To open a cake shop, first master your recipes and niche, then develop a solid business plan covering branding, pricing, and marketing, ensuring you comply with local food safety, licensing, and registration laws (like HMRC in the UK) before launching, potentially from home with a strong online presence on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, using high-quality photos to attract customers.
On average, bakeries tend to have a profit margin ranging from 5% to 15%. Smaller, specialized bakery businesses with higher-priced artisanal goods might achieve a higher profit margin, while larger, more mainstream bakeries may operate with narrower margins.
Whilst there isn't a specific licence that you need to sell your homemade cakes, you should obtain a food hygiene certificate and register with your local authority, as previously mentioned in this article.
The 1-2-3-4 cake is based on one simple recipe equation: 1 cup butter + 2 cups sugar + 3 cups flour + 4 eggs = one flawless cake. Easy to remember and a cinch to pull together, the beauty of the 1-2-3-4 cake lies not in only its simplicity but also in its versatility.
How To Run a Cake Business From Home | Georgia's Cakes
How to store cakes made ahead of time?
1. Storing Cakes: Keep Them Fresh 🍰 Unfrosted Cakes: Wrap each layer tightly in plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out. Store at room temperature for up to 2 days or freeze for longer storage (up to 2 months).
Working from home or out of a dedicated bakehouse, you'll need some form of insurance to protect your equipment, fixtures and fittings. If you don't have insurance, you stand to lose a lot more than the cost of a claim.
Dry Goods: Granola, trail mix, popcorn, dry pasta, spice blends, and baking mixes. These are long‑lasting and easy to label. Honey & Syrups: Naturally shelf‑stable and often exempt from stricter regulations. Coffee & Tea: Whole beans, ground coffee, and dried tea blends are often permitted.
From chewy cookies to lemon bars and ice cream cone cupcakes, these bake sale ideas are sweet, shareable and perfect for school events or community fundraisers. There's a reason bake sales are timeless; they bring people together over sweets that spark smiles.
Bakeries often fail due to economic uncertainty, lack of differentiation, poor staff management, insufficient budgeting, and weak customer relationships. Expanding revenue streams with delivery, online orders, and seasonal offerings can help your bakery stay relevant and resilient in changing markets.
While you may not define yourself as a business, if you are providing food on a regular and organised basis, you are a food business under food law. Once you have registered as a food business, local authority officers will make arrangements to visit your home to conduct a food hygiene inspection.
Decorating a cake is a time-consuming task that requires skill, and cake makers often work around the clock to produce something fabulous. Additionally, there are capital costs and overheads from mixers, cutters and tools, ribbons, marketing, and equipment.
A Level 2 Food Hygiene & Safety course will help anyone who handles, prepares or serves food. This could be: People who make celebration cakes from home. Those running a catering business.
Is it illegal to sell food without a license in the UK?
If you store, prepare, distribute or sell food on premises, it is a legal requirement to register your business. If you run a food business without registering it, you may be fined or imprisoned for up to two years or both.
Opening a bakery in the UK can cost anywhere from £8,000 to over £40,000+, depending heavily on your model (home-based vs. retail), location, and size, with major expenses including rent (£1k-£5k/month), equipment (£1k-£5k+), and licensing (£500-£1k), plus initial stock, marketing, and staff. Starting small, perhaps from home, can significantly reduce initial capital, allowing you to build demand before moving to a larger premises.
Simple syrup is a great way to keep your layers moist but it's phenomenal to flavor it, adds real depth. Simple syrup recipes are everywhere. It's a 1:1 ratio sugar:water for cakes or you can make a 2:1 ratio and use it in cocktails too!
