Cash from Baking??

debbie_debt

Hey everybody

I've just joined the £10,000 from £100 thread and came up with an idea I need help with...

I'm always told I'm great at baking. Brownies, Cakes, Cookies etc...

Now I need to figure out how I can make money out of it! A few people chimed in with some excellent ideas on the official £10k from £100 thread but I know that wasn't the right place. So... here we are with a great excuse to start a new thread.

Help me please!! I really don't feel comfortable starting to sell to family and friends because I've always baked for them for free. So suddenly starting to charge seems wrong. Does anyone know for certain about food hygiene/health and safety etc in terms of selling to shops/cafe's etc? What about selling at car boots?

Cheers in advance for any advice!!:beer:

mum2one

Its a bit of a minefield, your best bet would be contact your local environmental health and there be able to give all the info.

Theres different aspects for different things

Generally minimum Basic Food hygiene certificiate, some you have to label the ingredients.

I'm on the PTA at my daughters school, and as for the suggestions of guess the weight of the cake, or mince pies...... it was unbelievable, think aswell becuase our school has a small breakfast room and mini kitchen, so that ticked a few boxes.

Apologies, couldn't be much more help.

Massive good luck with the challenge xx

Esqulax

Hehehe i helped
So yeah in t'other thread, i think it was mentioned the likes of weddings/parties and other one-off events. i think Valentines day is a goldmine for mini cakes with red/pink ribbons.. and the Last Rolo!
Maybe make a cake thats been designed in such a way that you can place a rose over it!
I know nothing of the legal argy bargy unfortunately!

abby1234519

I'd love to make cupcakes to sell, I live in Leeds and wouldn't know whether to sell at a carboot as I;d imagine the market prices are ALOT

borders_dude

For the business side of things, I doubt they have any great recipies get in touch with business link if you are in England.

www.businesslink.gov.uk

debbie_debt

That's a great idea, thanks borders_dude, I'd never thought of having a look on there.

I'm in the process of trying to find a local farmers market or something similar to see if that's a go-er. Anyone else successfully done this?

I'd love to be able to start doing the rounds of local offices selling at lunchtimes but I work full-time so there's no chance

blue_haddock

The moment you start baking to sell you will need to register as a business and so keep accounts etc plus you will also need some form of public liability insurance.

Just imagine if there were traces of nuts in one of your cakes that you didn't know about and it was eaten by someone with a severe nut allergy. They could well end up sueing you and you would require large amounts of legal backup.

skintbint_2

hi debbiedebt- i am looking to start same type of business and looking at quotes for insurance, first quote is coming in at £16 a month and that is for working from home with no insurance on contents or stock. not sure what side of th border you are on but if in Scotland you may be eligible for ILA so your Health & Hygiene cert wuld be covered and cost you nothing, am sure there must be same type of schemes in England at the moment - check with your local college. I have met another lady who has been doing this for years and will be talking to her about the inns and outs of it all - including pricing, as that is what i feel guilty about charging for something that costs me maybe £5 or £6 and because i enjoy doing it i dont see my time as a cost. feel free to p.m. me at anytime. I have been checking out prices at local bakers and to be quite honest i'm not really impressed with their standard of finish (oh hark at me!). For christmas i contacted a baker who the other lady advised me about and i managed to get the good quality icing at £12 for 5kg (about on par with the supermarkets but easier to store and a better texture especially for colouring)- good luck

Pooky

Hiya

A friend of mine set up in business last year she does all the local farmers markets.

She needed to have an inspection from the environmental health people, they're very good at telling you what standards you need to work towards and they come out and visit when you're ready and it really is only a basic check.

She does 5 markets a week, they're mostly only half day ones so she does fit 2 in on one day to make it a bit easier but she is up cooking until silly times to make enough stuff, then she's up again early to finish icing and packing stuff and to make the fresh cream cakes/fresh pastry items.

Stall prices average out around £15 per market per week, then factor in your bags/wrappins/baking cases/boxes for transport/ingredients/electricity/gas etc. My friend is running 2 extra fridges and an extra freezer to cope with demand.

On the busy weeks she's selling 30 loaf cakes, 3 tray bakes, 48 cupcakes (muffin sized and iced) 48 sausage rolls, 24 fresh cream cakes, 48 cookies and around 48 scones per market....it's a lot of cooking (for one person to do overnight) and the profit margin isn't great once you've taken out all your overheads. But that said - if you love cooking, like my friend does, then it's an ideal way to earn. (don't forget the quiet weeks though - she doesn't do any markets for 3 weeks after christmas as people just don't want to buy cakes as they've got too much left from christmas)

Hope that's of some help.

nexuss

I cannot see public liability insurance costing £16 a week.

skintbint_2

nexuss wrote: »

I cannot see public liability insurance costing £16 a week.

states month in the post not week