It’s Bake Sale Week.

**Due to a family emergency Bake Sale Week did not happen… this week. However the production and planning remains. I still want to share with you what goes into planning a Bake Sale at home.**

Stroll with me down memory lane.….

This week I am planning for my monthly bake sale. If you do not know much about me or this is your first time here on Talking with my Mouthful of Food. Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to read today’s post. My name is Kimm. I am a life long resident of Flint, Michigan and I love everything about food, dining, and entertaining. If you visit here enough you will find out that I am very serious about my food ingredients, food preparation, restaurant quality, ambiance, and service. I love gourmet grocery stores and farmer’s markets. If you want to take me anywhere, take me to your best grocery stores or your best restaurants and you will make me one of the happiest campers you have ever seen.

Since about 2001 I have had a home based baking business. It began with just two cakes, German Chocolate and Lemon Pound Cake. At that time I didn’t have a plan and didn’t know where it would go.. and I wasn’t clear on what type of baker I wanted to be. So, while I was baking and selling two of my most favorite cakes and I was also dabbling with cake decoration too. That part (cake decorating) was not really for me, and I know it was not because I have never ever liked birthday cake. When I say that I never liked birthday cake, I mean I never ever wanted cake with a super sweet frosting that takes over the cake. So, I never could get all the way into it because I did not care for icing that way. However, I do very much admire people who can decorate cakes because that requires a lot of planning, details, and artistic creativity.. Icing work is very beautiful.

Eventually, I decided I would just bake what I called at the time “Classic Holiday Cakes”, German Chocolate, Red Velvet, Carrot, Coconut, and Pound Cakes. And, when Thanksgiving and Christmas came around I was so busy baking cakes I couldn’t think about anything else. There were many nights I worked until 2am to insure my orders were ready on time. It really was quite fun, and it gave me confidence that I was a very good baker. For years I sold only whole cakes; most of the months went by with a few orders here or there. But, the busiest times were always the holidays.

One year, I learned about a craft show in the city and I decided to be a vendor. I sold whole cakes and cake slices. The slices were a hit. And so, I did a few more vendor events and sold lots and lots of cake slices each time. Following the craft show season I rented a booth at a local flea market for a few months. That was great while it lasted….. I would sell cake slices on Saturdays and Sunday’s and sell out before the end of the day every week. All of this was happening all while I worked full-time at a credit union. I really don’t know how I did it all.

So, things were going great with my baking business for as far as sales go. And, then one weekend the people in charge of that flea market informed me I could not sell my cakes slices there anymore. I was disappointed but didn’t give it a second thought. However, I did think about something else…. and that was the fact that the whole time I was renting tables to be a vendor somewhere else, I was collecting names, addresses and phone numbers from all those paying customers. So, I said to myself; “Self, you’re going to host a bake sale from home.” And I did…..

My cousin Candice was in design school at the time and was very good doing graphic design. She had already created me a few menus for my cake business and what I once thought would be a catering business…She created beautiful me contact list sign-in sheets and so much more… One of the best things she did for me was to create a Bake Sale Post Card. (I hope I can find an old one to show you in this post today. ) I think I sent out about 50-60 post cards for the first sale. It was such a great response there was no way it was going to be a one hit wonder. That was the beginning of my Spring and Summer Bake Sales. And, my Bake Sales are still happening today!!

My daughter was a in her early teens when I started the Bake Sales and now she is near 30; so they have been going on for many years. I don’t send postcards anymore. But, I really want to return to postcards because I love postal mail. It’s so classic and I enjoy getting mail from real people and sending mail to people too. However, it is more cost efficient to send text messages and post on social media when the next sale will be and so, that is how I get the word out now.

Bake Sale day is my favorite day. Once a month, on a Sunday I have a party; a Bake Sale Party. and some of my most favorite people come over. They are my customers; I love my customers. I love the connection, conversations and community. All of my customers love southern inspired cakes, cookies and cobblers just as much as me. But, we connect over more than food. We talk about our kids and grandkids, parents, hair styles and make-up, school, work, goals, business, being better people and sometimes better friends. My customers encourage me and believe in me. All of this is why I love them so much.

The bake sale announcement always goes out a week in advance of the sale. I continue to post daily on Facebook all the way up to and on bake sale day. My post includes the menu for the sale, prices of each item, and the date and time of the sale. I always include my phone number so customers can text their orders to me directly. Finally the customer will prepay through an online platform and their order is confirmed. Current bake sales require pre-ordering and pre-payment and that seems to work just fine. Taking pre-orders allows me to anticipate how many people are ordering and how much is actually needed for the sale day. In the early days I did not do it this way. It was first come first serve and that worked too but, I felt bad when I sold out of specific things early in the sale. So pre-ordering works best.

After posting and texting about the next upcoming sale. I prepare my shopping list… I write down in my notebook what I am baking and what stores I need to shop for the sale. For me that looks like: Sam’s, Walmart, Meijer, Michael’s, Gordons Food Service, and Great Party and my local printer. I already have on hand most of my containers and bags for the sale and those are both ordered online and only need to be ordered once or twice a year due to bulk ordering.

Next I write down my shopping list for baking ingredients and other necessities, like plastic utensils, dessert napkins, cleaning products, and business labels. I do not shop until I have reached my max on orders and then I can determine how much of everything is actually needed. Also, I do not keep a lot of back stock. I buy what is needed unless I know it will be used soon,

When the orders begin to come in, I write them down in the same notebook and keeping an eye on the numbers. Each cake I bake slices nicely into 12. I will sell 10 of the slices in advance at the maximum and hold back a couple in case I drop a slice while boxing up the slices. When it is time to shop I start another list with the same orders but I break it down into something similar to a spreadsheet but hand written.. I just like writing things down. The handwritten spreadsheet is broken down by customer and order selections. This is how I cross-reference if my numbers match and if there are any discrepancies. I double and triple check my lists to my text message orders to make sure I have it covered. After this is completed, I start my shopping… Most of the shopping is done in one day and the following 24 to 48 hours (Friday and Saturday) are devoted to baking many 3 layer cakes, peach and blackberry cobblers and whipping up a whole lot of cool and tangy Lemon Parfaits.

Sunday is the big day. I wake up early and if everything has went as planned, getting the miniature sized banquet tables out and cleaned is the first priority. Next, I am ready to slice each cake into 12 and box them up. . Next, I portion the cobblers into 8 ounce dessert cups. The only item that is ready to go before I go to bed are the Lemon Parfaits. They are a cold dessert and are prepared and ready the day before the sale. While I am labeling and boxing up the desserts, my assistant (a.k.a. my mama) is labeling and preparing the bags for customer pick-ups. We label all of the bags with the customers name and what they have ordered for the day. Doing this helps me to be ready when the customer arrives. I just have to find the bag with their name on it and verify what is in the bag before they take custody of the package(s). This also gives me time to socialize if I don’t have a line of people waiting outside for their order. And, if I do.. I just have to run back inside and get the next order waiting.

Finally it is pick-up time… I am probably exhausted at this point but as soon as my first customer arrives the adrenaline kicks in and I am ready to roll for the next 3 hours. That’s three hours of laughing, smiling and catching up with some of my favorite people in the world. My only hope is that I give them as much joy and as they give me.

And that my friends is how I started hosting bake sales at home. If you enjoyed this read please let me know. I do look forward to your comments and questions.

Also, Favorite Cookbook Friday No. 2.2 is out next Friday. Be sure to sign up for the notifications when the next post drops. Click here to read about Favorite Cookbook Friday No. 2.1.

Send me some snail mail: ( I love post cards)

Talking with my Mouthful of Food B & B Co.

P.O. Box 590

Flint, Michigan 48501

Until next time,

Peace, Lipstick and Soulfood,

Kimm