I've been making cakes and cookies for fun for years. I finally took a decorating course to make my friend's wedding cake, but it's mostly been learned through trial and error. Well, I've sold a couple of cakes now and people seem pleased. They taste good (most important) and they are cute/nicely done. They aren't perfect by any means, but definitely better than a grocery store cake.

So, here I am, a stay at home mom who is facing going back to work in less than a year as we can't afford for me to stay at home much longer and today I had an idea (as I was finishing up the Thomas the Tank Engine Cake), could I make enough cakes and cookies for me to stay home?

And, can you? I've only lived in this area for 2 years and am just beginning to know people, so my network currently is small. Before I invest a lot of time and energy into this, can I make, let's say $500 a month (profit) on making cakes and cookies? If so, where do I start???? HELP!!!

Melissa

You'll need to call your local health department (start with city and go from there) to find out local regulations. Around here (TX) we can't have an in-home bakery at all

But every area is a little different

Good luck!

Check out this page: http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-32550-0.html

Thanks, I looked already and I live in VA and according to the table, I can run a business out of my personal kitchen. That far I have gotten, though I haven't called to see what it entails. I don't want to even bother if I'm shooting for the moon here, you know?

Melissa

It will probably take a while, but it's do-able! I started just over a year ago, and these days I average 3 cakes a week (about $120, depending on the size, etc.) and have had to turn a couple people down on fully booked weekends. If I didn't have a full-time job and 2 2-yr-olds, I could have expanded more, I'm sure.
I also had to rasie my prices. I started WAY too low, trying to compete with the grocery store to get a customer base. Now I start at $2/head so it's worth my time.

You might try finding a place in your local area that provides classes on various cake decorating stuff. I have take two cake decorating classes at a place (partycakesnthings.com) and they are having a Wedding Cake Seminar in a few weeks that will be discussing the many facets of starting a business in VA, along with the business of making/delivering/charging for a wedding cake. Just a suggestion.

Also, welcome to VA.

I am just starting out, too, but I am single and work full time. I have a plan to get all my classes under my belt, get REALLY good, and start making REALLY GREAT wedding cakes by next spring and summer. I will continue to make the "smaller" cakes but I know the money is in the big, beautiful time consuming cakes. And that's what I have a passion for. Will I be Duff from ACE OF CAKES someday? Maybe, maybe not, but I'm shooting for BIG......and if I can do it, so can you! Start small, practice, practice, practice, get your name out there, formulate a business plan, give cakes away to everyone you know and hopefully it will grow from there.

Best of luck to you! You CAN do it !!!

I think it depends on where you live. There is money in wedding cakes if you live in a large area. I live in a small town, so we only see a few weddings a year, whereas there are lots of birthdays that need cakes, which are my main business.

Thank you everyone... I took one class in November and plan to take a the next two wilson classes even though I know how to do a lot of the things they teach, but they have some tricks I could stand to learn.

I'm REALLY not interested in wedding cakes! I did a three layer cake for my best friends wedding and it turned out really well and tasted incredible and EVERYONE was thrilled, but... good grief!!! The TIME these things take is insane! Of course, it didn't help that I'm still slow, but just mixing up all the frosting took forever.

I would love to make like 3-4 cakes a week and perhaps a few dozen cookies (sugar cutouts with icing). Birthday parties, etc. NOTHING too fancy for now at least. I have a 10 year old and a 17 month old, so I'm not tryign to take on more than I can chew.

I think what really gets people interested in home goods is how GOOD they taste when they are done right. Plus, I only use top notch ingredients and it does make a difference.

I REALLY need to practice my handwriting on cakes - that's my weak point right now.

Melissa

Plus, I do fun novelty cakes - like a cake with a working volcano (sparklers), or the like. I'm not artistic so drawing and sculpting are not my forte, but I'm good geometrically and spatially, so I do well with putting ideas together and have had a lot of creative cakes. When my son turned 6 months I made a 1/2 cake for his 1/2 birthday, and so on... fun stuff. Yes, I can do the swirls and roses too, but novelty (though not too complicated) is waht I prefer.

Melissa

I am not trying to discurage you, but you asked for some information to help you make a decision. It will take a LOT of cakes to make $500/month in profit. Regular cakes for birthdays/holidays are generally not big money. You need to look at what you can get per serving for party cakes. Of course the real money is in wedding cakes.

Although bakers know and appreciate the value of a well baked cake, many buyers only figure the cash total, not the true value.

It is not legal to sell character cakes (Thomas the train) You would have to create something similar, but significantly different.

You might want to make an estimate of what a single cake recipe will cost. Also boards and boxes, icing, decorating supplies, etc. then you know what you need to charge in order to make a profit.

Thanks - I should clarify, I made a cake similar to Thomas, but it was quite different and I've never made a character cake before. This is the closest I've ever done.

I figurered my cost (minus energy costs as that's so hard to determine) and I figure this cake cost me $15 TOPS to make (we split the cost of the pan) and I charged $45. That's a $35 profit. So, I figure I would need to make like 4 cakes a week. That seems totally doable for me time-wise, but is finding clientele possible?

I tried looking at what people charge for cakes online and it's all over the map from like $15 for a 8-9 inch double layer frosted cake to $60 for the same style of cake. I looked in our local grocery stores and they charge about $20-$25 and bakeries charge about $50, so I figured a good inbetween price was a good starting point.

I guess I should also say that I live in a burb of D.C. in a middle class/upper middle class area and EVERYTHING here is expensive. When I was in Iowa for my friend's wedding I was appalled that the grocery stores sold birthday cakes for like $10!!!! What? It costs me that much in materials alone!!! I spent so much money making that wedding cake too. I know I spent over $100 in materials (I made a 12, 9, 6 inch double layer white chocolate cake brushed with raspberry liquor and filled with fresh raspberries, decoratd with buttercream frosting with buttercream roses for decor) I also made a duck shaped grooms cake, red velvet. Since my cakes aren't perfect yet, though it was pretty good, just not bakery smooth , but a really good amateur smooth, then I couldn't possible charge what a bakery charges, though EVERYONE said that it was the best tasting wedding cake they had EVER tried and several people said that if I lived locally and/or they weren't already married that they would ask me to do their cake. I probably could have charged $250? $300? for that cake (it served 100 if I'm remembering correctly) but I spent like 10 hours on that cake!!! (Maybe I didn't but it sure did feel that way). Just baking six pans of cake and five gazillion pounds of icing was time consuming - never mind crumb frosting, and layering etc. I was exhausted after that...

Hmm... of course, I would only need to make like what, 3 of those a month to make $500? profit? Hmm... no probably more because in my friends case we didn't use boxes, etc. Oh, and I bought an expensive cake platter too.... but thats' reusable (minus the fact that 2 of the feet broke off when it was mailed back to me - grrr...)

Sorry I'm long winded, just thinking out loud to make sure I'm thinking clearly.

Melissa

I want to get something going in my area. It's a small town and everyone I know makes their own cakes or already knows someone who does cakes. I'm trying to get into cookie bouquets too for something different around here. But in a small town like i'm in, people just don't want to or can't spend the money on a nice cake. Good luck!

Okay, if you have to make 3 wedding cakes a month to make a $500 profit....something is not right. My lowest wedding cake price is $2.75 per serving and that's with buttercream/royal flowers. I charge more for gumpaste, fondant, and silks. I have never spent more than $35.00 on ingredients for a wedding cake because I buy everything at wholesale...which you will be able to do once you are legal!! Selling 2 wedding cakes (one serving 100 and the other 200) is like making and selling 18 birthday cakes!

At first I didn't want to sell wedding cakes either because of the time factor but it didn't take me long to realize that is really where the $$ are! I wish you much luck in your adventure! Just for thought...if you sell 3 wedding cakes a month at 100 serv, 200 serv, and 200 serv you are looking at about $1200 profit for approximately 15-20 hours worth of work including shopping, baking, icing making and decorating. uhm...that's like $60 an hour.

LOL... OK, I just need to polish my skills before I can do more wedding cakes. I can do an okay job, but pretty basic and I have very little know how with fondant (hate the taste, so don't make it yet)

the cost of the wedding cake was so high because I didn't have 1/2 of the supplies. I needed cake pans, decorating equipment, more food dyes (she wanted red roses and green leaves) and the duck shaped pan, etc. Of course, those costs are a one time cost, too.... But, the white chocolate, the fresh raspeberries, the raspberry liquor - those added up too (but oooo did it taste good!)

Maybe I'll be brave and do more extensive cakes once I have more experience under my belt. I'm a perfectionist and don't like to send out things I'm not totally proud of, you know? if I have a slight "oops" on a birthday cake, I think most people will not balk, but if there is any flaw on a wedding cake they might feel I ruined their day! Eeks! Talk about pressure!

I'll have to put some of my cakes up to show what I've done.

Melissa

OK, I think I got this right. Here's a picture of the wedding cake I did:


[/img]

Start practicing with the fondant on some dummy cakes. That's what I'm going to do. We all know that practice makes perfect and we can't do really great wedding cakes unless we do lots of other cakes, and do them well. It does take some time - be patient, and in the mean time, practice, practice!

saiyansilk

I'm in Amarillo. Hey! We're practicly neighbors!!

Amarillo says we must be zoned for a food establishment so the health dept can enter & inspect. They can't come into our home (didn't ask why) so we can't have a licensed home bakery, even if it's in a seperate building in our backyard.

I'm currenetly looking into using a church kitchen or something along those lines. In the meantime, it's just friends & family for me....