I live in a small town and do cake/cookie decorating. I am not licensed (since this state does not license home bakers) so I only do it for my family and friends. I am also teaching a decorating class at the community college so I'm pretty well known. I take a lot of items and donate them for school parties, etc.

Anyway, a new small cafe that just opened in town approached me about supplying them with cupcakes! I'm very excited about this but also nervous! I have some ideas about how to approach this...I definitely want to keep my name on them and I think they would be fine since I am known in the community. However since I'm not licensed and would be baking there...do I exchange kitchen time for my cupcakes??? Or do I just sell them the cupcakes? I'm not sure how to handle this and want to make sure I don't get burned. All they said is that they would be interested in having my stuff at the cafe. They are also new to this so I think they are open to ideas.

Has anyone done this? Any suggestions?

You can not sell to the cafe unless you are licensed and insured. Well...what I mean to say is you should not. And furthermore they should nto buy them from you. It is one thing to sell to family and friends...and it is an entirely different thing to sell to a cafe.

Your first step shoulf be to see how to get licensed in your state. If you have to have a licensed kitchen, see if the cafe would allow you to trade cupcakes for time in their kitchen. That would really save you a lot of money.

I sell to a grocery and a cafe, I was required to have a $2 mil liability policy (about $500 a year).

Don;t forget about labeling too, that is required for individual sale items.

Good luck...Julia

If you are baking in their kitchen, you probably won't be able to sell them to the cafe at a price that would cover your costs and profit.

It might be more advantageous to work for wages? It all depends on the owners. If you work for wages, you won't need licensing and inspections.

the cost of your cupcakes (cost to them) and their rental of the kitchen time to you (cost to you) ae two separate issues and should be handled separately. you STILL need to become a licensed business, the only difference is now you have an inspected kitchen to work from.

the cost of your cupcakes (cost to them) and their rental of the kitchen time to you (cost to you) ae two separate issues and should be handled separately. you STILL need to become a licensed business, the only difference is now you have an inspected kitchen to work from.