Your first hour on BakeBase

A no-fluff walk-through of setting up a working bakery — from signup to ready-to-take-orders — in about 60 minutes.

This is the path the BakeBase Getting Started checklist nudges you through.
None of the steps are scary on their own; the trick is doing them in the
right order so each unlocks the next.

Before you start

Have to hand:

A photo of your logo (PNG or JPG, ideally a square or wide rectangle)
The two or three things you sell most often (flavours, sizes, prices)
A rough idea of how many orders you take a week (we use this for capacity)

You don't need a Stripe account yet — you can set BakeBase up first and
connect Stripe when you're ready to take real deposits.

1. Sign up and verify your email (5 min)

Go to bakebase.co (or whichever URL was sent to you in your invite)
Hit Get started and create an account with your email + a password
Check your inbox for the verification link — clicking it removes the amber banner from your dashboard

Can't find the verification email? Check spam, then use the Resend
button on the banner. It's the most common stumble — and easily fixed.

2. Set your business name + logo (5 min)

Open Company settings (the cog icon next to the BakeBase logo, top-left)
and add:

Business name — what customers will see at the top of your site (e.g. "Sarah's Sweet Kitchen", not "sarah42")
Logo — go to Branding in the left nav. JPG, PNG, WebP up to a few MB each. Square crops best.

This is the difference between your site looking generic and looking like
yours.

3. Add your first product (10 min)

Click Products in the left nav, then + Add Product.

Minimum to publish something useful:

Name — "Vanilla cupcakes (box of 12)"
Category — pick one (we pre-create five common ones for you; add your own if needed)
Base price — what one unit costs
Description — one or two friendly sentences
A photo — tape the cake to a window for the cleanest light. Phone shots are fine.
Allergens — tick whichever apply (UK FSA 14 majors). This auto-attaches to every order.

Hit save. Repeat for two or three more products if you've got the energy.
You can always come back later.

4. Build a tiny website (10 min)

Click My Website in the left nav. You'll see a drag-and-drop editor
showing your home page (we created it for you).

Quick wins:

Add a hero section with a one-line tagline ("Custom cakes for life's big bits, baked in Bristol")
Add a products section — it pulls in everything you added above automatically
Add an "About me" text section — three sentences about you and what you bake
Add a contact section — your email or Instagram handle

Click Open live ↗ in the top-right to see how it looks to a customer.

5. (Optional) Connect Stripe so customers can pay deposits (15 min)

This is the one that earns its keep — once it's done, customers can pay
their deposit online with a card and you get the money straight to your
bank.

Go to Account → Stripe Payments → Connect Stripe Account. You'll be
sent through a Stripe form (about 8 minutes), and that's it — connected.

Don't have a business bank account yet? You can use a personal one, but
Stripe will only let you receive small amounts until you upgrade.
Full Stripe setup guide →

6. Share your link

You're done. Grab the URL of your public site (it's at the top of the
Share your site card on your dashboard), paste it into your Instagram
bio, and you can start taking orders.

What's next

Test the order flow yourself. Visit your public site, place a fake
custom-cake enquiry, then go back to your dashboard and walk it through
enquiry → quoted → deposit_paid → ready → completed. You'll spot any rough
edges before a real customer does.
Try the free cake-pricing calculator. If you're
not sure your prices are right, this'll tell you.
Set your capacity. Settings → "max orders per week" stops you double-booking
on chaotic weekends.

Got stuck on a step? Email support@bakebase.co with what you tried —
we read every one and write a doc article for the most-asked ones.