Original message sent by Snowflakebunny23

Question from the UK - does the health department in the US look into the quality of your cakes before they issue a licence?  In the UK, all you have to do is have an inspection from the environmental health people to say your kitchen is ok and they give you a certificate, but that is no guarantee that the product you produce/sell is built/baked to what I would call a 'merchantable standard'...as in bits don't fall off!  :-)

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hehe.  Have a good look on google and you tube - there are loads of videos on stacking cakes and it's easier to watch than have someone explain.  I think that's probably the most important bit to get right as there's not much you can do to fix it once all the decorations are on!  Personally, I have a lot of respect for people who want to do their own families' cakes as they are taking on a huge responsibility and making something that will probably be more personal - its the unlicenced bakers who sell cakes to an unwitting paying public that get my goat!  Good luck with your cake and hope your daughter has a beautiful wedding! x

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Thanks for the insight!  Was curious but from reading various posts, it seems that the laws are more complex over there :-) It feels like there should be a cake police though...I have heard horror stories from people about cakes that they had bought 'professionally' and, literally fell apart.  Then they don't want to go near another cake maker as they seem to think you're some kind of scam artist! grrr.

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It depends here, things are different state to state. They don't look into the "delivered quality"as far as if things are built the right way, but they will check into situations of poor food hygiene and they sometimes ask you to provide samples of your products so that they can be tested in their labs. It depends on the inspector and how they think you're up to snuff. I can tell that the inspectors who do my inspections are asking me a lot of questions to see how I respond. Like where do you get your test strips for your sanitizing solution, what concentration do you keep it at, etc. I think that if they don't get good answers to those kinds of questions they'll look a little further into whether your cake has hair in it by askign for smaples. I also got a call from the health department to ask about meringue buttercreams because they saw that it involved egg whites and not bringing it up to a specific temperature. I had to answer a bunch of questions about that to have them sign off on me using those formulas. They're interested in the food safety side of it.