Michigan Cottage Food Wedding Cake and Cheesecake Rules

Wedding Cakes: It Depends on What Is Inside

Michigan's cottage food exemption permits celebration cakes — including wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and anniversary cakes — as long as every component of the cake is non-potentially hazardous. A multi-tiered butter cake with buttercream frosting made from butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla is shelf-stable and qualifies.

The moment you introduce a perishable element, the exemption disappears. These components disqualify a cake:

• Cream cheese frosting
• Custard or pastry cream fillings
• Fresh fruit toppings or fillings (strawberries, raspberries, fresh citrus)
• Whipped cream (real dairy)
• Ganache or glazes that require refrigeration
• Fondant with dairy-based fillings underneath

A decorated wedding cake with standard buttercream and fondant exterior — no perishable fillings, no fresh fruit — is legal cottage food. A wedding cake with a fresh strawberry filling layer is not.

Cheesecake: No

Cheesecake is classified as a TCS (Time/Temperature Control for Safety) food under Michigan law. It contains cream cheese and eggs in proportions that create a high-moisture, low-acid product requiring refrigeration to prevent pathogen growth.

This applies to every variety — New York-style, Japanese cotton cheesecake, no-bake cheesecake, and cheesecake bars. The base ingredients push the water activity and pH beyond the thresholds that define non-potentially hazardous food.

If cheesecake is your signature product, the cottage food exemption will not work. You need a licensed commercial kitchen — either through a shared-use incubator or a dedicated facility with MDARD or local health department licensing.

The $75,000 High-Unit Cap

Custom wedding cakes are one of the primary products the Michigan legislature had in mind when Public Act 51 of 2025 created the high-unit-value sales tier.

The standard cottage food sales cap is $50,000 in gross annual revenue. But if every product you manufacture and sell is priced at $250 or more per unit, the cap rises to $75,000. Multi-tiered custom wedding cakes routinely exceed $250 per order, which means a cottage food baker focused exclusively on custom cake commissions could operate under the higher threshold.

The catch: the $75,000 cap applies only when your entire product line meets the $250 minimum. If you also sell $5 bags of cookies or $12 loaves of bread, your cap drops back to $50,000 for all products combined. You cannot split your revenue between the two tiers.

Both caps adjust annually starting October 1, 2026, based on a three-year average of the Detroit Consumer Price Index.

Practical Considerations for Custom Cake Businesses

Ingredient documentation matters. When a bride asks for a cake with "cream cheese frosting," you need to either decline or substitute a shelf-stable alternative (Swiss meringue buttercream, for instance). Document the specific frosting and filling used for every custom order in case MDARD ever questions whether your products qualify.

Delivery adds the two-way communication requirement. If a client orders a wedding cake online or by phone for delivery, you must offer them a real-time two-way communication option before completing the sale. A phone call, video chat, or comparable real-time two-way meeting satisfies this — a standard e-commerce checkout form alone does not.

Wedding venue questions are common. Venues may require a Certificate of Insurance (COI) from your liability provider. FLIP and Insurance Canopy both offer food business policies starting around $299/year with instant COI generation. Standard homeowners insurance does not cover business activity.

Revenue tracking is critical at the high-unit tier. With individual orders running $300–$1,500, you can approach the $75,000 cap within a single wedding season. Track gross revenue per transaction, and stop taking orders before you exceed the cap — once you exceed it, the exemption ends for subsequent sales, and continuing to sell without commercial licensing exposes you to MDARD enforcement.

When to Transition to a Commercial Kitchen

If your client base demands perishable elements (cream cheese, custard, fresh fruit) or your revenue is consistently hitting the cap, it is time to transition. Shared-use commercial kitchens in Michigan typically run $200–$1,000+/month. For a state-licensed facility, MDARD's mandatory plan-review fee is $197; local health department fees vary.

The Michigan Cottage Food & Home Food Business Guide covers the full transition checklist — from finding a licensed kitchen through plan review, food manager certification, and commercial insurance requirements.

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