I bake cakes for friends and family, and I love, love, love the cake decorating part of any project. When people see my cakes they often ask me why I haven't gone into business for myself.

Here's the thing: going into business is not as simple as posting a "Cakes for Sale" sign in my living room window. People don't understand the true costs associated with operating a legal business (commercial insurance, rent, utilities, licensing costs, etc.). AND baking/decorating is a hobby for me...an outlet. I believe that if I baked for a living, I'd grow to hate it That's mostly because I only truly enjoy the cake decorating. I could seriously do without the baking . So then I got to thinking: "Is there a way to get someone else to do the baking for me??"

If you could outsource a large part of your baking (to a legal commercial kitchen, of course), would you?

I know bakers outsource other parts of the cake (decorations), so why not the actual cake itself? When I do cakes for friends, they want cakes that taste great, no doubt, but what they're mostly looking for is that "WOW" factor.

Just curious as to how others feel about this.

Personally i probably wouldn't. If I did i would want my recipes used, not someone elses. So then i'd be getting into confindentiality agreements about my recipes, not being used for others, not sharing etc....

I would rather hire someone to work for me to do the baking instead of outsourcing it.

But there is a market for it.... lots of grocery stores and supercenter bakeries bring in cakes made elsewhere in mass production.

I've thought about simply hiring someone to bake for me if I opened shop, but I'd still incur the costs of paying that employee and paying to produce the cake. I've also thought about how I'd get someone else to produce my recipes while still trying to keep them confident (shhh!). A commercial bakery benefits from economies of scale, and if outsourcing my baking were possible/beneficial, then I'd be able to cut some of my own costs (utilities, labor, capital).

No I wouldn't do it.
Either I do the whole thing - bake and decorate or not at all.

You can buy in cakes - I know one well renowned site in the uk, the USA must have them aswell.
Who knows, ur local bakery might sell u undecorated cake (not likely tho, at least in the uk!) or maybe u can buy through walmart (taste sacrafice tho).
xx

If I could walk into IndyDebi's cake shop and say "Er, Debi, lemme get 2-9" un-iced cake rounds" I probably would Then I'd go home and decorate the heck out of them!

Baking is not difficult, and I do get great reviews on my recipes. But when I have to do a cake, I wish I could just start at the crumb coat phase. I'm pretty sure I feel this way because I only do one cake at a time. If I had several orders, I'd be decorating one cake while one was in the oven and the other was cooling. Then, I wouldn't feel the downtime.

Personally, I would not outsource the baking to anyone else. I would want complete control and responsibility for the complete project. I guess I am just weird like that

Why not go get a job as cake decorator - then you'd be paid and probably make much more.

There are bakeries that do just that, and there's really nothing wrong with it. Once you are in business there are some suppliers out there that sell uniced cakes in all sizes. If there weren't many places that do it, then there wouldn't be huge suppliers that offer the product.

Nothin' wrong with it, you just have to make sure the cakes you get in taste good.

I love the baking part as much as the decorating. Not to fond of the cleaning though!

I wouldn't, but the fact that I do the baking is part of my marketing.

I don't care for the baking part either. I was going to hire a baker, but with experience I have gotten so fast at baking, I doubt an employee would be cost effective. Now that I can do it so fast and efficiently I don't mind do it as much.

I wouldn't do it, but I'm kind of a control freak. Also, I want the cake to be as amazing as the decorating...not just a pre-baked cake that is probably quite ordinary. The subtlities of cake flavor and texture are as important to me as the exterior of the finished creation.

Not sure if this is what the OP is asking, but since the OP referenced the legalities .....

"Food Prep" is what is covered under health dept rules, not just "food cooking". So preparing icing and decorating a cake in your home kitchen would be just as illegal as baking the cake.

I know a cake supply shop who had to put in a legal kitchen space because she repackaged food (bought chocolate disks in 50 lb bags .... repackaged into 1 lb and 5 lb bags; bought vanilla is huge jugs .... repackaged into smaller bottles). No "cooking", no "baking", but it was food prep and food hanlding so she was required to have food safety equipment in place, such as 3-compartment sink, stainless steel counterspace, etc.

I don't mind the baking but I would love to out source the cleaning!!