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.
Hi Rob,
I’ve just come across this page and was wondering if you would mind sending me your business plan please? I’m thinking of selling fudge locally or online but have no concrete plans so any guidance would be great. My email address is [email protected].
Thank you very much
Siobhan
The information above about the Casual and limited basis only, is incorrect, I have just come off the phone from my local council and have been told that NO council at all operate this policy anymore, anyone producing food for public consumption whether it be free or charged for, has to be registered
That’s helpful. Thanks for pointing it out. We will update the article.
Hi Rob, I hope your venture is proving to be a success. I would really appreciate a copy of your business plan if it is still available. I have been making cakes for friends and family for a long time and am toying with the idea of doing it as a business but don’t really know where to start! Many thanks, Rachel. [email protected]
Hi Rob, I’m interested in setting up a cupcake business with a friend in London. I would be very Grateful if you could forward me your business plan. Many thanks. Sayeeda
[email protected]
Hi rob I too would be interested in a copy of your
business plan if its still available? I am in the process of
setting up a home baking business and would find this very
helpful Thankyou.
[email protected]
hi Rob here my email im very interesting in your business plan thanks [email protected]
Perhaps should have been clearer about registration Its any 5 days in 5 consecutive weeks so if you produce once a week you need to register. occasional producers from home do not.
Your information on Registering a food business ineeds osme addittional info. Registration is free and of right. It is not a licence. It is not optional if you prepare food on 5 consecutive days in any 5 weeks. The registration form has to be submitted 28 days before you start production BUT most local authorities will risk rate a small cake or jam /chutneys producer as low risk or even uninspectable risk. Registration is just so the LA know where food producers are and can let them know if the is a food alert about a product they may use.… Read more »
hi janice.
the problem i have is that there is no list of requirements written clearly somewhere for the requirements in a domestic premises selling cakes. i have the leaflets and want to register but i want the basic requirements, i.e i have dogs, i have moved them and their food etc out of my kitchen, the trouble is, the back door is in the kitchen….am i allowed to just let them walk through or do they need to go out of the front door?? any advice is appreciated please??
thankyou
corrinnne xx
Hi Corrinne, So long as you are not producing cream cakes you have a low risk product. All rules are risk related. So start with your food safety plan – answer not a lot in hygiene terms from bacteria or viruses. No cold storage will be necessary. Your risks (common from a domestic kitchen) would be something in the cake that should not be there, a piece of plastic, dog hair, human hair, a screw – you get the picture. So your food safety plan would say; I don’t wear jewellery when i am baking I keep the kitchen clear… Read more »
thankyou so much. you really have helped. i worked in a bakery in sainsburys for 25 years so i kind of have the basics down, handwashing, jewellry, cleaning schedules etc but i thought it would be stricter i guess. i was worried about the dogs but you’ve put my mind to rest. i have a basic hygiene cert
many thanks
corrinne xx
Glad I was able to help. Separating your activities by time is a really useful hygiene tool. Sure your dogs will get used to being restricted to lying in front of the fire instead of being in the kitchen!
Hi Rob,
I am also interested in having a copy of your business plan please. my email address is [email protected]
Hi there,
I love to bake cakes etc and would love to start selling my cakes if I can but I have no idea really where to start??
Has anyone recently started doing this and could kindly offer some adviceexperience?
I live in the Norfolk area.
Email [email protected]
Thanks
Sheree
Hi, I’ve been a pastry chef for 8 years and am thinking of selling my own cakes/cupcakes/traybakes locally. I’m based in Cheltenham and if anyone’s interested in the baking or in the business aspect, or has information that will help, please email me on, [email protected]