Home bakery and selling alcohol

The question has arisen a couple of times about running a home bakery and selling alcohol.

There are three ways alcohol could be added.

1. Either by soaking ingredients in alcohol – brandy, rum or such like.

2. Or injecting brandy into a baked cake to enhance the flavour.

3. And nowadays the third way is to use the little tubes called pipettes. These can be filled with non alcoholic flavour or alcohol. These are intended to be poured over each individual portion by the consumer. Most normally we see these in cupcakes.

Now you need to check on your local/country rules on ‘selling’ alcohol within your home bakery.

For instance is it OK to infuse ingredients in alcohol and sell the cake?

But the law perhaps takes a very dim view of adding a miniature bottle to a cake design – which is full of booze? You may have to empty out the miniature and fill with coloured water to get around this challenge.

Remember to tell your purchaser if you decide to do this – as they could have a shock.

You could always design your cake leaving a space for the minature. Allow the customer to buy your product minus the alcohol bottle. They can then buy it themselves and place it on the cake without falling foul of any laws. Do ask them not to post pictures on social media though!

Are you allowed to sell cupcakes with alcohol in small plastic pipettes in your district?

Are there local or country rules to prevent you?

Now when it comes to social media and pictures of cakes including alcohol this may be another matter. Adding your pictures to say Facebook or Instagram. And these include alcoholic filled pipette – and could be classed advertising. Again check your rules.

But the last thing we want our cake decorating community to do – is fall foul of any laws from your own country. Plus any laws written by Instagram or Facebook should be adhered to.

It would be such a shame to get a social media account shut down or postponed. All because of unwittingly posting a picture of a cake which they deemed as an advert. Which turned out to offend the rules of the admins of Facebook or Instagram.

Some people have asked –

Couldn’t my customer buy the alcohol and I just add the bottle onto the cake? You could – but this does take you into the grey area. And could you prove it wasn’t you? What if your customer decided to post pictures of the cake on social media to compound the problem? The customer added the pipettes but purchased the cakes from you. Did you sell the alcohol? Isn’t it better to steer away from trouble before it finds you?

So do some research and as well discover what the rules are for you in your country and district. It is going to vary worldwide for sure. But only sell what you are allowed to sell. But one thing is for certain – if social media has a ruling, that is the rule worldwide.

So think of ways around the rule (ethically). Ensure that your cakes and bakes are never going to be frowned upon. Or cause you legal problems either.

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