Cake shed thinking about setting up as a side hussle

[LilWoosmum82]

Hi
I currently work 30hrs a week from home. I have worked in the NHS my entire adult life, but i am considering eventually leaving. I have always been a keen baker and previously used to make birthday cakes and sell locally. I wrapped it up as i was having issues with my now ex husband.

I just wondered about the idea of a cake shed. Has anyone done this? How has it gone?

There’s one round the corner from where I live, but I don’t think the income generated would be anything like equivalent to your 30 hr a week job - it’s very definitely a side hustle.

You would need to check your local council regulations and make sure your kitchen and equipment is up to standard. You also need insurance and a way to keep the cakes fresh. You would need to cost how much you make per cake/baking, taking into account your time, ingredients cost, energy etc. How does the cake shed work. - manned or honesty box? What hours would it be manned and how consistent could you be? I think it would be a lot of work for little return tbh. Have you considered approaching local cafes to see if they would be willing to serve your cakes, it might be more cost-effective.

As a side hustle they can work really well if you live in a fairly good area where people aren’t likely to make off with your cakes!

I thought about it then I realised I would need to be registered for food and hygiene etc.

I'd love a cake shed near me! A couple of practical bits that might help you decide.

GOV.UK's food business registration page says anyone who sells, cooks or prepares food needs to register with their local authority, and that includes businesses trading from home or from a stall. Your council's environmental health team can then tell you what they'd expect of your kitchen, so that's a good first call before you buy anything.

On tax, while it's a side hustle: under HMRC's trading allowance, if your total sales (before any costs) are £1,000 or less in a tax year, you usually don't need to tell HMRC, though you should keep a record of what you take. Over £1,000, you register for Self Assessment.

And before you commit, cost one cake properly, including your time. Made-up example: if a cake uses £6 of ingredients and a box, and takes you 2 hours with the washing up, then selling it at £15 pays you about £4.50 an hour. At £20 it's about £7. Your own numbers will be different, but doing that for your two or three bestsellers tells you quickly whether the shed is worth your time or more of a nice hobby. Good luck!

There's one where I live and I can't see any reason to buy anything. Cake is freely available in many shops around the town and the Shed cakes look no different. And I don't know who makes them or the quality.

I never understand the appeal to be honest. You've got no idea what the ingredients are, how/where they've been baked and how old it all is.

I'm a keen baker and it's not cheap if you bake using butter, free range eggs, and a high grade flour. Not sure how you can put a decent margin on top of that and make enough profit to make it worth doing.

I don’t understand them either. I’d rather buy a cake from a bakery. I think if you want a shed business, then pick something not as perishable as cakes.

A lot of people have honesty boxes for payment. They have been robbed and the cakes stolen. More trouble than they are worth in my opinion

I thought that everyone did, have honesty boxes I mean, not get robbed! I thought that was the way they operated.

@PineappleOnAStick a lot of people do have honesty boxes but horrible people are stealing them or the cakes....sigh

You could have an honesty QR code so at least the money isn't nicked!

When I saw the title I thought you would be baking in a shed, as I haven't come across these. But apparently there's one in a village near me. It sells individual treats not whole cakes, the village I think has a village shop but no cafe so the treats will have less competition, and it's only open Friday and Saturday. It displays the hygiene certificate as well. I would buy flapjack or shortbread from the shed, or cookies, but they do pots of cheesecake which seems to me would be a bit dodgy even sitting out on an overcast autumn day.

Register, try it out for fun and see what happens. I think the main factor is footfall: do you have people literally driving or walking past?

I would probably buy wrapped brownies or similar if I was regularly passing by and they looked tempting, but not whole cakes.

There’s one near my house though I’ve no idea how successful it is, I never see anyone stopped there looking or buying. I can see their appeal in rural areas on popular walking or cycling routes etc where there aren’t cafes or shops and you’d have a steady stream of people who might stop for a snack but otherwise I’d buy cakes from a bakery. As you’d need to do all the same registrations etc, starting back on home baking initially and building a local reputation that way might be a route in to seeing whether a cake shed would be something to branch out into once people know who you are and that your baking is good.

We had one near us but it didn’t last long as stuff was constantly being stolen 😢. We live in a very “nice middle class” area for context.

Same here, both the ones near us, the cakes keep getting stolen. I would imagine if people paid cash that would go too, but these are card/qr code payment.

They have CCTV but the perpetrators (multiple) wear balaclavas and the police don't seem to be interested.

One has now stopped, one is threatening to. Its a shame as they were much nicer cakes than we've got in the shops locally.

Theresa few cake sheds near me. I don’t know how profitable they are.

There’s also a bread shed. My god that bread shed sells out in minutes. It’s like a prize if you manage to get one. They put out at school run time and I have never managed to get one.

There was a very long thread earlier this year about them which I'll link if I can find it.

I've seen 2 advertised near us, but I've never bothered to go. If it was on my street I'd have a look, but I wouldn't bother otherwise. One has stock inside a fridge, the other is just a wooden box and she moved the stock inside each evening. Given the heat this summer, I'd only consider the refrigerated items, so the cost of running that is a consideration too.

We are over run with them here. Once you have paid for insurance, ingredients, time, training, food hygiene cert etc and allowed for non honest people I expect you might make £10 a week if you are lucky.

I know of at least 4 near me and, as far as I know, they are all successful. I go to one about once a month and unless you get there early all the cakes are gone! The guy that bakes makes gorgeous scones both fruit and cheese.

My local council though is now going to make them all pay for licences which are going to be £1,000 a year!

I make my own cakes so do understand why some may attempt to make money doing something they enjoy. There is a cake shed near me, she posts on SM and her cakes do look very good. I also know someone who runs an outside catering business from home though she isn’t renewing her licence or whatever it is that you need, she said it was £150 PA.

I wouldn’t buy and the main reason is I really do not like the thought of animals in the kitchen.

I have had a job where I needed to inspect properties, people’s standards are very variable.

So no cake sheds ever for me.

Could you make cakes on requests instead? Then you haven’t got all the hassle of people stealing stuff!

There is one in the village near me. Several times it has been knocked over and vandalised.
I often wonder why they don’t just offer a selection of cakes to order on social media.

We have 2 near us, one is a cake shed and another is a bread shed, both sell out by Saturday afternoon, very popular here

There is one near me. It’s a portable one and moves around the town to various locations. Yesterday they had banana and toffee muffins, vegan muffins and chocolate ones. You can pay with QR code or cash with the honesty box. I didn’t buy any but they did look really nice. No idea how successful they are though. I bake myself so never been a huge appeal to me, now a bread one I would definitely purchase from.