I am fairly new to this cake stuff. I have always liked to do artsy things and have discovered that I am good at baking cakes, etc. This is what I am told by others anyways. Money is a bit tight right now and other than giving private english lessons (I live in ITaly), I have been told that I should start selling cakes as well. Since opening up a bakery has been something that I always thought would be a great idea (but not possible due to $$), I decided to give it a try.
I will be doing a 4 hour cake decorating class sometime soon up in Milan but I have no idea where to begin. I am not talking about the decorating, recipes, etc but about how to get started, how to do the taste testing which is very important here since most people here have no idea what 'american' cakes taste like..., how to go about with the transportation, pricing, etc. HELP!
Thank you all for your time and advice!
Diana

hi Diana! I feel I can help you since I'm italian and I live in Naples
I know several things about how baking works here..
some people sell their cakes by weight.. in my city A LOT of people charge 15/kg. But Milan is waaaay more expensive than Naples, so you can charge 20/kg for sure.
Some other people (mostly baker shops) charge 5/6 for serving for a simple cake, then they add an addictional cost for particular decorations. So it's really up to you..

Transportation: customers can come to pick the cake up at your home, or you can delivery.. I suggest you to ask 15 for delivery (you know how expensive gas is here!!)

tasting.. yes you are right, very few people know how american cakes taste... but I've never heard about tasting here.. I ordered my wedding cake 1 month ago and I didnt taste anything!!!

More informations I can give you: in Italy is illegal baking at home and selling cakes. There's no way you can use your family kitchen to bake and sell anything. U should have another kitchen, different from ur family one, just for ur business.. and, of course, you need to be licensed.
Anyways, just few people are licensed, EVERYONE do it illegally, not a big deal.. plus noone cares about copyrights laws. For real, noone.

Irene