I made a pool cake for our neighborhood association meeting a couple weeks ago, and the lady that hosted it LOVED my cake and said that she works at a local specialty hotel and wanted to know if I had any ideas for cakes with their theme in mind! She said for their birthday parties, they just order cakes from some local shop that imprints their logo on them, but she'd love to have the option for 3D specialty cakes for those willing to pay!
My question is... Can a homebaker sell cakes to businesses? What about health regulations, etc. What kind of trouble would I get into if I "get caught" selling cakes without a license and from my home?

Depends on your city/county/state laws. Where do you live?

One of my wilton instructors "sells" cakes out of her home although she is not legally licensed. Her way around that is to render her services free of charge and only "charge" for the cost of ingredients. She factors in enough to make a decent profit from each cake. It may be in the grey area of legal but at least thats her spin on the rules.

I live in kansas and I know that you can't have a home baking business from your home (learned it here on cc, I haven't looked it up yet)

What kind of trouble would i get in to? Is it worth the risk? I was just planning on just doing word of mouth with freinds and neighbors and go from there.

If it's a specialty hotel, do they have a kitchen that you could possibly use to bake their cakes in? Like during their off-peak hours?

What about the Texas austin? Do you need to licence to sell cake. Till now i have made cakes just for family and friends!

Laura102777,
Yes, they do have a kitchen. I never thought of that! Even though I'm not legal, would this be my louphole(totally spelled that wrong!)?

Thanks for ur reply puppyloveconfections ...Anyway i have not sold any cakes till now

Is anyone here from Illinois and know their rules? I've tried looking online and couldn't find what I was looking for. -fabbo

fabbo, you can search the forums here. There was someone a couple weeks ago gathering info on each state to compile a list of each states rules.

Check the laws still, as I believe that most states that require you to bake and decorate in a licensed kitchen, you personally still need to be licensed or somehow registered to be doing it completely legally, for profit anyway.

that wilton instructor can spin it any way she wants, but i hope she doesnt' think she's fooling anyone . . . if she is figuring in a profit, she isn't just getting reimbursemen for ingredients. More power to her, IMHO, but acting like she's figured out a way around the system is just silly . . . lol.

I live in Riverside CA and wondered about this too, so I started checking into it. I checked the city and state websites and finally reached the health dept. who had an inspector call me back. He was very nice but said that you cannot sell cakes or any food made from a home kitchen. It has to be a commercial kitchen which has been inspected by the health dept. I asked him if this was a city or county ordinance and he said no, it applies throughout the state. He did mention that there are commercial kitchens which will "rent" kitchen time to you. He provided me some info on it. I'll have to find it and post it here. I looked into that but not very thoroughly.

I wonder how many people sell cakes from home anyway? The problem I think you would run into is that most banquet facilities require that if the couple are bringing in a cake and not using their banquet site's cake, it has to be from a licensed bakery. So it would be hard to sell wedding cakes because even though the bride and groom may not care, their reception facility will often not allow it and you'd have trouble completing any contracts. In fact, you'd probably have to warn the couple of this possibility ahead of time and you'd probably lose the sell right away.
Any thoughts/info on this anyone?

I don't sell my cakes on a regular basis, but if someone wanted to give me a gift of appreciation after I bake a cake for them, well, let the cake police prove they didn't.

I live in Colorado. In the county I live, you do not have to have a business licence. I even called to confirm with the health department and they said I was good to go. However, I DID register with the Secretary of State for my business name under "sole proprietor" for the simple reason that I wanted to be able to cash checks and have an account under my business name. By the way....that only cost $1.00.

Tonya

I goofed! I just got off the phone with Enviromental Health and they cannot approve a license with a home kitchen.

Tonya

wow. I recently did cupcakes for a friend's wedding- we frosted and set up in the reception hall (long island, ny) they never asked if I was licensed, I am not and I'm supposed to do another wedding in November! Is this worth researching? I haven't asked for money yet, but my cupcakes/cakes are made in my home kitchen. Should I stick by the "don't ask- don't tell" method? and New Yorkers with similar issues or knowledge please let me know.

There are so many ways to get around selling. You just need to do the research.
We can sell cakes here but cannot advertise. It falls under a statute that says because we do it on an order only basis to be sold to the ultimate consumer.
You can look under bake sales and claim it for bake sale-It is a dollar amount such as $2500.
Also you can do a farmers market and claim $1000 per individual living with you.
A little searching helps a ton. We have a great deaprtment of agriculture and very helpful!

So if I wanted to find more info., I'd contact the Dept. of Ag.???

I always thought getting a donation was an acceptable way around not charging for illegal bakers. But if the law states you can't profit from a bake sell, then donations fall under profiting. Just my 2 cents.

We are noy illegal here. We can sell cakes but cannot advertise. We can not do licensed venues which are the money cakes.

You can do bake sale for craft sales and profit from them I have a friend who does it and it is perfectly legal.

The IRS is a diiferent story.

Here we contact the Department of AG.

I don't have a problem at all selling cakes from a home kitchen to my friends and family.
and was told by an official, can't remember who..oh yeah, the business permit guy.
anyway, he said I could sell to friends and family and mybe a few neighbors...just keep under the radiar. BUT I know that I couldn't take a home baked cake into a wedding hall or banquet hall...they have liability issues also.
I have since built a commercail kitchen in my basement and have gotten a zoned, and okay with the IRS, so I am ready to sell to businesses and to brides having weddings at banquet halls.
I know that texas, calif. and florida seem to be the stricktest.

I would ask about making cake at there liscenced kitchen....you may have to take less profit to pay for time...but it would be legal.

melody

I spoke to the country club where I'm doing another cupcake tree and he was fine with me setting up there, even interested in offering my cupcakes to other brides, I just am not allowed under any circumstances to use their kitchen.

Who knows. I'm going to bring him my business cards, some pics and go from there. I'm fine with setting everything up at home or in the middle of the hall! I don't think my 'business' which I don't make any money from, is going to skyrocket in the near future!

I guess it goes by a 'hall by hall' basis.