Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Make money selling cakes, jams and sweets
MoneyMagpie team
5th Aug 2020
Make money by selling cakes, jams and sweets at local car boot sales, markets and even shops. If everyone loves your homemade sweet treats it’s likely that you could make money from them!
Take a look at our guide to making and selling your delicious creations below, and see some of the great comments from readers too. They’ve left some helpful tips and links for you!
- Make extra cash – or even a regular income – from home baked goodies
- Our step-by-step guide to help you start selling cakes, sweets and jams
make cash from selling cakes
The beautiful thing about earning by baking is that it’s straightforward and flexible. It isn’t something that you necessarily have to do regularly – if you’re a little short of cash one week, it’s easy enough to hunt down your next local car boot sale and get baking. All you’ll really need is to have a good few recipes under your belt and a reasonable idea of what people would buy.
You don’t have to be qualified for this, but there are hundreds of baking/cake decorating courses you can go on which are likely to benefit the quality of your products. You can find courses at LearnDirect. The Food Standards Agency has also got some useful information on starting up a food business if you decide that baking is the business for you.
Here’s our foolproof six-step guide to help you make money selling cakes, jams and sweets:
Step-by-step guide to help you make money selling cakes
Step 1: Research
Take a trip to your local car boot sale or farmers’ market and look for which food stalls are the busiest. If it seems like jam is the ‘in-thing’ and there aren’t that many stalls that sell it, you’ve found your product.
If you’re at a car boot and there aren’t any stalls that make money selling cakes or other food, then it’s a good idea to take a look at the people that are there. Are they the sort who would prefer to buy upmarket, fancy, homemade produce or a couple of 10p fairy cakes to nibble on while they have a browse for basement bargains? Make the kind of cakes and sweets you think you could sell easily.
Ask your family and friends what they’d like. Try to ask a wide range of people and see if you come out with any unanimous decisions. Also, speak to any cake sellers you see at fairs and markets and ask them which cakes sell best.
It’s also important to make sure you keep on the right side of the law. Legislation says that all food businesses must register their kitchens with their local authority unless they operate on a “casual and limited” basis only.
If you’re simply selling cakes once in a blue moon at a car boot sale or market then you don’t need to worry. However, if you are planning on doing this regularly, contact your local council and ask them what the rules are. If you do have to register your kitchen, it’s totally free to do so.
Be aware that if you want to make money selling cakes or other food produce regularly, the FSA has a range of free information on its web site to ensure you can do this safely and stay on the right side of the law. There‘s plenty of good hygiene advice too on the NHS Choices web site.
Step 2: do your Costings
If you want to make money selling cakes and other produce, you need to do some basic costings.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. You’ll need to take into consideration:
- How much ingredients cost
- Cost of the sale location fee (car boot sale/farmers market fee) if there is one
- Cost of travel to the location
- Cost of the food packaging (keep it simple to start with – clingfilm will do in some places)
- Initial cost of food hygiene training (if you’re planning on regular sales)
- Cost of labels/general stationery/invoicing pads
- Extra cost of gas or electricity for your oven
Once you’ve worked out how much all of this is likely to cost you, you should be able to work out how much you’ll need to sell your cakes, sweets and jams for to break even and then make a profit.
While you do your research, you should be taking note of other stallholders who make money selling cakes and foods, to get a rough idea of how much you can reasonably expect to charge.
If you have to price your products extortionately just to make a profit, see if there’s anywhere you can cut back on costs. Shop around for cheaper ingredients or look for different locations that aren’t as pricey.
Step 3: Experiment with recipes
Once you’ve got a good idea of the kind of people you’re going to make money selling cakes to, it’s time to get your product sorted. You’ll need to come up with a range of different products to make this work.
If you want to sell jams, then make taster pots of all different flavours and try out different variations of ingredients. For you to make money selling cakes, you need to try out different methods, ingredients, flavours, and fillings. With sweets test out different recipes. You could try focusing on one area, like chocolate, fudge, or maybe even health food!
Get your friends and family to try all your samples out and find out which are the most popular choices. They’ll likely be more than willing to help!
It’s worth knowing that at farmers’ markets, you’re not likely to make money selling cakes unless you use local, organic ingredients. People who go to these events look for traditional homemade foods and one of the pros of shopping for food at a farmers’ market is that you’re able to ask the stallholder precisely where the food is from and how it was made.
Stallholders at farmers’ markets should be prepared to give honest, credible answers to customers – so factor these more expensive ingredients into your budget. Remember that people are usually willing to pay for high quality.
Step 4: Get the right location
Before you decide to make a real go of this, it’s advisable to give it a few test runs somewhere that isn’t going to cost you the earth.
Try out a stall at a car boot sale first, because it will only cost you between £5 and £15 to set up there. You can find your nearest car boot sale on Carbootjunction.
For more information on car boot sales you can read our full guide here.
Once you’re more established, you might consider going a little more upmarket, although if you have cracked the car boot market you could also simply increase the number of cakes you take with you and let your business grow that way.
There are a number of other outlets that will let you make money selling cakes or other goods, such as the Women’s Institute, which runs country markets around the UK. It costs just 5p to join, and they’ll take about 10% commission on sales to cover the costs of the market.
To join, all you need is to pop down to your local market and have a word with the controller. You can find the contact details for your local market on the website or you can call their head office on 01246 261508 for more information.
To set up a stall at a farmers’ market and make money selling cakes, you need to find one local to you. You can do this by searching the Local Foods website for your nearest market. The website doesn’t deal directly with the people who run the markets so you can contact them via the details they provide on the site.
Step 5: Get the presentation right
Presentation is important, particularly if you sell at an upmarket venue. Consider your customers: are they going to want something ‘cheap and cheerful’, or posh-looking homemade produce? Funnily enough, some of the more expensive jams and cakes have ‘the rustic look’: you could find yourself charging a lot for produce which looks especially homely!
Packaging can affect your sales in a big way. Ribbon is cheap if you buy in bulk from a haberdashery store, and can neaten up any edges around your cakes. If you want to make money selling cakes and jams, it’s worth getting some fancy labels printed, or spending some time decorating your own. You could experiment with themed packaging around holidays like Easter and Christmas, and for days like Valentine’s Day and Hallowe’en.
Whatever you use to package your products, it’s important to remember that you’re dealing with food. This means that you are limited to certain types of packaging depending on what food you’re selling. It’s mainly the use of adhesives which is restricted but again – you’ll need to contact your local council for more information.
Step 6: make money selling cakes a serious business
A simple way to get some repeat business is to get some business cards printed off.
If you’re making cakes, you could then advertise the fact that you bake to order for parties and events (if your kitchen can take the strain!)
Pop into local cafés and coffee shops (not the chain outlets), hand them your card and make your services known – maybe even provide them with a few samples.
If you thought this article on how to make money selling cakes was sweet, we think you’ll also love…
Useful links
- GOV.UK’s Local Council Directory
- LearnDirect
- Got a sweet money-making idea? Tell us about it on our Facebook page.
I make celebration cakes for family and friends, i would like to widen my market but my confidence fails me. Any ideas?
Hi Kerry, First of all, believe in yourself and your delicious cakes! If you want to spread the word about yourself then Vistaprint (www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=282&id=72610) will send you 250 business cards plus a free holder for just the postage cost. It’s great value and the website’s really easy to use. Get your friends and family to hand them out to everyone they know and wait for the work to start coming in! The main thing to remember is that if you’re asked to make something you haven’t got the time for or it’s just too big a project, feel free to… Read more »
If only I wasn’t an absolutely awful cook, it would be a great way to boost your income! 🙂
If you are using fruit in a recipe soak it in something for a few hours. Tea (experiment with different types, I like Earl Grey!) is a good choice if you don’t want to use alcohol. This will make the cake moist too but beware you may need to cut down the liquid in the original recipe.
This sounds like a plan to me!! I might try contacting the schools in the local area to see if they want a cake style stall for their xmas fates!
In my mind a true money maker is sweet treats for those with allergies, think gluten and dairy free.
Congratulations Lizzie, you are the winner of our competition. We loved both of your money making tips…to claim your cake pop maker email us at [email protected].
Congratulations Lizzie, you are the winner of our competition. We loved both of your money making tips…to claim your cake pop maker email us at [email protected].
Quality advice. Pricing can be tricky but its crucial that you don’t undercharge. At londoncupcakes we have a full list of cupcake makers, but keep an eye on how you can add value to customer (gluten-free, free delivery with 10 miles of your bakery, quality packaging, etc)
Hi,
I would like to start selling homemade desserts – cakes, cupcakes, cookies to carboots in Nottinghamshire. Do think I can sell my products, is there a demand of food sales on carboot sales?
If anyone is interested in joint partnership I will be glad to meet you in person and to discuss with you the options.
Thank you!
Hi Milena
I was thinking of doing similar sort of thing, just with homemade jams and chutneys. Did you have any luck around Notts?
Katrina
Hi Milena,
Where abouts in Notts are you from? I have been looking into selling home-made produce locally, cakes, jams and chutneys, sweets etc. I have been doing this as a hobby and for gifts for several years and people are always telling me I should try selling them, although this isn’t something I can afford to plough loads of money into. You can email me at [email protected]
Beth
Hi Rob
I hope your business runs well sounds like you have it all under control! I am also thinking of starting up a Cake business from home and would really welcome your thoughts and business plan ideas.
Best wishes
Rachel
Hi Joe,
I am planning to st at a biscuit/cookie business and would love a copy of your business plan.
[email protected]
Many thanks
Hi, I’m thinking of starting a home based cakes business in London. first selling at markets then, if it goes well,to open a shop. I’m a pastry chef and have always worked as an employee. my biggest dream is one day to own a cakes shop.If anyone is interested in starting a partnership in this sector feel free to contact me via email.
Thanks
hi.
Just read your comment regarding your aspirations within the bakery sector.i already run a commercial bakery.i am looking for a pastry chef to develop new products.if interested maybe we can work together for mutual benefits.
Hi Silvia,
I would love to know how you are getting on with the cake business. It would be great to chat about this further. Drop me an email on [email protected].
Thanks
Jon
i also would be interested to see this also. many thanks kelly hymas
[email protected]
with kind regards and good luck for the future too!