Cheesecake is packaged cold, flat and covered. It's made with cream cheese and eggs, so in the FDA Food Code's terms it's a food that needs temperature control, and it stays refrigerated or frozen from the oven to the customer. A whole cake rides on a cake board, so it can be lifted without cracking, inside a window box for delivery or a clear dome for a market freezer. Frozen cakes get a layer of freezer film under the box to keep out freezer burn. Slices go in small hinged clamshells, and bars in a lined bakery box. The label carries the usual lines, the name, net weight, ingredients, allergens such as milk, eggs and wheat, and your name and address, plus how to keep it. Where a home baker sells under North Dakota's cottage food law, it also says the cheesecake was kept and delivered frozen, with safe handling instructions. In the example below, a Bismarck baker prices four packages: 31 cents to $1.52 a unit.
The short version
- Whole cakes on a cake board, so they lift without cracking.
- A window box for delivery, a clear dome for a market freezer.
- Freezer film under the box for frozen cakes.
- Slices in hinged clamshells, bars in a lined box.
- Keep it refrigerated or frozen, and say which on the label.
- In North Dakota's cottage food law: safe handling instructions and "kept and delivered frozen".
- TaroStack keeps each bake as a batch with its lot and date, and the box in its cost. More below.
The options
| Option | Keeps it | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 8 inch window box on a board | Protected, frozen under film | Delivered whole cakes |
| 8 inch clear dome | Visible, stackable | A market freezer |
| Single slice clamshell | Small, cheap | Café cases, market slices |
| Bars, box of 6 | Lined, flat | Bars to take home |
The label and the cold
Cheesecake carries the label your license requires: the name, such as "New York cheesecake", net weight, ingredients in order of weight, allergens such as milk, eggs and wheat, and your name and place of business. It needs temperature control, as an animal food that's been heat-treated (Food Code 2022, 1-201.10), so the label says "keep refrigerated" or "keep frozen", with a date. Under North Dakota's cottage food law, foods that need refrigeration, cheesecake named among them, are labeled with safe handling instructions and a statement that they were transported and maintained frozen (N.D.C.C. 23-09.5-02(7)). Whether your state allows cheesecake from home at all is in can you sell cheesecake from home. This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: four options for a home cheesecake baker
Sakakawea Sweets, the made-up home baker in Bismarck, North Dakota, I use in these examples, sells about 60 packages a week in the holidays, whole cakes delivered frozen, cakes and bars from a market freezer, and slices for a café:
| Option | Parts | Per unit | 60 a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 inch window box on a board | Board 35¢, box 85¢, film 10¢, freezer label 19¢ | $1.52 | $91.25 |
| 8 inch clear dome | Dome $1.10, freezer label 19¢ | $1.32 | $78.95 |
| Single slice clamshell | Clamshell 22¢, small label 8¢ | $0.31 | $18.36 |
| Bars, box of 6 | Lined box 55¢, freezer label 19¢ | $0.75 | $45.29 |
Costs include a little waste; frozen packaging in general is in how to package frozen food for sale. Delivered cakes go in the board, film and window box; the dome is 20 cents cheaper and shows off the cake in the market freezer, where nobody needs to carry it far. Every label reads "Kept and delivered frozen. Keep frozen. Thaw in the refrigerator and keep refrigerated." The café's slices would need a licensed kitchen, since North Dakota's cottage food can't be sold through a food establishment, so the clamshell waits for that. What a whole cake costs to make is in cheesecake business plan.
Get the calculator
Download the cheesecake packaging calculator. Two sheets: components, each part of each option with its pack price, units, how many one unit uses and waste; and compare, each option's cost per unit and per week at your volume, with notes. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
A December freezer holds cakes from a dozen bake days in identical white boxes. A cost sheet doesn't say which bake is in which box, or which ones need to go first.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each bake as a batch with its lot and date, and the box in its cost.
Each bake a batch. A bake of New York cheesecakes is a batch from its recipe, taking cream cheese, eggs and boxes off stock, with its lot and best-by date, and lot labels print for the boxes.
Packaging in the recipe. The board, film, box and label are part of the recipe, so a cake's true cost includes them.
Oldest first. First-expired-first-out is the default, so the oldest cakes in the freezer go first.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which bake is in a box | Marker on the lid | The lot on its label |
| Cakes left in the freezer | Counted by hand | Stock by item and lot |
| What a cake costs | Worked out once | Each batch's true cost |
Lots, expiry, recipes and batches are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.