There's also a Restaurant Depot in Houston:
http://www.restaurantdepot.com/Misc/Storedtl.aspx?Id=169

With restraunt depot you have to have a business number, so if you are a home bake you are out of luck. I have a sam's and costco membership, but wish I could find a place that sold cake boards and drums. I am tired of paying for shipping.

I agree with everything said!!!

I hate to say that baking is just a hobby because it's more than that for me. I am currently a teacher, so I just bake for friends and family. Currently my state does not allow home bakers, so I can not bake from my kitchen. When I do decide to bake full time or for a profession I will make sure that I am legal.

So are you saying I can't share because I am not legal? I can share my knowledge regardless just to help.

Have a great day!

Ok thanks for the information. I hope to be able to bake full time someday. Do restraunt depot sell cake boards and other cake things?

The RD in our area does not carry cake boards, but the selection may vary in different stores. They do carry other bakery supplies and ingredients. We buy cake boards from Cash & Carry, which is open to the public but only has locations on the west coast.
http://www.smartfoodservice.com/locations.aspx

Another option is webstaurantstore.com, they are online only.
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/

I found that if I used the cheaper icing sugar, I had to increase the flavoring I use (Creme Bouquet) to make up for the corn starch they have now begin using as filler, so I really wasn't saving any money using the cheaper brands. I try to get Domino at Sam's, it doesn't require half a bottle of flavoring to make it taste good.

Corn starch is not a filler, it is used (and has always been used) in packaged powdered sugar to prevent clumping.

I've never seen powdered sugar/icing sugar sold without corn/tapioca/potato starch, if you want pure powdered sugar you can make it yourself in a blender but you have to use it right away.

I stock up when something is on sale. Like the price of 4 pound of butter in costco is down $2 from this summer. You better believe the bottom of my (5 ft) freezer will be filled. Also, last month costco had a coupon for $2.50 off the big bag of nestle chocolate chips - made it $6.39 for 4.5 pounds. Totally saved me because I had a ton of ganache and chocolate chip cakes to make!

Do not be afraid to say, no thank you, to your food rep! Mine could not get me butter for less than $3 a pound, but the costco price right now is $2.21 a pound here. I am not embarrassed to put 100 pounds of butter in my cart!

For me, what helps the most is having an idea all the time of what I have, what I need, and what I will need in the next 4-6 weeks. That way if I'm thinking that I have a carrot cake wedding cake next week and I see carrots on sale this week at the grocery store, I pick them up a few days early and save a few dollars. And it also saves me from doing extra driving.

I take pictures of items with their prices with my phone, that way I won't forget the price when I want to compare them later!

I order my boards and boxes from brp box shop, for me they have the best prices and free shipping all the time. Order ribbon from jkmribbon; always place an order for over $195.00 with auiswiss in order to get free shipping. Keep an eye on slickdeals.net for any random things - especially nuts! I didn't want to (for initial cost reasons), but I ended up getting big bottles of all of the americolor gel colors. Saves SO much compared to buying an ounce at a time. And mentally I never have to worry about whatever color is coming up.

But most importantly for 2011, I did not design or accept any cakes for which a new tool would be needed. Yes, I love new tools. WAY TOO MUCH. In 2009 I spent just under $10,000 acquiring new cake tools!! That was so hard to look at at the end of the year, and that huge drawer of special cutters that were only used once!!! so now, I design cakes to use the tools I have. Surprisingly nothing broke this year, so ALL I spent money on was that actual ingredients of the cake (and boards and ribbon.......) HUGE difference adding it all up now at the end of my year. HUGE difference. Completely changed my profit margin. Yes, butter is higher than in 2009, yes, PS is higher, vanilla is higher... But I didn't spend $10,000 on tools!

aligotmatt, that's an good idea bout keeping track of the prices with photos. I go through my receipts after I shop to see how much things are, so that I have an idea of what different stores charge. I found unsweetened chocolate on sale one place, but the price was still higher compared to another, so it's hard to know what's a good sale unless you keep track somehow.