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 in the business track
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.
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.
Delivery10 min read
What should you actually charge for delivery?
The real cost of one delivery, including the return leg, the waiting and the failed attempts, plus how to turn that into a fee customers accept.
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.
Delivery7 min read
Can you post what you bake?
Which baked goods survive a parcel network, how to pack for a conveyor rather than a car seat, plus a way to decide whether shipping is worth offering before you promise it to anyone.
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.
Production10 min read
Planning production so you stop throwing food away
Batching, make-ahead, portioning and shelf life, plus what waste actually costs once you count the labour and packaging already spent on it.
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.
Delivery7 min read
Cold-climate cake logistics
What a Canadian winter does to a decorated cake between your kitchen and the venue, and what to change about transport and scheduling from November to March.
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.