Getting started6 min read
Do I need a license to sell cakes from home?
How to find the real answer for your own address, in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand, and the five questions that decide what you are allowed to sell and where.
Posts for home bakers
Pricing8 min read
How do I know if my bakery is actually making money?
Revenue is not profit and a full order book is not a profitable one. The three numbers that settle the question, a worked week that loses money on its best-selling product, and the owner-wage blind spot underneath all of it.
Pricing7 min read
Why ibakepro will not change your prices or your allergen labels for you
Two deliberate decisions: when a supplier price moves your costs update and your sell price does not, and when an ingredient's allergens change the published label stays frozen until a person applies it.
Payments7 min read
How much deposit should you take for a custom cake?
The common deposit ranges, the floor your deposit has to clear, when the balance should land and what to keep when a customer cancels at each stage.
Pricing6 min read
Cake serving size chart: how many people does each size serve?
Serving counts for round and square tins from 6 to 12 inches, at both party and finger portion sizes, with the geometry they come from and the assumptions that break them.
Seasonal7 min read
The US baking calendar: what sells when
How demand moves through the year for a US baking business, and how much the shape of that year changes depending on where in the country you are.
Food safety8 min read
Food safety records for a small bakery: what inspectors actually look at
The record types that come up in inspections almost everywhere, what makes a record hold up, the corrective-action habit that matters more than the reading itself, and a workable cadence.
Pricing8 min read
Cake pricing calculator: the formula and the numbers to put in it
The one division a cake pricing calculator performs, the five inputs it needs, how to get a defensible number for each and a full worked example from ingredients to final price.
Inventory8 min read
Bakery inventory: tracking ingredient stock without counting flour every night
Why bakery stock behaves differently from retail stock, the two-unit trap that wrecks the arithmetic, how to set a par level from your own usage and the short weekly count that people actually do.
Seasonal8 min read
Running a bakery through a summer Christmas
In Australia and New Zealand your busiest season is also your hottest month, which changes what you make, how you move it and what you should be steering customers toward.
Pricing9 min read
Your flour just went up 20 percent. Now what?
What has to change when an input price moves, which products are affected and by how much, plus why a flat percentage across the menu is the wrong answer.
Pricing7 min read
Pricing celebration cakes in the UK market
What UK customers expect to be included in a cake price and what they expect to be charged for, across weddings, christenings and birthdays.
Pricing16 min read
Pricing a custom cake: the costs most bakers forget
The costs most bakers forget when quoting a custom order.
Getting started7 min read
Getting off spreadsheets without losing a year of history
What a CSV import into ibakepro involves, what it will not take and what to do before you start.
Getting started8 min read
What to look for in bakery software
The questions worth asking any bakery system before you commit, from event dates and deposits to what happens to your allergen labels when a supplier reformulates.