn't running money from an illegal business through a legal business money laundering? Whooo-weeee, you are setting yourself up for a big heartache. You are risking everything to bake the occasional cake. I beg you to consider this: if you are caught running that money through there, will you think it was worth it to lose your accounting licensing?????

You'd have no cake biz and no bookeeping biz, either. If you think you can't afford to go legal now, what will you do for money when the bookeeping biz is gone?

Cheatize, I was going to mention that but this situation is running expenses, not cash, through a legal business. If it is not money laundering, I am sure they have a word for it.

-K8memphis
Y'know when people pass me speeding,
I say, "Go 'head, hurry, go get your ticket"

'Nuff said!

I started off illegal, but I wasn't aware of it until I found this site. It just never even occurred to me to look into the legalities of it because I was only making cakes for friends and family. But now that I'm aware, I'm in the process of becoming legal, and will be completely legal by the new year. I WANT to advertise and get more business.

I really don't have a problem with people going the illegal route. Assuming they are aware of the laws, they made the choice and will have to live with any consequences that may come of it.

While I tend to agree with most of the comments made on this...what drives me crazy is that just because "you're baking illegally" automatically means that you're putting out an inferior product, that is "thisclose to making someone sick" Just because you're baking without insurance or license does not mean you don't care about your product, or its safety.

I was once an illegal baker, until June of this year when Michigan passed the Cottage food law. I was and IS darn careful on cake production. Clean as you go was and IS my motto. I am not sorry for doing cakes illegally. I would've never been able in a million years to do cakes NOW without doing it illegally first. Without HANDS ON training, (classes maybe, or perhaps working as a decorator prior to in a "real" bakery or heck, I dunno, doing it, gasp, illegally) the fact is most people can't. One poster here has a great signature line, something about, "dont judge a person without walking in their shoes"

I know here in Michigan, it is illegal to drive my car without wearing a seatbelt. Why? If I am hurting absolutely NO ONE with my choice, why should the government tell me I have to do it? To line their pockets even further when I get pulled over without my buckle on. (note, I DO wear my seatbelt, and never been pulled over for anything, but just trying to make a point). Sometimes laws are stupid...yes they're there, so you should try to do your best and abide by them. But you shouldn't, ever, as a human being try to degrade another. It is not the "nice" thing to do. Remembering my momma always told me, "Don't say something if you dont have anything nice to say". People in this world are totally forgetting the humane factor here. But my momma also taught me if someone throws the first punch, I have the right to swing back!

I wish people that commenting wouldn't get their nickers all in a bunch saying rude things. Facts is one thing, but there is no reason under God to be so cruel and heartless.

Seatbelts enable you to maintain better control of the car in an accident or in a skid... in certain cases, helping to minimize damage and to avoid colliding with another vehicle or someone else's property. Again, public safety and that is why it is not your choice.

Hey SCP, I forgot to tell you that you get the prize for the heaviest requirments I've ever heard of in order to open your shop. OMG.
B.R.U.T.AL.

I mean in this case I could recommend my county as an easier alternative--I got my fire marshall to sign off on no fire suppression system. I have a Deluxe cake oven and I use induction burners &, microwave. But I gotta have the floor drain and the plumbing.

Wow you have gone the extra ten miles to get your place. Hats off.

Yep, sure.

Whatabout the people who die in cars because they cant get their seatbelts off?

(Sorry, daughter of a fireman here. You dont even want to know how many people have died in cars who would've been FINE if they werent wearing their seatbelts. Ever hear a man BEGGING you to get him out of the car screaming bloody murder and you can't do anything about it in time?)

Two sides to every. single. story.