Heather

As I was writing my answers, I realized that they’d make a decent blog post, so I answered your questions via that avenue: http://forrager.com/2015/07/status-of-the-cottage-food-industry/

Hi Sohna, I saw your post on Facebook. You could post it in the CA group, but honestly, I don’t think you’ll get any responses from that. This community just isn’t as well-developed as the two FB groups. Likely anyone on here who would respond would also be part of those groups. I would answer it myself, except I don’t own a CFO. I hope your…[Read more]

Im in LA

Those restrictions mostly apply to unbaked items. If you bake an item with a heavy amount of eggs or cream, like a custard, that’s not allowed, but one or two eggs in a thoroughly-baked cake is fine.

Almost any kind of frosting without eggs, cream, or cream cheese will likely be approved by your health dept. Buttercream frostings are allowed. You…[Read more]

You can use butter (does not need to be dairy-free) in your frostings, but you can’t use cream. I also don’t think you can use buttermilk. Butter does not have a high moisture content, so it is safe at room temperature, which is why it’s allowed. You probably can’t produce your own butter to make a buttercream frosting, but maybe your county would…[Read more]

You get the approval by talking to someone in the planning dept. If they don’t return your call (can sometimes take up to two weeks for a govt dept), then you could try going to their office.