Stop Guessing How Much to Bake This Holiday Season. Know Your Demand, Costs, and Staffing a Week in Advance.
Track every holiday order from inquiry to delivery, see exactly what you need to prep each day, and know your profit on every batch before you start mixing.
Know exactly what to bake each day — and for which orders — 7 days in advance. No more Saturday-morning panic about whether you have enough fondant for Monday's deliveries.
It's November 1st. Your Instagram is already flooded with holiday cake inquiries. You're pricing orders on your phone between batches, your staff doesn't know what to prep tomorrow, and you have no idea if you're making money on those $65 gingerbread houses or losing it. Holiday season bakery production planning software exists to solve this exact problem — but only if it's built for the way you actually work. Most bakers plan the holidays the same way they planned their first order: a notebook, a prayer, and hope that the oven doesn't break on December 22nd.
Free 14-day trial. No credit card required.
Sound Familiar?
“You're pricing holiday orders on the fly and have no idea if you're making money”
A customer calls asking for a price on 50 custom Christmas cookies with royal icing. You're mid-crumb coat on a wedding cake. You guess $3 per cookie, promise delivery in 5 days, and hang up. Three days later, you're hand-piping 50 cookies at 11 PM and realize you've spent 6 hours on a $150 order. You just made $25/hour. Your actual ingredient cost was $35. You're not sure if you even covered your time. By January, you've done this 40 times and have no idea which holiday products actually make money.
“Your staff shows up without knowing what to prep, so you spend 2 hours every morning assigning tasks”
It's 5:30 AM on a Tuesday in December. Your head baker arrives and asks, 'What are we making today?' You spend 20 minutes explaining that today is for prepping fondant for Thursday's orders, piping royal icing for the gingerbread houses due Friday, and baking the vanilla sponge for Monday's wedding cake. Your assistant doesn't know the priority — she starts on the royal icing instead of the fondant. By 9 AM, you're behind schedule. This happens 4 times a week in December. You're losing 8 hours a week to miscommunication.
“You're running out of ingredients mid-batch because you don't know what next week's orders need”
You're halfway through a batch of 200 shortbread cookies on Wednesday when you realize you only have 300g of butter left. Your next order — 100 gingerbread houses — needs 800g of butter and ships Friday. You're out of stock until Thursday. You lose a day of production. Your customer gets delayed. You could have reordered butter on Monday if you'd known what was coming. But your orders are scattered across email, Instagram DMs, and a Google Sheet you haven't updated since Tuesday.
“You're double-booked or overcommitting because you can't see all your orders in one place”
You promise a customer a 3-tier wedding cake will be ready by December 18th. You don't realize you've already committed to 25 custom orders that same week. You're now baking 16 hours a day for 4 days straight. You miss a deadline. A customer gets angry. You could have seen the conflict if all your orders were visible in one place — but they're not. They're in your email inbox, your Instagram DMs, three different order forms, and your notebook.
“You have no idea how many staff hours you need in December until mid-November and can't find extra help”
It's November 15th. You suddenly realize you have 180 orders for December. That's 3x your normal volume. You need to hire 2 part-time bakers, but it's already too late — every local baker is booked. You end up doing 70% of the work yourself, sleeping 4 hours a night, and burning out by Christmas. If you'd known in early November what your December demand would be, you could have brought on seasonal staff in October.
See Your Entire Holiday Season at a Glance — Then Bake Exactly What You Need, When You Need It
Monday morning in December looks completely different. You open BakeOnyx and see every order due this week, ranked by delivery date. You know exactly what your staff needs to prep today — and they see it too, on their own screens, before they arrive. You know your ingredient costs for every order and whether you're making $40 or $400 on each one. You get an alert Wednesday that you need to reorder butter by Friday. By Thursday, the butter arrives. You never run out mid-batch. Your staff clocks in, sees the bake list, and starts working without asking you a single question. You price a custom order in 60 seconds while your hands are covered in buttercream. You actually sleep in December.
- ✓See all holiday orders in one view — ranked by delivery date, not buried in email
- ✓Know the exact cost of every order (ingredients, labor, packaging) before you quote a price
- ✓Get automatic reorder alerts 3-5 days before you run out of vanilla, butter, or cream cheese
- ✓Print a daily bake list that your staff sees on arrival — no morning meetings, no confusion
- ✓Forecast December demand in early November so you can hire seasonal staff on time
How It Works
Enter your holiday orders as they come in — from email, phone, or Instagram DM
A customer calls asking for 24 custom Christmas macarons with edible glitter. You open BakeOnyx on your iPad, tap 'New Order,' select the macaron recipe, and enter the quantity. BakeOnyx instantly calculates the ingredient cost ($8.40), labor time (1.5 hours), packaging, and suggests a price. You quote $72 (that's $3 per macaron). The customer confirms. The order moves to 'Confirmed' and appears on your production calendar for December 18th delivery. You're done in 45 seconds.
BakeOnyx shows you what to prep each day based on delivery dates and lead times
You have 12 orders due December 22nd. Some need 3 days of lead time (fondant work), some need 1 day (assembly). BakeOnyx calculates backwards and tells you: 'December 19th: Prep fondant for orders 4, 7, 9. December 20th: Bake sponge for orders 1, 3, 5, 8. December 21st: Assemble and decorate.' Your staff sees this on their phones. No confusion. No wasted time waiting for instructions.
Get alerted when you're running low on ingredients — 3-5 days before you need to reorder
You use 2 kg of cream cheese per week in November. BakeOnyx knows this. December's orders need 4.5 kg of cream cheese across 8 orders. You have 600g left. BakeOnyx sends you an alert: 'You'll run out of cream cheese on December 8th. Reorder by December 5th.' You click 'Reorder' and it goes to your supplier. Crisis averted.
See your staffing needs for the entire month in one report
You run the 'December Labor Forecast' report. It shows: 'Week 1: 60 hours needed (you + 1 part-time). Week 2: 140 hours needed (you + 3 part-time). Week 3: 180 hours needed (you + 4 part-time). Week 4: 200 hours needed (you + 5 part-time).' You see you need to hire 5 seasonal bakers by December 1st. You post the job on November 1st. You hire them by November 15th. They're trained by December 1st.
Export your tax records and profit by product in January — no spreadsheet nightmare
January 2nd. You run the 'December Profit Report.' It shows: 'Custom cakes: $4,200 revenue, $890 cost, $3,310 profit. Gingerbread houses: $1,800 revenue, $320 cost, $1,480 profit. Cookies: $950 revenue, $280 cost, $670 profit.' You see exactly which products made money. You see which took 40 hours of labor. You export the report to your accountant. Tax season takes 2 hours, not a weekend of spreadsheet panic.
Stop Guessing Your December Demand. See Your Orders, Costs, and Staffing Needs in One Place.
Start your free trial today. No credit card required. See exactly what you need to bake this holiday season in under 5 minutes.
Before & After BakeOnyx
Pricing a custom holiday order while your hands are covered in buttercream
Before
A customer texts asking for a price on 48 custom Christmas cupcakes with fondant toppers and custom boxes. You're mid-crumb coat on a wedding cake. You wipe your hands, pull out your notes, try to remember what you paid for fondant last month, estimate 2 hours of labor, and text back '$180.' Three days later, you've spent 3 hours on the toppers (not 2), used more fondant than you thought, and the boxes cost more than you remembered. You made $60 profit on a $180 order. You should have made $100. You're frustrated and the customer is happy — but you're not.
After
The same customer texts. You open BakeOnyx on your phone. Tap 'New Order.' Select 'Cupcakes - Fondant Toppers.' Enter 48 units. BakeOnyx shows: $32 ingredients, $18 labor (based on your actual time per unit), $8 packaging = $58 cost. You quote $140. You know you're making $82 profit. You're confident. The customer books it. Three days later, you spend exactly 2 hours on the toppers (BakeOnyx was right), use exactly the fondant you planned, and finish on time. You made $82 profit. You're happy. The customer is happy. You move on to the next order.
Planning what your staff needs to bake tomorrow morning
Before
It's 5 PM on a Tuesday in December. You have 8 orders due this week. You spend 30 minutes writing a list: 'Wednesday: Bake vanilla sponge for orders 2, 4, 7. Prep fondant for order 1. Make buttercream for orders 3, 5, 8.' You email it to your head baker. She doesn't see it until 5:30 AM Wednesday. She texts asking what's the priority. You're asleep. She starts on the wrong task. By the time you wake up at 6 AM, she's already 45 minutes behind. You spend the morning redirecting her. You lose 2 hours of productivity.
After
It's 4 PM on a Tuesday in December. You have 8 orders due this week. You open BakeOnyx. It shows you a 'Wednesday Production List' ranked by delivery date: 'Priority 1 (Due Wed): Bake vanilla sponge for orders 2, 4, 7 (4 batches, 3 hours). Priority 2 (Due Thu): Prep fondant for order 1 (2 hours). Priority 3 (Due Fri): Make buttercream for orders 3, 5, 8 (1.5 hours).' You click 'Send to Staff.' Your head baker gets a text at 5 PM with the link. She reads it, plans her morning, and arrives at 5:30 AM ready to start. She's productive immediately. No confusion. No wasted time.
Running out of key ingredients mid-batch during the holiday rush
Before
It's Thursday morning in December. You're halfway through a batch of 200 shortbread cookies. You reach for butter and realize you only have 300g left. Your next order — 100 gingerbread houses — needs 800g of butter and ships Friday. You're out. You panic. You call your supplier. They can deliver Friday afternoon, but you've lost a day of production. You're now baking gingerbread houses until midnight Thursday and all day Friday. You're exhausted. Your quality suffers. Your customer gets delayed.
After
It's Monday in December. You open BakeOnyx. It shows you: 'Butter: 500g remaining. This week's orders need 2,100g. Reorder by Wednesday to arrive Friday.' You click 'Reorder.' Your supplier delivers Friday morning. Thursday morning, you bake cookies without stress. Friday, you bake gingerbread houses on schedule. You finish at 6 PM. You go home. You're not exhausted. Your quality is perfect. Your customer gets delivered on time.
Knowing whether you have enough staff for December
Before
It's mid-November. You're looking at your holiday orders and realize you're going to be slammed. You think you need more staff, but you're not sure how much. You post a job ad on Facebook. You get 3 responses. One person can only work weekends. One person has never baked before. You hire both anyway because you're desperate. By December 15th, the weekend-only person has only worked 8 hours. The beginner is slowing you down. You end up doing 70% of the work yourself. You're sleeping 4 hours a night. You're burned out.
After
It's early November. You open BakeOnyx and run the 'December Labor Forecast' report. It shows: 'Week 1: 60 hours needed. Week 2: 140 hours needed. Week 3: 180 hours needed. Week 4: 200 hours needed.' You see you need 3 part-time bakers for the month. You post a job on November 1st asking for 'Part-time bakers, November 15 - December 31, 40 hours/week.' You hire 3 experienced bakers by November 10th. You train them November 15-30. December 1st arrives. You have the right team. You work 8-hour days. You sleep 8 hours a night. You make it to New Year's without burning out.
What Changes for You
Price a custom holiday order in 60 seconds instead of 10 minutes of guessing
You no longer need to pull out a calculator, flip through old invoices, or guess at ingredient costs. A customer asks for a price on 30 gingerbread houses. You open BakeOnyx, select the gingerbread house recipe, enter 30 units, and see the cost: $45 in ingredients, $22 in labor, $8 in packaging = $75 total. You quote $150. You know you're making $75 profit. This saves you 9 minutes per order. With 40 holiday inquiries in December, that's 6 hours saved — hours you spend actually baking, not on the phone.
Cut your staff's morning prep time from 20 minutes to 2 minutes — they see the bake list before they arrive
Your head baker used to arrive at 5:30 AM and wait for you to explain the day's work. Now she gets a text at 5:15 AM with a link to the day's bake list. She sees: 'Today: Prep fondant (3 kg), bake vanilla sponge (4 batches), crumb coat tier cakes (6 cakes).' She starts working immediately. You save 18 minutes a day × 25 days in December = 7.5 hours saved. Your staff feels more confident. You feel less like a manager and more like a baker.
Reduce ingredient waste by 30% because you know what you need 5 days in advance
You used to overbuy butter and cream cheese just in case demand spiked. You'd throw away 200g of butter that went rancid, 300g of cream cheese that expired. That's $18 in waste per week. BakeOnyx tells you exactly what you need, so you buy only what you'll use. Over December, you save $72 in waste. More importantly, you never run out mid-batch.
Hire the right number of seasonal staff in October instead of scrambling in November
You see in early November that December needs 180 extra labor hours. You hire 2 part-time bakers at $18/hour = $3,240 for the month. You train them in November. They're productive from day one in December. If you'd hired them in mid-November (the old way), they'd be half-trained and you'd lose 40 hours of productivity. You'd have paid overtime instead: $27/hour × 40 hours = $1,080 in extra cost. Hiring early saves you $1,080 and keeps you sane.
Know your profit on every holiday product — and stop undercharging on the ones that take 4 hours of labor
You've been selling hand-piped royal icing cookies for $2.50 each. You thought you were making money. The December report shows: 200 cookies sold, $500 revenue, $180 in ingredients, but 40 hours of labor at $25/hour = $1,000. You actually lost $680 on cookies. You now know to either raise the price to $5 per cookie or stop offering them. You adjust your January pricing. You make money on every product, not just the ones you're lucky enough to price right.
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Stop Guessing Your December Demand. See Your Orders, Costs, and Staffing Needs in One Place.
Start your free trial today. No credit card required. See exactly what you need to bake this holiday season in under 5 minutes.
Free 14-day trial. No credit card required. Plans from $29/month.