Well, it looks like I won't be going, after I've paid $150 deposit and made 1 of 6 dummies for the big festival here in January...

I have a restaurant kitchen owner who lets me use his kitchen, (I've used it all of one time), which I thought was going to be enough. Silly me. What I also need is a food handler's permit from the H.Dept. When I told them I bake in a commercial kitchen, they were like, "No problem; just have him sign a note that says you use his kitchen." So I asked him to do that, and he freaked. He basically said if I'm "going to have the H.D. involved" then he "can't help me." He said they'll come and start asking him where's my storage (true) and where's my stuff (true), and then his insurance will want to hear about it, and it's all just too much, and he was just trying to be nice, etc., etc., so I think my freebie kitchen just went away. It's great that he was offering his kitchen, but it won't matter if I can bake there, if I can't get the permit I need from the HD. If I don't have THAT, I can't show up at the bridal festival. I can't think hard enough to figure out what else to do, and I have about 15 days to figure it out, so for now I'm going to see if I can get out of my booth commitment. I thought this was all taken care of, until the HD said I need a permit to even basically TOUCH food, let alone bake it! great.

Ah well.

On the bright side ( ) this means we'll just have to plan to build me a kitchen here, which was our long-term plan anyway. It just won't be happening in the next 30 DAYS. And I suppose now I can just enjoy the holidays, without stressing about renting booth stuff, buying chef's jackets, paying another $1100 for the booth next week, making 6 dummies and 10+ sample sheet cakes, printing a zillion cards and brochures, and figuring out who can help me serve and babysit...now I can just bake and enjoy my family this Christmas....

But... I was really excited about kicking off my business in January, and counting on some income this spring when our business (with DH) is slow...especially since I just ordered a new BMW to reward myself (and pay for it with cake $) duh

wah wah wah!

Thanks for listening

This really sucks...why on earth did the restaurant owner think you needed to use a commercial kitchen? For fun? Duh! You wanted to be legal!

So sorry if you're out the $150 and the big kickoff. Good luck with your own kitchen, now THAT sounds wonderful!

You can always sell the BMW to finance your cake business..

PRIORITIZE!! lol

what if you offered to PAY RENT? and provide your own insurance? then he really couldn't deny you...

God has obviously given you a sign.... be your own master with your own kitchen!

i don't know what it's like in your state, but i had to get a food handlers lic. just to work in someone elses bakery.

it was really easy...you go to where they give the classes...watch a film, take a test, give em 30 bucks...take yer pic put it on the card and there you go...food handler.

they didn't care where you would use it....it was just to show you knew the safety rules....it had nothing to do with owning your own shop.

I agree with risquebusiness, trade the bmw in for a small kithen of your own....later when business is built up, you can buy the bmw.
now, I would salvage the dummy cakes you've already made and look around your area and maybe find some other small events you could set up at, that would give you a small kick start, but it would be something.

good luck!

Well, the car stays, either way, lol. It's here from Germany Tuesday...and I've waited 6 years to trade back to BMW (had one for 4 years before but had to trade it when we moved), so this is my Christmas present,

I'll do the same thing littlecake mentioned and get the food handler's license for my state, same procedure here anyway.

The restaurant owner just doesn't want the hassle of dealing with his insurance and/or the H.D.; I don't blame him...*shrug*

What has happened since my last post is that another large event facility--with a huge commercial kitchen that they rent (6 Viking convection ovens!) has said I can rent there if I get a bakery permit from that state (it's 15 minutes away but in the next state) and provide my own insurance, which I have. So I'll do that, and pay through the nose to rent their kitchen when I need it, until we can build and I can put this headache behind me. AND, the lady who helped me with all the legwork there is (tahdah) the wedding coordinator for the facility, so who knows where that could lead...hopefully it will work out! I'm waiting on a call back from the Regional HD in that state now to see how we can do it, but she at the venue said they'd provide any floor plans etc if I need them.

Thanks you guys...when the Lord closes a door, he always opens a window...

Nothing like waiting til the 11th hour though!

Glad to hear it's working out much better for you now! Keep it up!

oh yeah..or he pushes you through the wall!

I'm so glad that this all worked out for you..good luck!

He really does...i bet this deal will work out better for you....theres a reason for everything.

so jealous of the new car....

awsome! glad it worked out for you!!!

keep up posted on all your new business from doing the bridal show.


melody

Things sure do change in a day.

DH came home after I talked to my insurance agent and the above info and said that (duh!) we forgot that we have a good friend and customer (who also cuts dh's hair regularly), who runs a large bed and breakfast and hosts weddings etc there, who has ...tahdah, a commercial kitchen, and she's been bugging him for brochures from me because her phone is ringing off the hook for weddings, etc. So there's another kitchen.

several windows...it looks like...

So I'll go take her a nifty sample of my lemon coconut cake with lemon curd and dacquoise filling (in my nifty new car heehee) and see what we can cook up.



keep ya posted, of course...I'm stuck home until like Tuesday now, when the car gets here, because we didn't put the snow tires on my old car, and it's snowing like crazy! Good time to work on those new dummies...!

dacquoise filling ?? you fill you cake with MORE cake???

homecook,

That is great news, good luck coming up with an arrangment with your friend.

RisqueBusiness,

I believe that dacquoise can also refer to the meringue that is traditionally in the dacquoise cake...I might be wrong, but I assume this is what she uses as filling.

Dacquoise in this case meaning the meringue (usually with nuts, but I leave them out and add coconut ) disks that I bake and put on top of a layer of lemon curd between layers of lemon coconut cake. It is, in a word, AWsome. Tastes light lemon meringue pie in a cake! tahdiefor

Wow, you sure got lucky. Maybe this was so meant to be for you. Your cake sounds wonderful.

Little Cakes - THIRTY BUCKS!? Dang girl, you're lucky. Around here the class is almost 200$!! I wish it was $30, I'd already have my food handler license.

lol so you're still using it as "cake"...the Nut daquios was my VERY favorite of all!