My daughter wants me to have her bday party as a cake decorating party. I was thinking what a great idea to start a business. I live in FL and getting licensed is impossible without a seperate kitchen (from what I see). I suppose that making small cakes and having them iced and then letting the kids decorate would be illegal also. What about if we did it in their homes?

Does anyone know. I have looked online at FL rules and they are so confusing.

Thanks
Mindy

I think the only way around it, if it's illegal in your state, is to buy the cake/buttercream/edibles from a licensed bakery or supply shop.

I don't think it matters whether you did it in their home or your's, the point is the baking/selling is illegal, not where they consume the cake.

I know it's frustrating. The right opportunity will come your way at the right time!

A woman does this in Austin, Texas and I am sure other places too. Her website is http://www.batterupkids.com/. Maybe you can get ideas there and rent a kitchen.

I have thought of doing this also. Does anyone from the UK know of the rules about this?

I just read about a business called Cupcake Kids that does something similar. It looks like they hold the classes/parties at different restaurants or venues in the area. I'm thinking it's a similar arrangement to what some CC bakers do when they rent a kitchen from a licensed business. This might be an option for you. Here's a link if you want to check out the site.

http://www.cupcakekids.com/policies.html

I do them but I do rent a commercial kitchen for my business.
I do the parties at a cooking specialty store here.
I make each child a 6" cake on a board. I let them frost them, then show how to make a border and turn them loose. I make 5 different colors of frosting...make 3 bags of each color (I do no more than 15 kids). I used to try to teach them roses...HA! So now I just make a rosse for each of them, if they want one.
I decorate a 1/4 sheet cake for the party while they are decorating theirs...nothing fancy, just roses and HB! The party lasts about 1 1/2 hours and I charge $20 per child.
HTH--Pam

Mac, do you think it is worth doing? How long have you been doing this for? In the UK, they charge about £15 per child. I am trying to work out how much profit it would make me and how popular the parties will be. There are no parties like these in my area. How do I start? I am not licensed so I'll probably buy the cakes ready made. many parents hire halls for their childrens birthday parties which may be suitable, or even at home. what age range of children do you do parties for and are they mostly girls? How did you advertise?

I have a website that I have included a small paragraph on the parties...I need to update it and make it bigger, tho'

The store actually handles all the details--people call to set them up because I have to work around their schedule, too. THey have cooking demos and classes...they call me to see if I have the date open (if it works with their classes). I don't make scratch cakes...just box ones, Pillsbury mixes are .88 cents at WM and I buy the ready-to-use buttercream at Sam's (don't make my frosting for the party either). I do use my frosting for the cake that I decorate for the party.

The little cakes and frosting figures roughly $2.50 for each child...if I do them at the cooking store, I make roughly 11.50 per child and the store gets the other $8.50. So this is about $136.00 for the 1 1/2 hr. class. I do also hold Gingerbread decorating classes at the kitchen I rent around Christmas...I charge $30 for those...$10.00 deposit up front for the house. I can get the houses at cost.

I assemble the house and make the frosting from the kits...on the day of the class, I collect $20 from each one...I do make a few extra houses in case of "pop-ins".

I offer cake parties too. You can see my party information on 2 different sites

http://www.clpac.com/cakedecoparty.html or http://www.cakes-divine.com/Classes.html

The first gives a more detailed time line. I do use a commercial kitchen and use my dance studio as a location or if the client wants, a location of their choice.

Just curious, for those of you who do this, where are the parents during the party? Are they present at the party? If so, do they assist the children with the decorating?

The host mom/dad is always present, sometime a few other parents hang around, no they do not help, they are usually chatting with one another, at least that has been my experience. If it is a large party I bring an assistant with me to keep the kids on task.

Depends--sometimes they hang around and chat with other parents, shop in the store, help with the decorating (esp if someone has a mom that "dabbles"), or just leave and do their own thing.