I can't afford the really nice rubbermaid ingredient bins...yet. I'm not sure if the cambro are air tight, and the Vittles Vaults are still a bit steep to start. However, in order to keep costs down, buying a 50# bag of cake flour and a 25# bag of powdered sugar, and a 50# box of Sweetex seems to be my best bet (I have a membership to a restaurant supply store).  I will use it...with all the cakes we make for events (to donate/support the event), I'm using it!  So far in January, I've gone through 25# of powdered sugar already...and 15# of flour.  

Would food-grade 5 gallon pails work alright?  (these are what I use to store my wheat berries, since I buy 150# at a time). I figure I'll portion out the Sweetex and store it in the freezer in 1 c. portions.  

My husband is getting me 6' of cabinet storage set up over the weekend.  This is where I intend to store all of our cake/baking/extra cooking gear (to keep it separate from our family kitchen). 

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Ideas?

Oh...for cost purposes... a 50# bag of cake flour costs $14.  Buying in 2# boxes from the store costs $3 a box. My 25# of powdered sugar was $13.50.  I had been purchasing 7# bags for $9.50. 

Just this week, we are making a 3-tier round (14, 10, 6), and 2 half-sheet cakes.  In two weeks, I have another half-sheet cake, in three weeks, an 8" round, another 8" round in April, 2 half-sheets in May, 1 half-sheet in June...and that's just what I *know* about.  We already have several parents who want to purchase their kids' cakes from us, and we haven't gotten everything for the business together yet!  I think they like the novelty of having an 11yo do most of the decorating :D

I just purchased the large clear plastic buckets with lids from the restaurant supply store. A bonus is that when I put my turn table on top of one, it's the perfect height for piping the side of a cake!

I've learned that the best way to keep out pests is to get rid of all the packaging right away. it seems that this is where the eggs are laid (lain? layed? layered? LOL). So if I get rid of the wrappers, and use the product up frequently, then no staleness and no bugs.

jen

Where do oyu get your flour and sugar from?

I get mine at Sam's but would like to buy bigger bags.

AI recommend Cambro Camsquare containers, they are airtight. We would store our 50# bags of cake flour and rice flour in two large Camsquares each, made the ingredients much easier to work with.

Restaurant Depot in Alexandria.  They have lots of ingredients...not as much in the way of supplies/pans that I will use.  I googled Restaurant Supplies, and that is the closest place to me that popped up.  It is HUGE.  Makes Sam's and Costco look like a run-of-the mill grocery store...lol