AI want to start a cupcake business but I have no idea how to make mixes or lets say come up with my own recipe. I usually use the internet or boxed cakes to make stuff forpersonal use. Is it ok to use boxed cake mix if I want to sell cupcakes and maybe just tweek the mixes a little ?

Yep, there's a whole segment of bakers who use mixes for their cakes. Do a search for 'doctored mixes.' If you can find Mac'sMom's profile, she has a humongous list of fancy box cake tweaks in her signature. Also Kakeladi has a WASC recipe that a LOT of people use.

If you want to learn scratch cakes, a good place to start would be FromScratchSF's white cake recipe. Google it. BE SURE to READ ALL of the instructions and follow them. Scratch cakes are not as forgiving as box cakes.

A@vgcea thank you for ypur response. I just want to male sure cause I dont want to be selling cupcakes and get sued! lol If I follow a recipe it usually will come out pretty good but sometimes I can follow a recipe exactly and it come out bad dont know why.

Before you even go near starting a cake business please know how to bake well first. Practice, practice, practice.

AAnd while you are honing your baking skills you can also work on the business side of the cupcake business, including any necessary licensing, a business plan, your pricing strategy, market research, and so on. There's nothing wrong with sticking with a box mix, but if you do you'll probably need some other competitive advantages to make you stand out.

yes that's what I'm doing now just practicing, I have a long way to go. Right now I mostly do for my own personal use or bake for family. I also took a cake decorating class but want to take a baking class.

The baking class is not so important as long as you continue to bake on a regular basis.

What you need to do is take the local food safety course, the certificate is usually good for 3 years.  

You then need to do your homework about your state/provincial regulations.  In some places you simply cannot bake out of your home kitchen for $$$.  If that applies,  you would go about finding a foodservice job instead of opening your own business.

The advantage of working at least part time in foodservice is that you get to learn the nuts and bolts of how a working kitchen runs, without the risk of losing a lot of money.

After that you would know whether you should invest in a year of baking school.  Look for one that has an internship as part of the course.  Take any business management classes that are offered.

Athanks I will def look into the safety course.