I have been tossing about the idea of quiting my draining IT career and actually doing something I enjoy. has anybody here opened at cake shop in the state of Maryland that is willing to give some pointers on how to get a shop started up? who to talk to for rules and regs?
I think in the articles section there is an article about what each state requires. But I do know that in Md. rules vary by county as well.
WOW-you read my mind!! I'm from the next county over--QA--and was wondering the same thing!!
Unfortuntely, MD doesn't license home bakers. You can, however, set up a kitchen in a separate building on your property. I know someone who has a commercial kitchen in a remodeled barn. You can also try renting space from a licensed kitchen. There is a commercial kitchen in my area that charges $10 to $15 an hour and a person can then get their individual license through that kitchen. Even that is very involved. I did all the leg work recently. The good news is that it's not impossible, just not easy. If you don't have a client base and no storefront, it can be rather expensive to pay $10 to $!5 an hour to bake one or two cakes at the beginning.
Somehting else to consider...all the decorating must also be done on the premises, according to the health department, which translates into big bucks to you if you're paying by the hour. As a realtively new decorator, I can tell you it takes hours to do high end decorating on a large wedding cake, for example.
I don't mean to discourage you, I'm just sharing what I've learned since I am in the same boat as you. Try contacting a caterer. They often rent out kitchens since they tend to slow down after 3pm.
Good luck!
I just talked to the Health Department for Washington Co, and they didn't mention an entirely separate kitchen. She did say I would have to be in a licensed commercial kitchen, though. She said it would be a whole lot easier from the Health Dept standpoint for me to find an already established kitchen, but that I could do it from here. I would love to eventually have my own full commercial kitchen in my home, but I can't afford to buy the equipment right now.
There's a deli downtown that's only open for breakfast & lunch, and I'm trying to figure out how to ask them about renting their space after hours.
Call your local health department, they'll be able to "help" you out.
Good luck!
I've done some investigating in the past about this by calling the state heath department and my local health department. I was told by the STATE HD that I could NOT do anything!!! of the sort. So I gave up until my best friend told me to look into the county rules so I called my LOCAL HD and I was told that things differ by county and that in Talbot County we can bake from our homes and sell from our homes as long as there is absolutely no advertising. Everything has to be done by word of mouth. So no flyers, no cards, no ads in the paper or phone book etc. just hey ya need a cake give my friend a call! type stuff lol.
She did tell me that I can get a license to do this but, as stated above, for an easier route to find an already licensed place, like for example the fire house kitchen, a church kitchen, etc. but they would have to come in a do an inspection and so on and it would be up to the "kitchen owner" as to whom would be responsable for failed items in the inspection. Now I haven't contacted anyone else because she answered my questions and gave me the OK to do what I wanted, to work from my home sell my cakes that were made and decorated in my kitchen at my home where I can over see what my 7 year old is doing and watch her grow and take a minute here and there to play with her and help her when needed.... instead of being out of the house for god knows how many hours a day decorating cakes....
I strongly advise anyone who lives in MD to call your local health department, in other words call YOUR county HD, not the state, and find out what YOUR county laws/rules/regs are. It's not nice to find out that you can do something in your county after someone has told you from the state you can't.... I was very pleased when I made that second call lol.
Good luck to you all!!! 
I live in Frederick County and the regulations here are very strict. They do not license home bakers under any circumstances, even if I were to have a separate commercial kitchen so long as it's situated in my home. This morning I contacted several business incubators in the state of Maryland only to learn that they do not have any commercial kitchens available, but that they have received many calls from people just like me who are looking for a commercial kitchen to rent space from. The director of one of these facilities told me that the process of licensing a commercial kitchen is so rigerous (at least in our area) that they have decided against it time and time again when it comes up for consideration.
It's very frustrating for those of us who want to do the right thing.
Regarding the separate kitchen I mentioned, it's a separate structure on a residential property - a stand alone building that used to be a barn and was remodeled into a commercial kitchen. In that case, the kitchen is completely separate from the home and not under the same roof. That's the other alternative, but not one that is viable for me.
There's a deli downtown that's only open for breakfast & lunch, and I'm trying to figure out how to ask them about renting their space after hours.
kbochick - if you're talking about Gourmet Goat, they won't. At least - they wouldn't do it for me a year ago. 
I am working out of a friend's restaurant for now, but was flying under the radar for years before that. Working on opening my own place, hopefully within the next year. There is so much to know!
There's a deli downtown that's only open for breakfast & lunch, and I'm trying to figure out how to ask them about renting their space after hours.
kbochick - if you're talking about Gourmet Goat, they won't. At least - they wouldn't do it for me a year ago.
I am working out of a friend's restaurant for now, but was flying under the radar for years before that. Working on opening my own place, hopefully within the next year. There is so much to know!
I was actually thinking about The Plum. My DD was on the same soccer team as the owner's granddaughter, so we've been in there a few times, and they seem like really nice people. I'm just concerned with the price of renting. I'm pretty new, so I still take a long time to decorate, and if I had to pay by the hour, I'd end up losing money.
Good luck with opening your own shop, that is so cool! I wish I had the money to do that.
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