Owning a Domestic Kitchen Bakery: Is Your Kitchen Not Right? 24

In April of this year, I had posted an article: Oregon: The Last Domestic Kitchen Frontier , which outlined having a bakery business in your own kitchen - which is officially termed Domestic Kitchen Bakery, here in Oregon. The article outlined the requirements of obtaining a Domestic Kitchen Bakery License, as well as some statistics and tips I have learned through my own research.

Manuel Mixer by Viola Ng

I received a reader comment left anonymously under the post:

Hi! Thanks for the great info. I used to have a very small bakery,then had to close for financial reasons. I have been really wanting to get my license for my home,but my kitchen is not enclosed. To put a door on it,would really mess up the home value. It would look horrible. I have a separate area that is two small rooms attached to the back of my house,but it takes me a world away from my kitchen,where I do all my baking! I don't know what to do. It is very discouraging.

I replied to this person, in the comments, but most people probably won't be following the comments of that particular post (especially new readers), I thought it would be something that would be of interest to all readers so I decided to post my reply in this post:

If you are serious about obtaining a Domestic Bakery license you should not worry about "baking away" from your kitchen.

The perks from having a separate space for your home business outweigh the emotional attachments you feel for your kitchen space.

One of many perks --- You will be able to reap the tax benefits of having a separate business space.

The downside to having a "Domestic Kitchen License" at home is that you can NOT use any commercial equipment, at ALL. So all appliances must be those you would normally use in a standard home kitchen.

These two rooms at the back of your house that you spoke of - are you able to add (2) 220 watt outlets - one for a standard oven , and another for a refrigerator, or upright freezer?

You can have the 220 watt outlets put in by an electrician - then to cut costs you can find used or free appliances (check your local craigslist.org free section, or post a wanted message on your local freecycle.org message board). And check salvage yards etc for old counter tops and cabinets to use as work spaces.

If you do not want your rooms plumbed with a sink, or paying a plumber or contractor would be too expensive - Check with your counties' individual regulations - You may be able to have a food grade tank filled daily with clean tap or bottled water, in the room, for you daily water usage (which you can calculate the usage based on your baking formulas, and have plenty of extra in case your formula doesn't bake off right). This water cannot become contaminated, so a water cooler stand might be a good solution.

Don't let emotional attachments get in the way of your baking - if you cannot get past this, maybe you are not yet ready to take on a domestic kitchen business in your home.

I recommend you do some research and really consider how far you are willing to be vested in this - not only as an idea but as a physical and mental and financial challenge that will really take a large percentage of your time. Just as your former commercial bakery business did.

If you are interesting in knowing more about running a Domestic Kitchen Bakery from your home - Please see this post: Oregon: The Last Domestic Kitchen Frontier

The Culinary Equipment Fairies...Blessed me With a Baking bounty! 0

queue the "sugar plum fairy theme"..... The curtain draws, the house lights flicker and fade. In front of you - a stage, the set painted and built to resemble a porch?

As I had described in earlier posts, I had posted a blurb in the "wanted" section of craig's List . Mentioning my need to find culinary/baking things, used, at a discounted price.

Because let's face it, being a student is not cheap, but let alone having to pay childcare on top of the normal expenses is even more devastating to finances.

The response I got was great. A local caterer was willing to sell me ALLOT of baking things for $25 total. [You can read about what I got here.... ] I had been using my Cuisinart Custom prep Food Processor , that I got 3 years ago for a wedding gift, to mix. It works fine for non finicky doughs.

But I had wanted a kitchen aide for a long time. Money was not playing into my favor. Someone offered to sell me one for $50 dollars. [You can read about that here...]

Someone who wanted to remain anonymous, sent me an email. She had offered to give me a copy of Professional Baking , for free. So I was not going to turn that down. My daughter was ill so I had my husband go pick it up. And when he got there, there was a box on the porch that said "Have Fun Amber!", the box was full of cool things :

a Stoneware loaf pan; A Black n' Decker "Handy chopper" ; A wire cake cutter ; 4 other baking related books ; 3 large cake molds ; A set of Canape molds ; Unopened - artichoke pesto, almond paste,marzipan, poppy seeds ;A large unopened bag of instant yeast ;a large bag of bay leaves ; A large can of Gum - Tex; A Cream Whipper/filler;

A copy of The Naked Chef - Jamie Oliver ;



A brand new-in box , Zenker "Super Cake Baking Tin - Which I love!

Her generosity blew me away. I was not asking for charity by any means. I had items listed in my post , which if buying brand new , retail for pretty spendy prices. I specifically noted in the post I would like to purchase used items, at a discounted price. And here I was blessed with this baking bounty.

How can I convey how great these culinary equipment fairies are??? We humans tend to get caught up in our own pursuits, forgetting there is a world out there. That there are caring people. It is so easy to feel alone, to feel soured by images we see plastered all over the news & television screen. You almost have to grow a hardened shell, retreat into your own little world, to deflect that.

A Big Thanks To those who have been so kind! Also to my readers, for listening....

(originally blogged March 22nd, 2005)

Do you believe in karma ? Let alone human kindness? 0

Thursday was a great day in the fact that I had an ad on Craig's List and I was contacted by several people. In my ad I mentioned that I am a student looking for pastry & confectionery tools , and one of the main items was a KitchenAid stand mixer. I received an email, from a guy stating he had one & would sale it to me for $50! So I was hesitant at first, but I talked to him more. He had a kitchen establishment & they had just bought a Hobart so the mixer was sitting in the warehouse. Well I went to pick it up, turns out it was a kitchenAid K5SSWH. And white to boot. The kitchenAid K5SSWH is a stationary stand mixer, there is no swivel head. But it came with a large bowl & attatchments. I read Reviews about this mixer. Over all the owners of this mixer seemed pleased.



This be it , it has 325 watts & a 5 quart bowl. To think I almost bought a [ Wolf Gang Puck Mixer shown here at a much better price] off of eBay at a 60 dollar markup from the retail price. It was a very weak moment, I had gotten my tax refund, I had wanted a mixer so bad, & that one is 700 watt & comes with 2 bowls, a pour sheild, a glass blender attachment plus the dough hook & beater, paddle. KitchenAid mixers tend to suffer motor burnouts, but I figure for $50 dollars - if this one goes I will buy the Wolfgang puck, when I get some money.

Also someone who has a catering business offered me : 20 fluted tart pans (3" and 4"),4 heart shaped 4" pans, 2 fluted boat pans , 60 tarlet pans, 10- 4 inch cake molds, a large marble rolling pin, 2 thermometers, a spring form pan, a angel food pan, a lemon zester, a melon baller, 2 metal cake spatulas(a 10" & 13") , a ring mold , plastic scraper, a mandolin, large pastry tips, various chocolate molds , cake pedestal etc. All for only $25

It was a great day to be a pastry student. I am so thankful. I believe it may be karma, but who knows. Never under estimate human kindness.