Let me start by saying that I am not attacking any commercial bakery or a commercial bakeries ability to sell what they must. I am looking at this from the vantage point of a consumer who has for years, purchased cakes from my local grocer when my energy was low and making a cake from scratch was the least of my priorities.

Human beings can talk themselves out of anything, dare I say everything; then wonder why they have nothing. We have learned to use every excuse in the book so we don’t have to follow-up, follow-through and do. I recently received a long list of questions from a woman who wants to start a home bakery and mobile dessert truck, selling cupcakes and jumbo cookies to the uptown lunch crowd in her city.

It’s a little known fact but baking really is rocket science! There you heard it here first. There are many folks who are great cooks, but when it comes to baking (and sometimes cooking), you must have a certain degree of knowledge about ingredients. weights and measures, how certain ingredients react to each other and mastering the fine art of temperature control as it relates to your oven. What that means is, an uncalibrated oven sets you up for failure.

Six year ago the Raleigh Farmers Market allowed home-based bakers to sell their products under the craft shed. Today bakers and food crafters have a crowded by charming area at the front of the farmers main shed.