Home and Hearth Baker
Know what every item costs
Ingredient prices from your Pantry, packaging, and package sizes like a dozen or a gift tin. See your margin and a suggested price that pays you for your time.
For cottage and home bakers
An App with everything Baked in!
The most complete app you will ever find for your cottage home bakery business.
Recipes and costs, labels with your state's required wording, orders and invoices, market-day sales, bookkeeping, and the Cottage Food regulations for your state. All on your own computer.
- $119, paid once
- Free updates for life
- Works without the internet
- Windows 10 and 11
- Mac (macOS 12 or newer)
- One-time license fee$119, paid once. No subscription, no monthly fees.
- Free updates for lifeNew versions and state rule changes at no extra cost.
- Your information stays with youRecipes, customers and sales never leave your computer.
- 24 years of publishingFrom Tau Publishing of Carmel, Indiana, since 2002. About us
Recipe from photos
Take a picture of a recipe. It becomes a recipe in your program.
Photograph a cookbook page or a printed recipe card, and Home and Hearth Baker reads it for you: the name, how many it makes, every ingredient with its amount and measure, and the steps. A recipe that runs onto a second page comes out as one recipe.
- Snap the page, send it to your computerTake a picture with your phone, then email it to yourself or use OneDrive, iCloud or Google Photos to get it onto your computer. A scan works too. Add one page or several.
- The program reads themEvery page is read on your computer and each ingredient is matched to your Pantry. Nothing is uploaded.
- You check it, then saveEach line sits beside the piece of the photo it came from, so a misread fraction is easy to spot.
Grandma's handwritten cards too. Handwriting can't be read reliably by a computer, so for handwritten cards your photos sit beside empty boxes and you type the recipe in. Or talk it in: Windows and Mac voice typing work in every box.
Receipt from photo
Back from the store? Take a picture of the receipt.
Home and Hearth Baker reads your grocery receipt and matches each line to your Pantry, even store shorthand like “UNSLTD BTR” and “BKG PWDR.” One click restocks what you bought, updates your package prices so every recipe's cost stays current, and records the expense in your books with the receipt attached.
- Snap the receipt, send it to your computerTake a picture with your phone, then email it to yourself or use OneDrive, iCloud or Google Photos to get it onto your computer. A scan works too. A long receipt can be two or three photos.
- Each line is matchedTo your Pantry, with packages, size and price. Paper towels and other non-baking items are set aside.
- Save onceThe Pantry is restocked, prices are updated, and the expense is in your books with the photo attached.
It learns your stores. Fix a match once and it's remembered for that store, so your regular shopping trip is matched for you next time. The receipt is read on your computer, never uploaded.
What's inside
Everything a home bakery runs on
One program from the first batch to tax time, built for the rules home bakers actually follow.
Labels with your state's wording
Ingredients sorted by weight, allergens, net weight, your name and address, and your state's required statement in its required type size, for Avery sheets or a label printer.
Orders, invoices and receipts
Take custom orders and deposits, get warned about a customer's allergies, then print or email a numbered invoice or receipt with your logo.
Market Day sales
Record each sale at the farmers market in one tap and note how the customer paid. See today's total, and print a receipt when a customer wants one. Payments still go through your own card reader or payment app.
Bake Plan and lot numbers
Turn the week's orders into batches, one shopping list and a baking order. Every batch gets a lot number, so a recall question has an answer.
Bookkeeping, done as you go
Bank and card registers, loans, Profit and Loss, a balance sheet, mileage at the IRS rate, a self-employment tax estimate, and an export for your accountant.
Your state's rules
The Cottage Food regulations for your state, built in
What you may sell, where you may sell it, whether you need a permit or training, any yearly sales limit, and the exact statement your labels must carry. All 50 states, with links to the official sources.
A guide to help you follow the law, not legal advice; your state and local health department have the final word.
Private by design
Your bakery's information stays on your computer
Most bakery apps keep your recipes and customers on their servers. Home and Hearth Baker keeps everything in one file on your own computer, and works with no internet at all.
- No account, no cloudThere's nothing to sign up for and nothing stored online.
- Online only when you askThe program connects only when you check for updates, and it sends nothing about you or your business.
- Your family recipes stay yoursEven recipe and receipt photos are read on your computer, never uploaded.
- Backups you controlSave copies to a USB drive or your own OneDrive or Dropbox folder, automatically if you like.
The companion book
Starting and Building a Home Bakery Business
Your friends keep telling you, “You should sell these.” This book shows you how: legally, profitably, and without losing the joy that got you started. The book teaches the business; the program keeps your records and your state's rules.
Pricing
Pay once. Updates are free for life.
$119 for a license to the program, paid once. Try it free for 30 days first, with no card and no sign-up, and keep everything you entered when you license it.