I don't know much about this. My question is if you rent a commercial kitchen can you bake lots of cakes and make lots of icing in that kitchen and take them home, freeze them and decorate at home or do you have to do it all in the commercial kitchen?
Here in Colorado you'd have to do EVERYTHING, start to finish, in the commercial kitchen. I don't understand how anyone makes money doing this. 
I recently referred a friend to a decorator who works out of a rented commercial kitchen. She said the cake, while very nice and tasty, wasn't up to my calibre. I answered that if I was paying $15 an hour to make my cakes, they wouldn't be up to my calibre, either! 
Here in Colorado you'd have to do EVERYTHING, start to finish, in the commercial kitchen. I don't understand how anyone makes money doing this.
Same in California, everything must be done at the commercial kitchen. It's not too difficult to make money, you just factor in the rent to your price. For example, if you pay yourself $15/hour, rent is $15/hour, a 10" cake includes $10 in ingredients plus $5 in overhead and it takes about an hour to make, you can make a 20% profit by pricing it at $54.
Since everyone else is in the same boat you don't really have to worry about competitors undercutting you (except for illegal home bakers, but they are dealt with pretty quickly around here if they advertise).
For example, if you pay yourself $15/hour, rent is $15/hour, a 10" cake includes $10 in ingredients plus $5 in overhead and it takes about an hour to make, you can make a 20% profit by pricing it at $54.
Since everyone else is in the same boat you don't really have to worry about competitors undercutting you (except for illegal home bakers, but they are dealt with pretty quickly around here if they advertise).
I'm very impressed that you can prep, bake, make bc, color fondant, cool, level, fill, crumbcoat, cover in fondant or ice, (nicely) decorate, and box a 10' cake in an hour. Oh, and clean up, too. I sure can't.
Based on prices being charged locally, I suspect that some of the decorators here are renting the kitchen space but doing just what the OP mentioned...decorating elsewhere. Which is just as illegal as not having the kitchen at all.
I'm very impressed that you can prep, bake, make bc, color fondant, cool, level, fill, crumbcoat, cover in fondant or ice, (nicely) decorate, and box a 10' cake in an hour. Oh, and clean up, too. I sure can't.
If you work out a baking schedule that minimizes slack it really cuts down on the amount of time spent per cake. In a typical session at the kitchen we will work on 3-4 cakes simultaneously, so while one cake is baking you can prep for the next, then while the first cake is cooling and the second is baking you can prep the third, and so on. If you have holes in the schedule you can use that time to make more BC frosting.
Also, my example was for a 10" BC cake with very basic decorations (our price for a basic 10" is actually $54), obviously more elaborate decorations and/or fondant cakes take longer and would be priced higher.
I have a question for those renting space in CA. How does your business license work? I have a local resteraunt offering me space to bake and I do not know if I need to get my own business license and work under their permit to operate or if I need to apply for both? Would really appreciate any feedback anyone has about this topic and how they operate renting space.
I have a question for those renting space in CA. How does your business license work? I have a local resteraunt offering me space to bake and I do not know if I need to get my own business license and work under their permit to operate or if I need to apply for both? Would really appreciate any feedback anyone has about this topic and how they operate renting space.
There are two different issues here: the business license and the health dept inspection. For the license, the rules vary by city, but I was able to get a business license for my home address instead of the kitchen address since I manage the business out of my home. The health dept (in Santa Clara County at least) requires a separate inspection certificate for each business operating out of a specific location, since part of the inspection is making sure you adhere to proper food safety procedures.
So if you KNOW that your state asks that everything be done in the commercial kitchen, but you know of a business that is allowing a decorator take cakes home to decorate over night at home, and then they sell that same cake in their store, who do you notify about it?
This is the part of renting a kitchen that would give me the creeps. Even if I finished the cake I could not bring it home for delivery the next day. If I had to leave it in someone else's kitchen, who was going to make sure that it was untouched and undamaged?
So if you KNOW that your state asks that everything be done in the commercial kitchen, but you know of a business that is allowing a decorator take cakes home to decorate over night at home, and then they sell that same cake in their store, who do you notify about it?
You could notify whichever govt agency is responsible for food safety in your county, typically the dept of health or dept of agriculture.
This is the part of renting a kitchen that would give me the creeps. Even if I finished the cake I could not bring it home for delivery the next day. If I had to leave it in someone else's kitchen, who was going to make sure that it was untouched and undamaged?
It's really not that big a deal...since every tenant needs to leave their products at the kitchen, everyone knows not to touch someone else's stuff. When we leave cakes in the shared fridge at our kitchen they are already boxed up, and we've never had a problem.
If you're concerned about it and there's available floor space you could bring in (or rent) a separate locking fridge or storage cabinet -- our dry storage cabinets at the kitchen are separate and are locked to keep our ingredients and supplies safe.
This is the part of renting a kitchen that would give me the creeps. Even if I finished the cake I could not bring it home for delivery the next day. If I had to leave it in someone else's kitchen, who was going to make sure that it was untouched and undamaged?
It's really not that big a deal...since every tenant needs to leave their products at the kitchen, everyone knows not to touch someone else's stuff. When we leave cakes in the shared fridge at our kitchen they are already boxed up, and we've never had a problem.
If you're concerned about it and there's available floor space you could bring in (or rent) a separate locking fridge or storage cabinet -- our dry storage cabinets at the kitchen are separate and are locked to keep our ingredients and supplies safe.
Hey Jason--You are talking about an incubator kitchen where everyone rents a separate space- which would be wonderful. In my area, we have no such thing. I was advised by our HD to contact local restaurants that would allow me to rent their facilities after hours. That is what I was referring to with my comment. If I could find an incubator kitchen I would not be investing 40K to build my own building on my property.[/quote]
You are talking about an incubator kitchen where everyone rents a separate space- which would be wonderful. In my area, we have no such thing. I was advised by our HD to contact local restaurants that would allow me to rent their facilities after hours. That is what I was referring to with my comment. If I could find an incubator kitchen I would not be investing 40K to build my own building on my property.
It's actually a commercial rental facility and not an incubator kitchen, there are 3 shared kitchens so no one has their own dedicated space except for designated shelves in the fridge and separate dry storage cabinets.
If I were renting space at a restaurant I would want a separate locked cabinet for ingredients and designated shelves in the fridge marked as "property of company ABC" (if not a completely separate fridge). In addition, the rental contract with the restaurant would ensure that no one from the restaurant would touch my stuff, with specific penalties for noncompliance (e.g. price of ruined product + X% compensation).
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