Selling Home Made Cup Cakes

Ham Sambo

Hi Guys.
Has anybody had the experience of making Cup Cakes at home and selling them at markets etc??? Would love to hear from anybody who did and how they got on.

phormium

Easy enough to do, get your kitchen inspected by local Environmental Health Officer in HSE, hope it passes, get product and public liability insurance to cover markets, inform your house insurer, inform your car insurer if you are carrying them to and fro in it. If it is an outdoor market you will probably have to supply own own gazebo thing.

Only other thing is most markets seem to be over supplied with cupcake sellers at this stage, ideally there should only be 1 or 2 in a small market as most products are pretty much the same. It's not a major money spinner and if you are outdoors and it is a bad weather day then leftovers can ruin any profit.

I do think the cupcake craze is on the wane at this stage, any half competent home baker can make them themselves now as you can buy all the fancy cases, decorations etc easily in every town in Ireland. My sister in law, who never baked, decided to attempt some for one of her kids birthdays, I gave her recipes and instructions and she produced a display of cupcakes as good as you can buy from any market with cases, decorations etc she bought on ebay. Next thing you know she will want to start selling them!

annamcmahon

I sell fairy buns, brownies and a selection of traybakes at a very popular indoor food market on Saturdays. I used to sell a lot of what people called cupcakes. I still think of them as fairy buns with buttercream. They have definately become less popular in the last year to the point that now I don't bother with them.

As said above a lot of markets have too many people selling cupcakes and even if each stall has slightly different stuff at the end of the day to most people cake is cake.

Just to let you know if you're close to Dublin most of the markets are shockingly expensive to have a stall at. Also you usually don't actually get anything for your money other than permission to stand on a piece of concrete. Therefore you'll need a good market gazebo and table. I'm so gratefully that I got into a Food Coop so it's not for profit and indoors.

Feel free to PM me if you need anymore information

Sigma Force

Why do you have to inform your house and car insurer?

Is the P&P insurance expensive per year?

Cupcakes are still popular enough though but same as, think they have been over done now so many places are doing it but saying that a really good quality not overly priced cupcake is still a nice thing to have.

We did a charity bake sale over the summer (in the countryside but peoples tastes don't change that much) the first things to fly out the door were apple tarts, victoria sponges, and plain iced buns and lemon drizzle slices.
The cupcakes were slower to move.

I want to do a little bit of baking from home but have a few things to do to the kitchen yet. It wouldn't be a whole heap so not sure if it would even cover P&P insurance and other expenses so would be handy to have a rough idea of how much the insurance would cost first.

annamcmahon

I think my public liability renewal costs for this year was €180 from IOMST, Irish org of market and stall holders I think. They act as a broker for stall holders. Details are on their website.

To be honest, I do it because I love baking and the look of pleasure on people's faces when they taste what I make. I probably make less than twice what the cakes cost to make. I definitely won't be getting rich but do it because I enjoy it.

Sigma Force

Yeh the look on peoples faces is the best, even better when they come back for more. I'd need to be able to cover my costs and make just a couple of quid on it to make it worth my while though but will keep looking in to it. I can't do the fancy fondant I leave that stuff to the experts but I love to try new things as long as they're not too complicated. I built the kitchen with baking (for ourselves) in mind but already my cupboards are stuffed, must do a clear out...again.

annamcmahon

I'm the same as you re fancy fondant. To be honest my buns look totally homemade, slightly different size, different amounts of icing on each and the traybakes are never cut to the same size. I think if you have stuff that tastes good and is reasonably priced people keep coming back.

If you love baking and aren't doing it just for the money it's well worth it. IMO

phormium

You need to advise your house insurer because you are effectively carrying on a business from home, however much you might think it is a hobby, if you are selling your goods it is a business. This would be considered non-disclosure by the insurer and would invalidate your house insurance even if your claim had no relevance to your baking. If you look at your policy you will probably see business use under exclusions. Also if you had people calling to the house to collect cupcakes, might not be relevant if you are only selling at markets, but if they tripped etc your house insurer would not pay out if they were unaware of it. Some insurers nearly have a heart attack when you tell them, you would think you were making explosives in the kitchen, others don't bat an eye.

Exact same reason for car insurance, if you are carrying goods to a market for sale then you are using your car for business purposes. My insurer said limited business use was included in my policy so I didn't have to change anything there but it is best to check.

Cheapest product and public liability I could source was 250 with FBD, the IOMST one was just covering markets and as I make the odd fancy fondant one I needed that covered too. The product liability covers in case anyone claims there was something wrong with the product and the public liability in case someone trips over your table or suchlike at the market.

I too just love baking and can't be eating it all but there is not much money to be made, not to mind the hassle of doing a tax return for it.

Sigma Force

Sorry hijacking thread again..Just watching meals on wheels where they were having a check done on the kitchen. They had 2 fridges/cookers, seperate wash hand basin in the same kitchen.

I wonder do you people who sell baked stuff from home have to have 2 fridges etc. or is the seperate wash hand basin (aside from an intact, clean, tiled kitchen) the only major investment you have to make?

The Hill Billy

Nowt to do with Cake & Pie really.
Moved to Entreprenurial & Business Management.

tHB

phormium

Not if you are just baking. Meals on wheels is very different as there would be meat products etc which are considered higher risk than baking. If you are just baking small amounts in a domestic kitchen with ordinary household equipment then you don't have to have separate anything. That's according to my EHO, they can and do differ depending on area. No washing machine allowed in kitchen though.

Acoshla

You really just have to contact your EHO, anything that anyone advises on here is only relevant to our local EHO's, some people I know do have two fridges, but the majority don't, and they are scattered around the whole country so there's just no telling unless you speak directly to them. But as mentioned above Meals on Wheels is very different, baking is low risk, hot food and meat products are the most prohibitive to make at home.

Sigma Force

That's grand, just trying to get an overall idea at the mo.
Project for the winter months is to work on the kitchen just improve a few bits, no washing machine in it so that's a plus by the sounds of it.

nafnaf71

hi guys. after reading all your post here above, still did'nt got the hole ideea of what u need to do( or where to register) before u can start sell your cakes. so if anyone knows please live a post. would be much apreciated. thanks

phormium

First you need to contact your local HSE office and get an Environmental Health Officer to come out and inspect your kitchen and tell you their requirements which vary a bit from area to area.

Then you register your business with Revenue, fill form TR1.

Before you start to sell you should take out product and public liability insurance and also advise your house insurer that you will be carrying on a business from the property.

It would also be a good idea to do a Start your own business course, most local Enterprise Boards run them.