Just posted about an hour ago, but I have another question. What's the deal with using a certified kitchen? Certified kitchens by me are going for $45 an hour. Sometimes it can take me 10 hours to make a cake from start to finish. How am I going to make a profit?

I want to know what you guys do, if you use a certified kitchen space that you rent on an hourly/weekly/monthly basis, etc., do you just bake your cakes and make your buttercream and take everything home to assemble on an as needed basis throughout the month? Or do you actually rent a certified kitchen for the entire production of the cake, from baking to filling, frosting, stacking and final decoration?

I want to know what is the norm!

In most areas you have to do everything in the commercial kitchen, but contact your local health department for relevant info.

$45/hour seems very high...are all the commercial kitchens in your area full? If not, you may be able to negotiate a more reasonable rate if you make a longer term commitment. If they are all full, and people are actually paying the $45/hour rate, you may want to consider getting into the commercial kitchen business yourself.

Yeah this kitchen is located in Philadelphia so that's why the rates are high. I am in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia but can't find anything for rent here.

I got tired of dragging my stuff around! I set up a meeting with the health dept. and they were just great at getting me on the road to being legal. In my area you can have the separate 'legal' kitchen in your home. I am also going to expand my product line with other baked goods and it will all be legal.

Have you also looked at kitchen incubators? They tend to be publicly funded and offer more reasonable rates.

For example:
http://philafood.net/wp/programming/philly-food-ventures/