I love to decorate cakes. I would like to decorate cakes for friends and family. Now I'm getting calls to do cakes for friends of friends. They want to know how much I would charge for this or that cake. I would love to do it for them but is it legal in California to get reimbursed for the cost of the cake? I don't really need to make money on them but can't afford to do them for free. What should I do?

Anybody?

I don't know about the laws in California, however, if you are worried about the legal implications, and don't need the $, I would just do it for the price of the ingredients. Just my opinion.

i think if you're doing it sporadically you're probably ok...if you're doing it quite regularly, then keep receipts for each order and keep a copy of of a bill of items that the "customer" is paying for so that you have records that each person is only paying for ingredients...i would think that if you show that you're not for profit, you're ok....

I would still check with the health dept (or the dept that regulates restaurants & home bakery businesses) because CA is usually the most rigid in terms of consumer rights, etc...and try to get it in writing (i.e. have them show it to you in their statutory laws so that you can print it out and keep a record of it and who you spoke to and what date, etc etc).

Hi there MommaLlama, I'm in Ca. too and from what I understand Home stuff is not ok to sell
If you pm It'sacake she can give you all the scoop on it.

I live in California, in Santa Barbara County. My husband and I actually went to the health department to get info on this. They were very reluctant to give us the info, but basically told us that there were no regulations in our county as long as all the sales were considered private sales. Meaning a customer cannot walk in and place an order, they have to call us and order, and we deliver our goods. Since there is no store front there are no restrictions. I don't know if I actually believe this, but that is what was told to us by the health department.
Also, you need to check with your specific city and/or county health department.
We are zoned county and not city so our regulation may be different than most in our area.

I live in Sacramento COunty and last week I just spoke to the people that issue business licenses.. To sell food, it has to be prepared in a Commercial kitchen..it cannot be done at home...unless you don't tell them !!! They really won't know unless someone complains..if you really want to make money, just do it for people that's close to you and you're sure would never complain about you in anyway. And when they pay you, just keep all the money since you are not license to do it anyway.
Just be very careful ..

Thats what they told us when we applied for a buisness licence. We even went out and rented commercial kitchen space, but when we finally sat down with someone at the health department they told us we didn't need anything.
However, you need to check with your local health department.
The buisness licence in completely seperate from a health permit, you may need one and not the other.