Cash from Baking??

esmer

karenccs67 wrote: »

My cupcakes that I posted a picture of and a birthday cake that I made my son have been published in July and Augusts issues of a magazine and I've been paid £25 for each :j:j:j. They didn't tell me they were going to be published so unfortunately I've misssed Julys issue but later I'm going to try and get Augusts.

Thought I would share my news. x

Thats great news Karen, what magazine?

esmer

sturdygirl21 - Great post and im really pleased you had it easy from the EHO.

missworks2jobs

I'm always making birthday cakes for friends & family and have done sponsored muffin bakes (and sold the cakes for charity at local schools/businesses). I really wanted to do this too BUT there are so many obstacles its put me off
* I have a basic food Hygiene certificate but its in my maiden name which apparently they're fussy about
*the kitchen at home will not pass the EHO as we have a washing machine in there and you cant use the same kitchen for food as laundry
* the local schools will not let you sell cakes (health and safety gone mad due to nut allergies & environmental health) even if its for charity and especially if they've been made off premises
*the local art/crafts fair want £27 per stall (per day), then you have to hire their tables, and have to have personal liability insurance
*the local boot sale is £11 and they do not allow any food to be sold except packaged pet food - I was debating dog biscuits for a while

My best bet would be just showing up at office blocks/factories/call centres hoping to get some of the hungry staff to buy them off me. But that requires; not being kicked out by security, transport and carrying the stock, also the estimates of how many to make!

I just make cakes for friends & their children/relatives as a "gift" instead of buying presents. Children especially always remember each year's distinctive cake rather than all the presents each year. I've done 2no 3D teddy bear cakes, a couple of hedgehog shaped cakes (with chocolate button spikes), a mickey mouse cake (with ears), a deathstar star wars cake, a costa coffee mug shaped cake (which went a bit lumpy as the icing was too thick), number-shaped birthday cakes, a cow (black & white splodgy cake), a garden cake (brown like soil with little icing edible flowers & veggie patches), christmas cakes, christmas muffins, bags & jars of birthday or xmas themed gingerbread & easter shaped vanilla cookies.

Sorry to put a downer on the thread, but for something I would really enjoy and make some extra pennies.......all the jumping thru hoops has sucked all the funout of it :0(

missworks2jobs

Here are some of the birthday cakes i've made so far (the dodgy looking one was a bonfire cake) and the costa mug had an icing malfuntion. Just keeping it as a hobby for now I think!

bing0

sturdygirl21 wrote: »

Hello all - newbie here! I've read through this thread and would love to join!!
Firstly - well done karenccs67 - that is fab!!
I make and decorate cakes alongside my full time job. I've been enrolled in a cake decorating course for the last 2 years and have just enrolled for a 3rd. I've recently taken the plunge and set up my own business, making it official and all! i thought I'd share progress so far, and my ups/downs.....(not in order!)
1. environmental health - register by post, then they arrange for an officer to visit. This was really straightforward for me (seems to vary HUGELY though by the sounds of it) - she was at the house for about 15 mins, had a quick look at the kitchen, asked a few basic hygiene q's , then signed me off. Cakes are really low risk, so she thinks I'll only get rechecked every 2-3 years.
2. business name - this is more important and more difficult than you think - it took me AGES!! It sets the standard for you business, and will give people an impression of what you're like immediately (whether right or not!)
3. register as self employed. I did this online, though in retrospect would probably do it by phone as I received no confirmation and had to chase by phone anyway. I also applied for class 4 NI exemption. You are expected to pay class 4 NI on all self employed earnings over £5,000 (a bit more I think but can't remember the exact amount). I'm expecting my earnings to be less than this, so applied for the exemption - this was really straightforward. Obviously if your actual earnings are higher than this, they will expect you to pay.
4. attend the free government courses for new business. In wales, i found this through business in focus. England I think it's business link. Not sure of other areas though. These were fab, and ran through all the important stuff. The tax and marketing ones were particularly helpful.
5. branding. How do you want your business to look - expensive, classy, value for money....?
5. marketing. A friend designed a logo for me, which I love, and is on my postcards, blog, etc. I set the blog up and have put all my pics on it. I bought a domain name (£2.99 for 2 years) and have linked the blog to it. I've also linked up with other websites to try and increase traffic. As for postcards, business cards, etc - vistaprint are really good and inexpensive - well worth it.
6. research. How much do your competitors charge? how much does it cost to make each type of cake? Price your own stuff somewhere in the middle - you don't want to be the most expensive, but likewise you don't want to be cheap. people think expensive = quality (though I can think of some examples where it isn't!)
7. food hygiene cert - i did this online for £25. Took a couple of hours or so, and wasn't very exciting!
8. I bought a really good book from hobbycraft - can't remember the title, but is was about setting up a cake decorating business from home - some good tips in there for anyone interested.

The most difficult thing I've found is with pricing. I started offering pretty cheap cakes because I wanted the experience. That soon changed when i found I'd spend hours on a cake and be earning about £1 an hour! This is not the way to make money, and you'll soon begrudge doing it! I still find that I'm not accounting enough for my time though - something I'm working on, but as I'm still technically learning, I guess things do take me a bit longer anyway.
Something I do find bugs me though, is the people that say they do it for a hobby, they love doing it, so only charge cost price - now, don't get me wrong, I know where these people are coming from, I really do, but by doing this it's having an impact on the people that are trying to actually make it their business - if someone finds out that Joe Bloggs will make a decent enough cake at cost price, why would they go somewhere that charges 2 or 3 times more?! People really should charge properly for their cakes - it's a talent, not many people can do it, and people will pay, so make the most of it!The tutor that runs my class once got told that a quote she gave for a cake (a pretty intricate one i think) was too much, and how could she charge that for 'just a sponge'. Her response? She asked him how much he earned, and why should she earn less than him? he soon realised his mistake! Until I started doing this, I didn't realise how much time and effort it took. Baking the cake is the simple bit (though this can still take ages!), its the icing, colouring, modelling, flower making, designing, etc that takes the time. Rant over!!

It's really good to see that other people are doing this (though hopefully not in my area....i've got enough competition!!). If I think of anything else, i'll post it. Good luck everyone!!!

Hi there and well done for setting your business up...good luck ! Would it make any sense to buy all your stock off the person(s) charging cost ? If they're any good,you could buy the whole lot,and even push for a discount ! Food for thought......

Bluefire

Newbie here & long time lurker - this thread has been so useful as someone in the process of just starting out! To cut a long story short I've been baking for a while (mainly cupcakes) and not long ago I won 'best in show' at my local farmer's market cupcake competition (even beating the professional category which I was amazed at!) After that I decided maybe it was worth giving it a go as a business.

So far I've done my hygiene certificate through Virtual College, purchased public liability insurance through the Combined Market Traders Insurance Association & registered with the council. I was terrified at the prospect of having my kitchen inspected and then getting turned down but I had a phone call from them this afternoon and the lady I spoke to said that as the business is low risk there's no need for one at present and for now all I have to do is complete a questionnaire! So relieved, now I can get on with the process of setting up a website & eventually I might actually get to do some baking

In the meantime I'm producing for Country Markets, and I have had somewhat of a trial run with a stall at my local carnival. I took well over 100 cakes with me, left with only 12 & took £84.15. Although at the time I hadn't costed my ingredients (I'm in the middle of doing that now) I was pretty pleased with that amount. Sold them at 75p each, £1.40 for 2 or £2.50 for 4. When it comes to doing farmer's markets I'll probably increase my prices a bit, but for now that price structure seems to be working well.

Esmer, I was really sorry to hear you were turned down by EHO - I mentioned what had happened during my chat with them & she was genuinely shocked to hear what you'd been told... apparently there's no legislation that would allow them to insist on stainless steel etc being used.

sturdygirl21

bing0 wrote: »

Hi there and well done for setting your business up...good luck ! Would it make any sense to buy all your stock off the person(s) charging cost ? If they're any good,you could buy the whole lot,and even push for a discount ! Food for thought......

Thanks Bing0 - I might be wrong but i wouldn't think that anyone would want to sell stuff to me at cost price - it's their business afterall so they'd wouldn't be making any money on it.
I was thinking of getting a costo card - anyone else got one, and if so, is it worth it for ingredients??

sturdygirl21

Hey bluefire - how did you get into country markets? is this a nationwide thing? sorry, probably a stupid question there!! I'm wanting to do some markets but not sure where to start......

skintbint_2

hi folks, havent posted on here for a while. i have had an inspection from EHO a while ago and was cleared for making cakes i have a normal domestic kitchen, with washing machine, a dog and kids but i did have to assure them that they were kept out of the kitchen when i was baking. i had to give a rundown of prepping for starting to bake cakes e.g. cleaning regime for worktops etc. before i start, wear a clean apron, tie hair back etc. i have a dishwasher, a one and a half bowl sink and a downstairs loo which was acceptable to them for hand washing (she just checked that there was a wash hand basin in it), a seperate cupboard for ingredients and discussed what i would be baking, and agreed a maximum that i could bake as a home business. i assured her that i would not be using fresh cream, (more that i dont trust the buyer to store correctly than me give someone food poisoning), i also had stencils made up with ingredients, best before and batch numbers which i showed her ~recommended by the food standards agency.hopefully this will help anybody looking to start. have all these prepared for your visit, even a cleaning/preperation rota may help
i have a 3 tier wedding cake order for next week, a two tier silver wedding cake the week after and 100 cupcakes for a wedding. i hijacked a local sandwich shop window and put a dummy cake with business cards and a collage of other cakes i had made in it and that is where the cupcakes order generated from. i have had responses from Gumtree (one from the other end of the country to deliver locally got payment through paypal) and have now started charging a deposit of 50% and if its a wedding cake it has to be paid in full 10 days prior to delivery. Cupcakes are in cellophane bags and tied with ribbon

hayley11

Hi ladies (and gents?)

I'm going to be making a cake for a friend soon and I was wondering where you all buy your sugarpaste from? Do you get it online or a local shop?

I've bought things from cake craft world before now but I don't know if there's anywhere cheaper?

Thanks