Are you looking to start a home bakery? Or monetize a creative hobby?
These resources are the work of all my trial-and-error; what I would recommend to myself if I were starting over from the beginning!
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Baking Resources
My Recipe Scaler & Pricing Calculator for Home Bakers Spreadsheet (Free)
I love making Google Spreadsheets to make my life easier.
At Cookie Cazimi, every item is precisely weighed and in order to do that, I need to calculate and convert measurements.
But, rather than doing it manually every time, I made a spreadsheet for it so my original recipe gets automatically transformed to exactly what I need!
Pricing is something I know a lot of home bakers struggle with. I know Costco sells 5 dozen cookies for $24.99 but you don’t have Costco infrastructure and your customers are going to understand that.
We all love Costco and you’re lovable too.
Plug-and-play different numbers, margins, and labor costs with the Recipe Scale & Pricing Calculator
Ensure that you price your baked goods to run a business, not a breakeven hobby for strangers!
I sell my 3.5 ounce cookies for $6 each. And people buy!
Yes, I’ve had push back but I’ve learned how to sell my cookies’ value after my first year at the farmers market.
I’m still learning. And I want to get my divination business off the ground into full-time work, but I’m not stressing out about this baking business not making me money because it is~
Remember, money stress will make you sad and no one wants baked goods from a sad person.
My Cake Pan Converter Spreadsheet
I think this is my pride and joy. The best spreadsheet I’ve ever created.
It’s definitely the one I’m most proud of.
I love small batch baking because I like to try different things, but I don’t want to have Cheesecake Factory levels of inventory. Plus I don’t have a large family and we can’t eat it all or give it all away — there’s only so much your friends and neighbors can eat, too.
So, I created a spreadsheet where I can input the metric units of the most commonly used baking pans and automatically get the scaled measurements for over 25 different baking pans, up to 4 pans each.
Because yes, you can look up “small batch chocolate cake” but is it really the best one you can find?
Most recipe developers use two 8″ cake rounds. Why limit yourself to a handful of people when you can compare against an army of them?
Take the guesswork out of resizing and scaling recipes and instantly get adjusted quantities 🙂
You can also check out the Recipe Library to see a snippet of what the Cake Pan Converter looks like and what it can do for your favorite recipe with the baking pans you have.
Thank you to my Mercury-Pluto conjunction.
Speciality Baking Tools
I don’t want to inundate this page with typical items people will have in the kitchen, especially if you’re an avid baker. Instead, I will just list specialty items or very specific items that I really enjoy and found worthwhile.
Silicone Mini Loaf Pan
Rather than muffins or loaf slices, I love selling mini loaves using this two piece 8-cavity silicone mini loaf pans (affiliate link).
They’re so cute. Also, anything mini is fancy lol. I mean look at this mini lemon loaf!
4″ Cake Rounds
Mini cakes started my obsession with small batch baking. These 4″ cake pans comes in a set of 3 (affiliate link).
No leftover cake means not eating the same thing for days on end or stocking up the freezer. Plus, you can make something else.
Metal Stand Mixing Attachment
I inherited a KitchenAid Stand Mixer and the paddle attachment that came with it was absolutely cooked because it was coated in plastic, which was disintegrating off.
This stainless steel paddle attachment for a 5-6 quart KitchenAid (affiliate link) was perfect because… steel doesn’t come off in bits lol.
It’s super easy to clean, too. Amazon says this is a frequently returned item, but I have had this for over two years as of January 2026.
Digital Scales
There comes a time in every American baker’s life where they ditch the cups and spoons for a digital scale. I now have 3 (technically).
I like this 0.01 gram scale (affiliate link) because it’s suuuper precise. Like I know weighing something by the hundredth place is a little overkill, but I weigh even baking soda and baking powder, so I need to get this precise!
I love that it’s both battery powered and chargeable because you don’t have to change out the batteries as frequently nor charge it as often.
The con is that it can only read up to 1 kilogram and if your item is too heavy, it just won’t read anything. Granted, 1kg is a lot, haha.
Which is why I got this dual platform scale (affiliate link)! The larger platform can read up to 33 pounds of weight. The smaller scale is also a 0.01 scale, which is nice if you just want to buy one scale.
I suppose the con is that this only uses double AA batteries and after six months, I had to change them out. Pretty standard but something to note.
Business Resources
My Annual Budget Spreadsheet (Free)
Let’s face it. Money touches everything we do.
We love it. We hate to not have it. Some may even fear it.
Not knowing what’s going on is the greatest enemy — said every Scorpio ever. You HAVE to know what’s going on with your money!!! Even if it’s bad.
It’s the only way to control it and, most importantly, not let it control you.
The benefit of tracking your expenses for the entire year is that you can see when you’ll make more and where you can save for that oil change in June; because an oil change isn’t a month-to-month expense yet it has to be done.
And I use this for both personal and business finances. I just create duplicate tabs and log expenses separately.
I honestly love tracking everything. You don’t have to jot down every cent like I do, but definitely every dollar. Once you’re in a good place, you can spend freely and blissfully without ignorance 🙂
Grab the Annual Budget Spreadsheet that saved me $140,000
My salary is pretty low and this is what I’ve saved over the last 7 years, including my retirement and employee matching.
I know — it doesn’t sound glamorous because I didn’t make this in one month after doing this one thing.
But, this is real life, yo. Especially when you have strong Saturn placements (no shortcuts).
Setting up an LLC
I set up a Limited Liability Company (LLC) for my home bakery and creative business pretty much right from the start per my accountant’s advice.
Northwestern Registered Agent handled the set up of my LLC because I didn’t want to figure out the legal hoops myself on top of everything else.
You totally don’t have to though! In fact, their LLC services sales page pretty much outlines the steps you can take yourself. And a lot of people who offer this service professionally say it’s not hard, but I just didn’t want to deal with it.
It’s also worth noting that the first year of their Registered Agent service is included with the LLC set up.
I didn’t renew this service and paid my state to get my name and address on my LLC once that year was up. I have access to free business resources in my state and a consultant told me that it’s a useless service.
Also, you don’t have to start an LLC right away. I know lot of people wait until they hit a certain threshold of $10-15k revenue before doing so.
You can totally do that and grow your business as a sole proprietor. Also, some states require sole proprietors to register, so look into that as well if that’s what you’re considering.
I know having no legal distinction between you and your business sounds scary, but having an LLC doesn’t automatically protect you from negligence or serious wrongdoing. In certain situations, your personal assets can still be at risk.
You know your situation best.
Liability Insurance
Whether you set up an LLC or continue working as a sole proprietor, please highly consider liability insurance especially if you’re a farmers market vendor or home baker, like me.
If you have renters or home owners insurance, ask your agent about adding on this service for food and business!
I don’t have either so I use FLIP Insurance because it’s affordable and it was frequently recommended in various Facebook groups for home bakers.
Insurance is funny because no news is good news. I don’t know if something were to happen, how they are but it literally is better than nothing.
Blogging Resources
WordPress Hosting
If you’re interested in blogging with the intention of monetizing one day, you’ll want to start with WordPress.org, not WordPress.com.
WordPress.com is a hosted platform, which means your site lives on their terms. With WordPress.org, you’re using the WordPress software on your own hosting platform, meaning you own and control your site and can monetize it however you want with ads, affiliates, products, and services.
You do need to purchase a domain and use a website host, but in exchange, you’re in full control of your blog!
Most people start with Bluehost, which I’ve used in the past. I currently use Hustly for WordPress hosting and really like it.
Hustly’s plan includes unlimited websites and email addresses, and their support team has been incredibly helpful. They’re a smaller team, so responses may not be instant, but they’ve always been responsive and easy to work with.
Legal Templates
With any blog or website that collects information, you’ll need a Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Terms & Conditions (affiliate link).
There are plenty of free templates floating around online, but most lawyers will tell you not to rely on them — and you also can’t legally copy and paste someone else’s policies due to copyright. What you’re really paying for with legal templates is permission to use legally vetted language on your own site.
The first legal templates I purchased were from Plug and Law by Erika Kullberg (yes, the “reads the fine print so you don’t have to” lawyer from TikTok). I actually found her on YouTube months before she went viral.
At the time, her $97 bundle felt like the right choice — and honestly, it was. It covered what I needed without overextending my budget.
If I were starting from scratch now, though, I’d probably choose A Self Guru by Amira Sake Irfan instead (affiliate link). The core templates are similar, but the difference is in the bonuses and long-term focus.
Amira’s work is very much centered on online businesses and digital monetization, which shows in the additional policies included.
It also gives me more confidence that these templates are being actively updated as regulations evolve.
That said, A Self Guru’s bundle is $297 (though there are usually discounts around Black Friday), while Plug and Law’s $97 option is significantly more accessible — especially when you’re just getting started. Even with a discount, that price difference matters.
As of January 2026, I don’t currently make money online, and I’m comfortable with the templates I have.
I don’t regret starting with the more affordable option. If and when I hit the milestone of earning income online, upgrading to a more comprehensive legal bundle is something I’d happily treat as a business expense — and a small celebration.