Hi everyone. I'm hoping you all can help me.

I've been baking since I was about 4. God Bless those Sesame Street books with Cookie Monster's Sugar Cookie receipes. Anyway, for the last several years I've been making decorated sugar cookies. Whenever I bring them somewhere, I'm asked if I've considered opening a bakery or at least baking out of my home. Just recently I've started making cakes (I did my third one this week) and I've loved it! Way more fun than cookies. Anyway, I brought a cake in to work yesterday (its in my photos) and had three people ask me to do cakes for them in the next month or so. Actually, two of those three people have had cakes from the high end bakery in town and said they much preferred mine. Not too shabby.


Though I love all areas of baking, I went to school for a very long time to work in the medical field. If I did transition to baking (either out of my home or consider a bakery), I'd have to know there is potiental to at least make a decent salary. While everyone and every situation is different, how much could I expect to make as either an established home cake baker or bakery owner?

Thanks everyone.

Where you live will play a big factor in to this. Some states do not allow home bakeries, so if you are in one then legally that option is already out. In other states there are alot of things you have to do and have to pass inspections. So you want to talk to your health department to see what is allowed in your state/county.

Before you quit your job and jump on it I would take a little time and learn some more and make sure you really enjoy doing this. I have seen many a cake decorators over the years that have done wonderful cakes that get burnt out on doing them once they open a business. Not only do you have to make so many cakes/servings a week to sell cakes, but you have to get people to pay what your cakes are worth.

There is alot of great information on this board about this as a business. Both the good and the bad. I'd spend some time reading threads and gathering as much information as you can.

Yep, I've been hearing the same thing....but when push comes to shove, the same folks are RARELY willing to pay me what I consider fair for me to custom bake for them. Go figure!

I would first make sure you can legally bake out of your home. You can check that at your State Agriculture website. You can also check the sticky at the top of this forum:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-32550.html

If you can't bake out of your home legally, that will have an impact on how much money you can make. If you have to rent a kitchen, then that's money you have to pay and make enough doing cakes to pay for that and any other expenses you will have.

There are a lot of posts on this subject here on the boards.

Edited to say:

I think a lot of bakers do this because it's something that is a passion. You have to make sure that what you charge is worth your time and money. The bakeries where I am charge $1.25 - $6.00+/serving. And those are just the ones I know about. That's quite a difference. There are a lot of people who make a pretty good living doing cakes.


Good luck!