How far ahead should customers order a custom cake?

That is your call, based on your oven and decorating time. State it clearly on the order page and use longer lead times for tiered or wedding cakes.

Should my bakery take deposits on custom cakes?

Many bakeries do, because each cake takes a limited slot. Explain the deposit, when the balance is due and your cancellation policy before checkout.

Can a home baker sell cakes through a website?

Often yes, but it depends on your state's cottage food law. Some states limit online sales, delivery area, wholesale or yearly revenue.

Do cafés need to list calories?

The federal menu calorie rule applies to chains with 20 or more locations. Most independent cafés are not covered unless a local rule applies.

What is the best way to show daily specials?

Use a small editable 'Today' section on the home page and link it from Google. Staff can update it from a phone in seconds.

Is a POS website good enough for a coffee shop?

For a small counter-service café it can be. A custom site helps when you need cake orders, wholesale, seasonal pre-orders and your own design.

Should I list wholesale prices publicly?

Not necessarily. Many bakeries list products and minimums and send prices after a business inquiry.

Websites by Industry

Website for Cafes and Bakeries: Custom Orders, Pre-Order Pickup and Daily Specials

By ITCM Team · Updated November 2026

A café or bakery sells on habit and on special occasions. The morning regular wants to skip the line, and the birthday parent wants a cake ready on Saturday. A good website handles both: quick pre-orders for everyday items and a clear custom-order process with lead times and deposits. This guide shows what to build, what rules to watch and how to keep it easy to update.

Key takeaways

Give custom cakes a real order form with lead time, deposit and pickup date.
Offer pre-order pickup so regulars skip the line and you bake to demand.
Post daily specials and 'sold out' updates in a spot you can edit in seconds.
Show allergen notes, especially nuts, wheat, milk, eggs and sesame.
Add a wholesale page if you supply restaurants, offices or shops.
Home bakers: check your state's cottage food rules before selling online.

What do café and bakery customers look for online?

Most café visits start with a quick search like 'coffee shop near me', 'bakery open now' or 'custom birthday cake near me'. People check hours, look at photos of the pastry case and drinks, and want to know if there is seating, Wi-Fi or oat milk. For cakes, they want to see past work, price ranges and how far ahead to order.

Bakery shoppers often plan. A parent booking a cake for next week will compare a few bakeries and pick the one that makes ordering easy and clear. If your site only says 'call us for custom orders', you lose that person to the bakery with a form.

Hours, including early mornings and holiday changes
Today's specials and what is sold out
Cake gallery with starting prices
How far ahead to order and how the deposit works
Seating, Wi-Fi, outlets and dog-friendly patio
Allergen and dietary notes (vegan, gluten-free options)

Which pages does a café or bakery website need?

Page	What it does	Must include
Home	Open now and what's fresh	Hours, specials, order button
Menu	Drinks and pastries	HTML text, prices, allergen tags
Custom cakes	Big-ticket orders	Gallery, prices from, order form
Order ahead	Skip-the-line pickup	Pickup times, payment
Wholesale	Business buyers	Product list, minimums, inquiry
Catering	Office and events	Pastry boxes, coffee carafes
About	Your story	Baker, sourcing, real photos
Visit	Find you	Map, parking, seating, Wi-Fi

How should custom cake orders, pre-orders and daily specials work?

Custom cakes are where many bakeries make the most per order, and also where most back-and-forth messages happen. A structured order form saves hours of texting. Ask for the event date, pickup or delivery, servings, flavor, filling, design notes, an inspiration photo upload, allergies and a budget range.

Set your own lead time and say it clearly, for example how many days ahead for a simple cake versus a tiered wedding cake. State your deposit and when the balance is due, plus your change and cancellation policy. Many bakeries take a deposit to lock the date, because a cake slot is limited oven and decorating time. Block out dates when you are fully booked, so people do not request what you cannot make.

Pre-order pickup lets regulars order a latte and a croissant on the way in and grab it from a shelf. You see demand earlier, bake closer to what sells and waste less. Square, Toast and Clover all offer ordering pages, and there are bakery-focused pre-order tools for weekly drops. Link the pickup page from the home page, your Google profile and an in-store QR code.

Daily specials need to be easy to change. A small 'Today' box on the home page that staff can edit from a phone works better than a social post that disappears. Use it for the soup of the day, a new pastry or 'sourdough sold out, back at 2 pm'. If you also deliver, keep in mind that third-party delivery apps often charge commissions in the 15-30% range per order, so a direct pickup option usually keeps more of each sale.

What food rules and allergen notes apply to cafés and bakeries?

Bakeries work with several of the nine major food allergens the FDA lists: milk, eggs, wheat, soybeans, peanuts, tree nuts and sesame, plus fish and crustacean shellfish. The 2022 FDA Food Code, a model that many state and local health departments adopt, asks food businesses to tell customers in writing about major allergens in unpackaged food. Ask your local health department what applies to you. This is general information, not legal advice.

Federal calorie labeling applies only to chains with 20 or more locations under the same name, so most independent cafés are not covered unless a city or state rule says otherwise.

Home bakers selling under a cottage food law should check their state's rules before taking online orders. Rules differ a lot. For example, Michigan allows online orders from cottage food operators but limits sales to Michigan, bans wholesale and caps yearly sales. Put any required label wording, such as a home-kitchen notice, on the product page if your state requires it.

Allergen tags on each item: contains nuts, wheat, milk, eggs, sesame
A clear note if all items are made in a kitchen that handles nuts
No 'gluten-free' claims unless you can meet the standard
Cottage food notices and sales limits where your state requires them

Which café and bakery website features matter most?

Feature	Priority	Why
Hours and today's specials	Must	Drives daily visits
Custom cake order form	Must	Highest-value orders
Deposit and lead-time rules	Must	Fewer no-shows and rush jobs
Pre-order pickup	High	Skip the line, less waste
Allergen tags	High	Safety and trust
Loyalty or email list	High	Brings regulars back
Wholesale inquiry form	Optional	Steady B2B orders
Gift cards	Optional	Holiday revenue

How do loyalty, seasonal items and wholesale bring repeat sales?

Cafés live on repeat visits. Many use the loyalty program in their POS, such as a digital punch card in Square or Toast. Mention it on the site and explain how it works in one line. An email or text list is just as useful: send the new seasonal drink, the holiday pie pre-order date or the Saturday cinnamon roll drop. Our guide to building an email list covers the basics.

Seasonal items sell out fast, so give them a page of their own each season: pumpkin and pecan pies for Thanksgiving, king cakes, Easter breads, holiday cookie boxes. Open pre-orders early, show the pickup days and close the form when you are full. See our tips on seasonal promotions for timing.

If you supply bread to restaurants, pastries to offices or coffee beans to shops, a wholesale page brings in steady orders. List what you supply, order minimums, order cut-off times, delivery days and the area you cover. Add a short form for business buyers: business name, products, weekly quantity and delivery address.

Keep wholesale prices off the public page if you prefer, and send a price sheet after the inquiry. If you are a home baker under a cottage food law, check first, because many states do not allow wholesale sales from a home kitchen. Restaurants that buy from you may also link back from their own site; see our guide on restaurant websites for what they need.

How do cafés and bakeries rank in 'near me' searches?

Pick the most specific primary Google Business Profile category, such as 'Bakery', 'Cake shop', 'Coffee shop' or 'Cafe', and add the others as secondary categories if they fit. Add your menu link, order link, hours, attributes like Wi-Fi or outdoor seating, and fresh photos of the case and your cakes.

Ask happy customers for reviews with a QR code at the register. Our Google review link and QR code tool makes one in a minute. Do not offer a free cookie for a review and do not ask only happy customers; both break Google's rules, and the FTC fake-review rule has been in force since October 2024. On the site, add Bakery or CafeOrCoffeeShop schema with hours, address and menu link.

What photos and content work best for a café or bakery?

Your food is the main selling point, so photos matter more than almost anything else. Shoot the pastry case in the morning, cakes on a plain background, drinks from the side and the room when it feels busy and warm. Build a cake gallery by type (birthday, wedding, kids, cupcakes) so people find ideas fast. Stock photos of cakes you did not make can mislead customers, so use your own work only.

Write a few honest lines about your baker, your coffee roaster and your flour or local ingredients. Show the weekly bake schedule if certain breads come out only on some days. Owners who also run a mobile coffee cart can learn from our food truck website guide about posting locations.

What mistakes do café and bakery websites make?

'Call to order' with no cake form, so orders go to competitors
No lead time or deposit policy, causing rush orders and no-shows
Specials posted only on Instagram stories that vanish in a day
PDF menu with old prices
Cake gallery full of photos from other bakeries
Holiday pre-orders left open after you are fully booked
Hours that differ between the site and Google

Ordering platform or custom website, and how does ITCM handle it?

If you mostly sell coffee and pastries at the counter, the free site or ordering page from your POS, such as Square or Toast, may be enough, and a platform is the simpler choice. Home bakers taking a few cake orders a week may also do fine with a dedicated pre-order platform.

A custom site pays off when you want a real custom-cake flow with deposits and blocked dates, a wholesale page, seasonal pre-orders and an admin panel to update specials yourself, all in your own design. We work demo first: we build the real site and you click through real pages, not a mockup. We have also built custom CRMs that replace spreadsheets for tracking orders and follow-ups, which helps busy bakeries keep cake requests organized.

Get your café or bakery website built free, pay only if you like it

ITCM builds your café or bakery website and an installable app for free. You see it finished, and you pay $150 one time only if you are happy. The $150 includes the website, the installable app, 24/7 online booking, lead management, an admin panel and 3 design options. Anything else gets a fixed quote before any work begins, and an optional care plan starts from $100/month.

See how the free build works and request yours.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should customers order a custom cake?: That is your call, based on your oven and decorating time. State it clearly on the order page and use longer lead times for tiered or wedding cakes.
Should my bakery take deposits on custom cakes?: Many bakeries do, because each cake takes a limited slot. Explain the deposit, when the balance is due and your cancellation policy before checkout.
Can a home baker sell cakes through a website?: Often yes, but it depends on your state's cottage food law. Some states limit online sales, delivery area, wholesale or yearly revenue.
Do cafés need to list calories?: The federal menu calorie rule applies to chains with 20 or more locations. Most independent cafés are not covered unless a local rule applies.
What is the best way to show daily specials?: Use a small editable 'Today' section on the home page and link it from Google. Staff can update it from a phone in seconds.
Is a POS website good enough for a coffee shop?: For a small counter-service café it can be. A custom site helps when you need cake orders, wholesale, seasonal pre-orders and your own design.
Should I list wholesale prices publicly?: Not necessarily. Many bakeries list products and minimums and send prices after a business inquiry.

Get a website + app built for free

We build your website and mobile app first, and you see it finished. If you’re happy, you pay $150 one-time. If you’re not, you pay nothing.

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