How pastry businesses grow on Hotplate
Cover photo by Butter & Crumble
Cookies, croissants, macarons, pies, cupcakes, danishes…you name it, there’s probably a Hotplate business that sells it. There are thousands of bakers using Hotplate to sell their baked goods through weekly drops who serve up some of the most creative, high quality and truly delicious bites in their cities. Businesses at every stage in their journey are using Hotplate to manage their pre order business and build a community of customers that will follow them through the evolution of their baking concept.
In short, here’s what we’ve learned works for baked good droppers:
A core item or format with changing flavors (like a pastry box with rotating treats or a specific category of good like cookies, cinnamon buns, croissants, etc)
Offering bundles or combo packs of treats
Consistent drop and pickup schedules
Porch pickups, market pre-orders, and partnering with local shops for pickups
Why the Hotplate drop model works for pastry businesses
Bakers of all sizes use Hotplate to run successful businesses - from those who make a few dozen cookies in their home ovens to teams who bake hundreds of treats in big kitchens. Local customers generally love the opportunity to purchase their little treat for the day from local bakers, especially when that means supporting a small business and getting a higher quality product.
The drop model is a great, low cost approach to starting a pastry business. Because baked goods are best sold on the same day they’re made, traditional brick and mortar bakeries tend to see a lot of food waste at the end of each day. Operating a pre-order drop based business takes out all the guesswork of inventory because you only bake what’s already been paid for. That means limited wasted time, ingredients, and money. Drop based baked good businesses on Hotplate often offer one pickup day a week so they can concentrate their prep efforts while still serving a wide customer base.
How pastry businesses scale with Hotplate
Because baked goods and dry pastries are some of the most widely permitted foods under cottage food laws, many bakers start their businesses from home and use Hotplate from day 1. Many bakers also set up their Hotplate storefront and build a customer list while they’re in the testing and refining phase. This is especially useful if you’re handing out samples to friends and neighbors because you can guide them to subscribe so they’re the first to know when sales officially open. It’s always best to start building your customer list before you even post anything for sale!
Hotplate can be used to sell 1 cookie or a 1000, so many bakers will post a drop even if they only have capacity to bake a few items each time - they simply set low inventory and allow things to sell out. Over time, as a baker’s capacity or menu size increases, its easy to add more inventory and items to each drop - the Hotplate system grows with you.
How pastry businesses keep customers coming back
One of the bigger challenges that bakers have is keeping customers coming back, especially when they live in a city with many bakeries or pop ups. The key things we see most bakers do is rotate flavors and offer added value experiences.
Because pastries and baked goods constitute more of a “little treat” than a staple grocery, bakers usually find greater success through specializing in a specific category of good, but changing up the flavors or fillings for each menu. For example, No Crumbs only sells cookies, but her flavor lineup changes every weekend. This keeps customers interested and gives them an excuse to place repeat orders.
Customers who are big fans of your baking are also a great audience for in person workshops or events. Em Wilson’s pretzels have become so loved in Philadelphia, that she can now open up her kitchen multiple times a month for ticketed pretzel classes.
How our pastry businesses typically operate
Many of the bakers that use Hotplate bake out of their homes or a commercial kitchen and offer weekly drops.
Whether they’re baking in their home or a commercial kitchen, most pastry businesses on Hotplate partner with local shops, have a market booth, or set up a table in front of their kitchen for customer pickups. Many of the bakers operating small pastry businesses become staples of their community and are able to expand into offering workshops or catering as a way to supplement income from drops.
The typical baked good dropper schedule
Because pastries, especially yeasted or laminated goods, require a few prep days, many bakers open orders early in the week then offer pickups over the weekend. Dropping mid week gives your customers something to look forward to on the weekend when they pick up.
Examples to inspire you
Em Wilson sells out of pastry boxes and pretzel classes
📍Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 🔗 hotplate.com/emwilsonpastry
Em bakes some of the most sought after pastries in Philly, all from a baking studio she shares with fellow business Bake Bake Philly (check out this silly video we made about the two!). She’s amassed a loyal customer list over the decade she’s worked in the Philly food scene, and bakes pretzels, creative viennoiserie, and other pastries based on what’s available at market that week. She offers weekly drops, and most often just sells a mixed box of whatever she’s baking that week. Her fans trust that anything she creates will be delicious. During the warmer months, she also attends markets where customers can buy one pastry at a time, but her business has become so popular that people line up early just to get a bite.
A core principle of Em’s business is that she does all the baking herself, and is adamant about only producing what she personally can make with her hands. Instead of scaling her business by hiring more bakers, she’s expanded her revenue streams by hosting Pretzel Classes in her studio. She still uses Hotplate to drop tickets to the class, and is able to not only monetize her skill but also connect with her community in a meaningful way.
No Crumbs lets customers pick her weekly cookie flavors
📍San Francisco, California 🔗 hotplate.com/nocrumbscookies
Nicole is a marketing specialist turned baker in San Francisco, baking up some of the most decadent, chunky, and delicious cookies. She drops every single weekend, with only one menu item: the No Crumbs Cookie box. Flavors and pastries vary with every drop, but Nicole engages her community by asking them vote for the week’s flavors on her IG stories. In addition to weekly drops, she pops up at local San Francisco businesses every once in a while to connect with her community in person and turn walk-up customers into Hotplate subscribers. What works for her is keeping the same format - a box of 4 pastries - but switching up the flavors every weekend so both she and her customers feel creatively engaged by her brand.
Gooey Center has the best (and hardest to get!) cinnamon buns in LA
📍Los Angeles, California 🔗 hotplate.com/gooeycenter
Christopher sells one thing and one thing only: the best cinnamon rolls in LA. His buns are secretly vegan, and have an iconic square look to them so that when you see a Gooey Center cinnamon roll, you know where it came from. His menus stay consistent from week to week, always offering the staple cinnamon rolls, and often adding a weekly special like the Ube Oreo Roll or Biscoff Roll. He opens orders consistently on Wednesday evenings, for pickups on the weekend. Since Christopher bakes out of a commercial kitchen in an inconvenient part of town, he hosts all his pickups as pop ups at coffee shops or markets. That way, customers have the choice of pre-ordering for pick up, or they can walk up day-of to try and score a roll. Since the demand for his rolls is much higher than what he’s able to produce, Christopher’s focus is on increasing the scale of baking this one item week over week, rather than introducing new menu items.
We did a deep dive on Gooey Center and how he grew the business. Check that out here!
Thinking of starting a pastry business? Your first steps
Create a Hotplate storefront: hotplate.com/sign-up
Set your drop schedule (when do orders open, when do you prep, and when/where are pick ups?)
Pick a menu rotation (what’s your format and often do offer new flavors or seasonal items?)
Understand your inventory capacity at your baking location (even if that’s just a dozen cookies at home!)
With those key details figured out, you can schedule your first drop!
