Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum but have learned a lot already! This is my first post and hoping that others can help. I will be beginning to bake cookies out of a rent-by-the-hour licensed facility, and am wondering--if I make cookies as a personal gift for friends/family (after all--even though I want to sell cookies as a business, what good is having these skills if you can't "gift" some freebies?), do they have to be made in the commercial kitchen space? Or can you make them at home, but not "label" them as made by your business (but maybe have business cards available if people ask?)? I'd like to continue making cookies as gifts for close friends/family, but don't know if I can eat the cost of renting the kitchen space to do so ($20-25/hr!)! Any advice would be great! Sorry if this topic has been explored...I wasn't even sure how to search for this type of question!

I dont have a business yet, but I am working on it and I have done some research. In my state now I cannot sell food items from a home kitchen, but next year we will most likely to moving to TN and it just so happens I can there.

If you are giving the goods to friends and family, it is perfectly ok to make them in your home kitchen. Just like for someone who didnt have a business at all, they will make them from home. They are gifts. The only exception to that is in some states if the food is a donation (for a homeless shelter or orphanage, etc) THEN the rules for selling goods would still apply. But like I said, you will be fine making them for family and friends from home.

I think having business cards available is fine. Bc if they were to order a cake and buy it from you, it would be made in the space you are talking about. Where they get the business card wouldnt matter.

I PMed you K8.

I agree! Would you question your mom for bringing an apple pie to Christmas dinner? No? Neither would I, so baking for family is just fine.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your input! Varika, that is a really helpful distinction--I have these little labels that go on my bags (sort of like a mini business card) and I didn't know if it was OK to label these "gift" cookies as "produced" by the bakery if I had really just made them in my kitchen. I'll stay away from that but still provide business cards. Of course my husband says that at those types of events, those are all my "clients" anyway so it's not like I'm getting new biz and then I'm just wasting time putting the extra labels on so there's his logic anyway and we ended up in the same place! Thanks everyone!