Home Bakers - Where Do You Get Your Supplies
Business By cricket0616 Updated 1 Jun 2010 , 3:26am by Katiebelle74
I just found out that I can run a home bakery out of my home. My question is where do you buy your supplies (ie. flour, sugar, butter ...etc). I have used Sam's before when baking for the holidays or have several things to do, however I can not always find everything I need. Ex. Cake flour. Can I contact a local wholesaler and will they allow someone like me to purchase items from them? I realize they would probably not want to deliver, but what about pick up?
Is Alpine a local supplier? No Aldi in the area, so it would have to be Sam's for that. Any other homebakers out there with suggestions???
I get most of my decorating supplies from 2 local cake shops in Columbus (Ohio) and some things from Michaels or Hobby Lobby when I have coupons. I was buying bulk ingredients form Gordon Food Service, but realized I could get cheaper and in smaller quantities from Walmart.
Alpine (AKA Sweetex) is a high ratio shortening. It comes in handy for baking a sturdy (scratch) cake with a tender crumb as well as stabilizing BC (will hold more sugar) that you can trust not to slide off the cake in the middle of a function. Not cheap, but well worth the peace of mind it provides.
I get my stuff everywhere!!
Icing-Sam's
Bettercreme-GFS
veg. oil-GFS ($5.99/gallon!)
eggs (Aldi's/Save a lot)
specialty flavors of pudding mix (wal-mart)
boxes, boards, luster dust, americolors, gumpaste mix, meringue powder-my local party store
fondant, cutters, etc.-online orders
papers for cookie labels/cookie bags-AC Moore
I'm with KHalstead on this one. I buy different things at different places. I get my buttercream and chocolate buttercream at sam's (i've compared making the same amount from scratch and it's just not worth the time or price), I wait till supermarkets have sales on cake mixes and vege oil and marshmallow (for fondant). Most of my caking supplies come from online sources since there aren't many caking places in Salt Lake. Some costco's sell PS in giant bags that are a really good price. I bought a 25 or 50 lbs bag for a good price. It was challenging to keep the powerdered sugar from clumping but it was a good deal. As for fake cakes, Dallas Foam Inc has been awesome! They have a ton of sizes and shapes for really cheap. the shipping is a bit much but i still think it's a better deal than buyind them at some cake stores. I hope that helps! 
Jennifer
I get most of my bulk items like icing sugar in 80lb bags and fondant from Dawn foods.Most everything else like Americolor and all the small stuff from various online sites here in Canada and the US.
I get sugar, eggs, milk, cream, butter at costco they have better prices than a lot of the big food service companies (I am lucky enough to know Chefs and purchasing agents to get things from the food service providers if need be but for dairy products/ sugar etc... costco usually comes out better). Plus if your an executive member at costco they give you a check for 3% of your purchase amount at the end of every year, it's not a lot but every little bit helps and their prices are already lower than everywhere else on dairy products. Luckily I am also able to get things from the local restaurant depot (cake flour, boards, boxes, vanilla) since my in-laws own 2 restaurants in town. Wal-mart for last minute stuff and smaller quantities. As for luster dust, premade gumpaste specialty cake items... I usually get that at a local cake shop, I do not buy enough at one time to knock off the hefty shipping charges from online ordering. On a special cake or hard to find item I will order from cakedeco.com or global sugar art.
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