do any of you homebakers licensed or not, put an order limit on yourself? and if so what is it?

For me right now it would be the following (granted it varies depending on how big the order is but...)

Deliveries for Fri, Sat, Sun = 3-4 with no more than two per day
Deliveries for Monday-Thursday = 1-2 (if they are similiar then two, otherwise one.

If a wedding lands in there I don't think I would take any other orders, but it hasn't happened yet.

Once I start school again in the fall then there will only be Deliveries Fri/sat/sun and no more than 3 if they are small-otherwise only 1 or 2. I can not handle that much when I am going to school and working full time.

So people better get their orders in early or they are not going to get anything from me!

YES!!! Four is my limit. I can pull off 5 but any more than that makes for 15 hours of standing and I'm NOT gonna put myself through that again.

reenie, is that 4 a day or 4 a week?

4 a day. A week my record is 8 but I can still do more. (I like to decorate )

Ooh, well this week I had 6 due Thurs-Sat, the week before I had 7 and that has really been pushing it - and the only reason I managed to do them is because I did all the prep work (fondant accents, chocolate transfers, roses etc), the Sat & Sun the week before! I have a wedding to do next Saturday (3 tier fondant hexagon 6,9,& 12in), and I wasn't going to take on any more work for this coming week. However, one cake that was due yesterday was swapped to Thursday morning, so I have that to do now as well as the wedding cake, BUT I have baked and frozen the cakes for that today, and made the fondant accents last night. So, come Wednesday morning, I just have to carve, ice it and put the decorations on (about 2 hours of work at the most - I hope!). I have to work tomorrow & Tuesday, so that only really gives me Wed-Fri to get the wedding cake done for Saturday delivery (and it involves lots of tiny royal icing piped details)! Let's put it this way - I'm looking forward to next Sunday! My main 'problems' are that I scratch bake, only have a 4qt mixer and my stupid oven can only bake one cake layer or 12 cupcakes at a time - so I 'waste' so much time just getting the cake made, never mind the actual decorating!!!

I did 17 cakes and 16 dozen cookies for graduation last Friday. My hands were HURTING big time!! Normally I don't do that much. I usually do about 2-3 a day during the week and then on Friday I usually do about 8.

Whoa! I guess I either need to get faster or get more business! I feel like I cant do more than 1 or 2 a week LOL! I think the most I have done in a week is maybe 4.

I tried to upload a picture of the cakes, but the gallery is down for maintenance at the moment. Check back and I will have it there!!

They were realitively easy to do, since they were all the same style. I just smooth coated all of them, then did the borders, the went through and wrote Congratulations on every one of them. I had their names spelled out in cookies earlier in the week, so I just slapped those on and wrote Class of 2007, made a little graduation cap, slapped a plastic graduation figurine on it...and cha-ching! there you go!!

Well I did 3 in a 4 day holiday weekend recently, (Easter) and decided no way would I do that again. It was supposed to be a break with the kids as I work full time as well. Considering my cakes can take me 10 hours+ each, suffice to say I didn't have a lot of time left over. I would probably prefer one order a weekend, but would take on two if I felt that I couldn't let someone down. Otherwise I feel like I'm working 24/7!

i work full time, and just really do this on the side. I would like to take on no more then 200 servings of cake a week. That would be no more then two average size weddings here. Or 4 average size sheet cakes.

a few weeks ago I did 2 1/2sheets and 3 birthday cake. that was a 40+ hour week for me and I won't do that again. I think I'm too slow so I'd like to limit it to no more than 3 in a weekend.

The most I did was 13 weddings on a weekend - never again. That was back when I was only a couple of years into the business and didn't know how to say NO to an order. A nice weekend now is 6-8 weddings, great income & not being rushed. I do party cakes in between if I'm not too busy with weddings or if it's the slow season.

Bev

OMG Bev, 6-8 in a weekend and at one time 13 weddings? OMG again, you are my hero I appreciate everyone's input! I am just trying to see what is actually doable in a home based kitchen biz!

SugarBakerz,

I started out taking the wilton course years ago just for a couple of nights out and to be able to do my daughter's birthday cakes. She just turned 26 a couple of weeks ago, so I've been doing this a while. I decided 17 years ago to try to make a business out of my hobby and it has gone well. If it wasn't for the right equipment acquired over the years and a VERY understanding husband, it wouldn't have gone this far. I have turned our entire downstairs where most people have a family room into my bakery, which is licensed as a home business. I have acquired a hobart mixer, a 2 door cooler from a convenience store that was closing and my best purchase, a DeLuxe oven. (When I did the 13 weddings in one weekend, I only had 2 regular home ovens, needless to say, not much sleep that week!). The Best thing I have learned is to be able to control your weekends and take the time to enjoy your family. Your kids grow up SO fast, I have learned to turn down orders if it interferes with something important my son is doing.

Holy Guacamole!!! I can not imagine doing 13 wedding cakes in one weekend!! I am going to do TWO and I am already stressing about that!! You are a MACHINE, Woman!!!

I have 10 cakes for this weekend. I had 8 last weekend. Not wedding cakes though, but some of them were sculpted. I don't think I can do much more than that. I also have 2 catered parties to do this weekend. Since this is my only income, I have to get it when I can.

I'm slow too. the most i had was three cakes and 6 dz cookies in one week. I was exhausted from that. I've only been doing this for alittle under a year, and I'm still learning. Thanks to CC though I'm getting great tips and feedback from everyone. i hope to get faster and more orders as I go along.

I need to put a limit on it, but I seem to have a hard time doing that sometimes. This weekend I have 10 regular cakes (I think), a 2-tier and a 3-tier graduation cake. UGH, I'm dreading it already. My worst week this year was 33 cakes the week of Valentines day. I have to work my full time job on top of all this too.