Hey Guys,
I got this idea for a cake decorating business and I wanted to see what you guys thought of it. I don't know of anyother place like this, but if there is, please let me know.

Okay, so I went to paint pottery with some girlfriends last week. We had so much fun just sitting around the tables talking and painting our pottery.
If you haven't done this before, they have these shops set up where you go in and pick out a piece of "naked," unpainted pottery and you sit there and paint it or glaze it however you'd like.

Well I got this idea to do the same with cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. Someone could just walk in, pick out a "naked," un-iced cake and then sit there and decorate it. I could offer all sorts of different icings, colors, tips, tools, etc. You could also have premade decorations, royal icing flowers that they could use, etc....

I am thinking that the cakes would obviously have to be frozen, but sometimes I find it easier to ice a cake that is still a bit frozen.

This would be great for children's parties or just someone who wants to add their personal touch to a cake for a loved one. You could even offer classes in the store.

So here's my question...Does anything liek this already exist? Do you think it would work? Would people even want to decorate their own cakes?

Please give me all your feedback. I would love to hear all the pros and cons to this idea.

Thanks,
Brandi

I think that it's a good idea, even if it does already exist...it's not in your area...so, if there is a market for it....go for it..

I HAVE BEEN LOOKING INTO THIS EXTACT IDEA. THERE IS A COMPANY OUT THERE CALLED WWW.CAKENCRUMBS.COM THAT OFFERS CLASSES AT YOUR HOME, WOULD KIND OF BE LIKE A TUPPERWARE PARTY. BUT I THINK I LIKE THE IDEA OF HAVING A STORE RATHER. THAN GO TO PEOPLES HOMES. THERE IS SOMETHING OUT THERE FOR CANDY PARTY'S CALL SUGAR BUZZ NOT SURE HOW THAT WORKS, WE HAVE ON OPENING SOON BY ME.

I have been thinking about this idea too...have you heard of those places where you go to assemble gourmet meals?

Right off the top of my head I think it sounds like a really cool idea! You could do like cupcakes and host birthday parties...you know, like all these little girls who would love to make their own cakes?? I know there's a store kind of near me, where they have all kinds of jewelry making items. You can go in and make your own jewelry. I have some friends that have done it and it seems like it goes over really well!

Thanks for the input!
I think it sounds like a lot of fun to me.

Keep the thoughts coming!

I think it sounds like a great idea!

My only suggestion would be that you might want to offer the option of having the cakes already iced so that the borders and decorations could be added by the customers. Some people could be very intimidated by the idea of having to ice the cake and it not turning our just right. Also, this would help to seal the moisture into the cake, making them able to be refrigerated instead of frozen so that they could be eaten sooner, rather than having to wait on the cakes to thaw!

I can definitely see parents letting their children come in to decorate a cake for a Mom, Dad or Grandparents birthday and then taking it home to celebrate. OR, having instore parties where they could decorate their own cakes before it was served.

(You could also do cookie decorating parties for the holidays!)

It's funny that you bring this up. My husband was just talking about this over the weekend. I think it is a great idea! I would have the cakes iced, though.

Julie

Great idea gmcakes. I bet it would be intimidating to have to ice and smooth a cake.

It would also save an amazing amount of time to have them already iced, especially if children were involved in the decorating! My daughter (8y/o) loves to decorate, but simply does not have the ability or patience at this time to be able to ice the cakes for herself...she loves to add the borders (and sprinkles...LOTS OF SPRINKLES are a must!)

I saw a program on the food network about a lady staring a cookie company and to earn extra money she started doing kid parties where the kids came in to decorate the cookies for their party. Seemed to be working for her!!!

I agree to about having the cake already with smooth frosting on it or you could charge an extra fee to have the cake already with icing on it.

Good Luck
bj

I was just thinking about offering this too. For my mother-in-laws birthday a few days ago, I didn't have time to decorate her cake. So I iced it and filled each bag with a different color and each with a different tip on it. I then sealed the ends of the bags with chip clips and let my kids have at it. They are 3 and 5 and had a blast. They wanted to use up ALL of EVERY color on the cake, so needless to say, there was a LOT of frosting on that cake. But, my mother-in-law loved it. Everyone kept telling the kids what a wonderful cake they made. They where very proud of their cake and where so happy they actually got to decorate a cake by themselves.

I think that's a neat idea!!! I'd say go for it!!!!!!!!!

There's a bakery near me that offers this onsite -- the kids each get aprons and chef hats and it's like a mini decorating class. The kids seem to totally enjoy it! I think you book one of these "classes" ahead of time, order the flavors of cake you want, and the cakes are minimally iced when the kids get there. Looks like fun!

...Andrea

This is a great idea! And for extra money, you could rent out your commerical, certified kitchen for home bakers like us so that we can do business! I think I read here somewhere that the kitchens charge around $20/hour, but I don't know which region of the country it's in. Let us know how your plans work out!

We have something similar we do at our bakery. We offer birthday parties and the kids get to decorate a cookie or a cupcake and usually the mom orders a cake to eat here because the kids wnat to take home their masterpieces. We have also offered classes in the bakery during special time. We have a Spooky Cooky Class for halloween. We have a gingerbread house class in between thanksgiving and christmas. We preassemle the house and the come in and decorate them. We have done cookie bouquet classes.
Everyone loves to sign up for the classes. I also will do special speaking engagements for church groups, clubs or nursing homes. I demo decorating techniques and let them try. It is a great way to advertise because they thinks it's fun for a second but will always call you when they need something

I already run cake decorating children's parties. I do not take more than 12 children at a time. I run these at my workshop and they are very very popular. I dress the children in tabbards (aprons) and chefs hats and give each of them a small ready iced cake which they decorate themselves.
I usually show them how to model a small teddy bear or whatever the theme is and them put them round the table, give them their own little boards, rolling pins and tools and leave cutters, colours pens, and coloured fondant in the middle for them to be creative.
You will be surprised how imaginative children are and how distructive others are. You get the real patient child who is meticulous with her decorating and some other child who thinks that poking a finger in the cake is her style of decorating.
It is interesting because I ran a party for a group of boys who just loved the idea.
Parents love this because they walk away without having to clear any mess leaving their homes nice and clean.
The parents usually supply the food for afterwards and then we have some games. Each child goes home with a party bag and a fully decorated cake also a picture to follow given to the birthday child's mother.
I am now thinking of starting cookie making parties as they are getting very fashionable in england. I need a different set up for that and have to think hard how to go about it.

Great Ideas Ladies....It sounds fun!!! I actually think a lady started this type of business here and it is going over really well!! I know also here that the leisure centre(Rec centre) starting having birthday parties where the kids come and go swimming for a bit and then make small mini pizzas themselves.The paernts love it as Simply mentioned because they don't have to make a mess and clean up!!Good luck with your venture,sounds wonderful!!

You should check out the website www.createacook.com. It's a new store here in the Boston, MA area and it's similar to your idea. I am a Wilton Instructor and I was contacted by Wilton to talk to them about having Wilton classes. Things are still in the "talk" stage but hopefully someday it'll pan out for me.

Good luck
Colie B

luv2cake--

I do these classes with children. They get a 6" cake to ice and decorate. They get to try 3 tips (border, writing and rose). I show them how to make a rose, then they try. About half do a pretty good job but then I also end up making a rose for everybody. It is alot of fun, the parents like that they don't have to clean up.

My price is $15.00 per child and that includes a party cake that I decorate while they are there. I will be expanding to offering the same with adults in the near future.

Wow Mac. I was thinking if I was to get in on this, I would charge $20 for 1/2 hr and $40 for 1 hr with a max of 15 kids. This would also depend on what techniques I would teach. I guess 1/2 hr probably wouldn't be long enough but maybe 2 hrs tops. I better rethink and do price by each child and less kids; 10-12 sounds like a better number. Another option for me is to offer classes through my local recreation dept. That may be a better solution. But, those of you that don't have a shop and do this, do you give lessons at the home of the birthday child? How long are your lessons?

There is a place near me that you can have a birthday party at and decorate various types of cookies. Its very expensive.

This is is ironic - this is exactly what I want to do! I want to do cake decorating parties for kids, and I've done one already and it went over really well. The next one is actually not for kids- it's for a bunch of moms/aunts/etc on Mother's day - the moms are going to have a cake decorating contest and the guys have to decide who the winner is! Oh my gosh - there will be a war going on, but it sounds like fun! That wasn't even my idea - that was my friend's who asked me if I would do it. Anyway, the party I did was for 3 and 4 year olds, so I just did 4 inch cakes, but for older kids, I would probably do 6 inch. That's just a lot of cake for the really little ones.
Anyway, I work full time so this cake decorating party business would just be on the side, once or twice a month, but I think it will be a lot of fun. If I had the time, I would definitely expand it to cookies or other desserts. So I think you're on to something here! Check with your county health dept - where I am, I need something called a "party planning license" to do it outside my home, but they just lifted the restriction on needing to have a health license if I make under $5,000 a year (which I most certainly will make a whole lot less than that!).
Anyway, good luck to you!

sweetbaker--
I had originally wanted to charge $20 a child, but the store that lets me do BD parties looked at other sites and $150 to $200 for X amount of children figured between $15-$20.

Now if the children want to do other kinds of cakes like the hula girl, fondant dress girl or hamburger cakes, that is $20 per child. It's hard to get $20 per child for 6" round cakes with BC frosting here. The class is scheduled for 2 hours but usually takes 1 1/2 hrs, then the children have the cake that I decorated and open gifts while I clean up.

We have a minimum of 10--so I am guaranteed $150.00.

Mac, thanks for the helpful info. The prices I quoted earlier would have been for the whole group. Yikes, I wouldn't make any $. I like your price range.

I agree with having the cakes iced. Have people book in the time they want to do this, type of cake, colors, shape, size etc. and you could have everything ready. You wouldn't even have to have the cakes sitting in the fridge waiting to see if they might be used or not. To book ahead you could make the cake the day ahead to assure that it would be fresh (well fresh out of the freezer at times!). How would you charge for this, by the hour, by size, by supplies, by type of cake etc. Would you set a time limit to have it done and out the door?

There are many things to consider when doing this. If you could let us know how you would do this I would be curious to know as it seems like a fabulous idea.

Well I will tell you that when I was a little girl; on Mother's day; for 2 years in a row; Kroger's grocery store would have cakes pre-made that you could buy and decorate yourself at a table in the front of the store. When you walked in, it was sitting there and they would ask if you would like to do one. I did one both years and loved it. I got an 8" round and decorated it. It is fun and existed 20 years ago; so someone has to still be doing it now too. But they don't do it anymore as far as i know. So maybe it will work better now that people don't cook very much anymore. I have considered doing it for years now

OK--just got back from a cookie decorating class. The store and I have decided to go up to $20 per child. With the cost of sugar and other ingredients, it can be justified.

I have 4 classes scheduled for this summer at the store called Kid's Camp. They do this over the summer with variuos chefs. The price for those will be $30 for 5-9 yr olds. and $35.00 for 10+. They will be learning some other techniques--haven't decided on them yet.

OK--just got back from a cookie decorating class. The store and I have decided to go up to $20 per child. With the cost of sugar and other ingredients, it can be justified.

I have 4 classes scheduled for this summer at the store called Kid's Camp. They do this over the summer with variuos chefs. The price for those will be $30 for 5-9 yr olds. and $35.00 for 10+. They will be learning some other techniques--haven't decided on them yet.

A cake shop I frequent used to offer parties similar to what you are talking about (not sure why they no longer do, they may have just been too busy!). Here's their info:

Let us throw a cake decorating party for your child just for the fun of it! Your birthday child and invitees will decorate their own cake as the birthday party entertainment! We supply everything for cake decorating including cakes, colorful icings, decorations, airbrush color sprays, sugar flowers, edible confetti and glitter to creat their own masterpiece. Party go'ers will take home their tasty creation as their favor. We also supply drinks ballons, plates & napkins, candles, party decorations, and stickers and can arrange for pizza or other food.

Package 1: 1 1/2 hours

Cake Decorating- each child will have a cake to decorate while the instructor demonstrates decorating techniques that will be practiced and then completed on the individual 8" cakes.
Cake Cutting- pre-ordered birthday child's cake will be cut and served with drinks and ice cream.
Present opening- time is allowed to open presents brought by guests.Decorate cake boxes- stickers are supplied to decorate the indivdual cake boxes that hold the guest's cakes.
($15.75 per child)

Package 2: 2 hours

Everything in Package 1 above plus pizza or other food and drink served after the cake decorating is completed.
($19.75 per child)

Minimum of 10 attendees required. Maximum of 16. The birthday cake for cutting and serving is an extra charge. Party time needs to be arranged 1 month in advance. $50 deposit secures date. An advance meeting must be arranged with the Pastry Chef/Instructor. Final headcount and cake flavors needed 72 hours in advance of party.

Parties are designed for children turning the age of 6 and up.