Hi, I am thinking about starting to sell specialty cakes from my home as a side business and I wanted to know a few things. I would be doing this as a side job, and I would love any tips anyone can offer. Also, I thought that to save time I would bake alot of cakes and put them in the freezer, and when people would order, I would defrost, then decorate. My husband thinks this is very unethical since people would be expecting a fresh cake. I was wondering what you guys thought of this, and what other people do. This is not a professional bakery, just something small, and I think people are paying more for the decorated cake, then the cake itself. Opinions please?

hi there! well, I am pretty new at this as well so I'm not 100% sure what is the RIGHT way to do it... but I'll tell you what I do... I don't bake a bunch of cakes ahead of time and keep them frozen until someone asks for the following reasons:

a. I like to make my cakes as fresh as possible... I have (and do) freeze if it is for a day or two.

b. I think that might lead to waste if a certain flavor/cake size is not wanted.. you cant keep them frozen for too long... right? if you bake them fresh you are using your supplies as they are ordered and that ensures less money down the drain...
c. i don't have enough room in my freezer to store a bunch of cakes

one thing tho: I have an few orders for sunday so I baked the cakes last night and froze them since I heard the keeping them in the fridge dries them out. tonight i will defrost, fill, and crumbcoat. and tomorrow cover with fondant so that it is done by sunday at noon(scheduled pick up time). that gives me all of sunday morning to make any final changes/corrections and plan for my birthday cake due monday night...

when i have leftover batter from other orders, i just bake mini cupcakes and wrap them in seran wrap. those I do freeze for future use. i use these as samples so when someone asks I can just pop them out of the freezer and all I have to do is make the frosting... i try not to let them sit in the freezer too long tho. if they are in there for a few weeks I just bring them into work for my coworkers to enjoy. that way they wont go to waste AND i am getting "advertisement" of my product!

HTH

now I am wondering what does everyone else do?

FREEZING IS A BAKERS BEST FRIEND! If you do it correctly! But you have to decide what kind of bakery you want to be. I only bake when I have an order for a cake with the exception of my "same day" line (currently pulled until new kitchen/storefront is finished). I use to have people walk in to the restaurant/bakery and want to buy a cake on the spot, well other than dessert cakes everything else (custom cakes) was by appointment only. As the traffic for the "same day" cake became pretty much daily I added the same day line. I kept chocolate and vanilla cakes in 8" rounds and quarter sheet sizes. They were limited to a few designs and paid a higher price due to the last minute order. It does well if you have a store front, but I don't recommend it for a homebased biz, you will end up throwing out alot of cake, thus hurting your bottom line. And also make sure the State you live in even allows home based bakeries. Most don't and you could end up in trouble from your local health department.

The very first time I made a cake, it was for my son's first birthday. We were going to the lake (an 8hr drive) and the cake wouldn't be used for another two days after we got there. So, I froze it (wrap cake in saran wrap x3, then aluminum foil). I had two large rounds and one small round. We got there. The day before the b-day party, I took the cakes out and let them come to room temperture on their own for a whole day. And to tell you the truth, they were WAY better then they were fresh! I think it actually got more moist! It was a BIG hit and everybody loved them.

So, don't worry about it. If you do it right, they'll be a hit.

Just make sure to check with your local zoning to make sure you can have this biz in your home, be sure to get inspected and licensed, file your biz papers with the state and get liability insurance.

i've owned a storefront bakery for going on 8 years...the freezer is your friend, if i didn't do it exactly as you described i couldn't be in business...you can't do that many cake the day of the orders.

tomorrow i have almost 20 orders and a wedding cake, and i'm a 1 man show....you'd not have enough hours in the day to do it.

the oppisite of fresh is stale, not frozen....and fyi...frozen cakes for some strange reason are much moister...i freeze everything i sell.

what leahs and littlecakes said.

And what in the world makes your husband think it's "unethical" to freeze a cake? Surely he's not one of these silly-nilly's who think all the food he buys in a commercial bakery or restaurant is made fresh right then and there does he?

nothing unethical about it at all. Properly wrapped, frozen and thawed, a frozen cake is just as good (sometimes better) than a freshly made cake.

And having a store of frozen cakes allows you to better manage your time...when you don't have a rush of orders, you can bake and freeze in preparation. If you keep standard sizes on hand, when you DO have to make something in a more unusual size, you won't be as stressed trying to get EVERYTHING done.

It's also good insurance, IMO. How many of us have had to bake an "emergency" cake because the dog ate the just-crumb-coated cake off the kitchen table?

Heck, I don't sell cakes, but right now I have 2 8x2 vanilla rounds and one 10x2 chocolate round in the freezer, along with leftover frozen buttercream. If I have to do a quickie birthday cake next week for a coworker, I'm good to go!

I have worked in grocery store bakeries and in small family owned businesses. All freeze cakes and get them in frozen. The cakes from grocery stores... they come from out of state, at least the store I currently work at. The family business, we scratch baked all cakes and made fillings, filled the cakes then froze them. I see nothing wrong with it. As long as it's a quality product and something you're proud to put your name on!

I've never frozen a cake because I don't have a business but this weekend I made my very first wedding cake for a friend, it was a 4 tier an for me it was a lot! I baked them on Thursday and wrapped them in plastic wrap while still warm but I didn't freeze them, I just let them hydrate overnight, when I was ready to torte and fill I just unwrapped them and they were the moister cakes I've ever made!!!

freezing them also makes them WAY easier to ice...i ice them half thawed....if you ice them frozen solid, as the cake thaws...the icing will crack as the cake expands.

depending on the size of cake....45 minutes to an hour.

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind