I was seriously contemplating setting up a small home cupcake business but decided against it in the end. To make a proper profit I'd need to sell them for £2.50 each at least. I did the food hygiene course (£60), bought public liability insurance (£60. You have to have this), got my kitchen inspected by the local council (you have to do this when opening a food business), bought a KitchenAid (factory second for £310), spent over £100 on cases, ingredients, special food colouring, piping bags and nozzles, storage containers. I wanted to make quality cupcakes (not that cr&p you get in supermarkets or stuff some people try to sell) and that means quality ingredients. With each cupcake costing around 75p just to make, I just couldn't see it being a viable business on a small scale. Also, if you don't sell everything, you're stuck with stock you have to chuck. There are too many cupcake sellers too and I decided in the end that it was a fad which probably wouldn't last more than a year or 2 before the public got sick of them. So I decided against it in the end. Its hard work for small margins and unless you have an industrial size oven so you can bake a hundred at a time, it's very time consuming. I'm not sure people are prepared, where I live, to pay that much for a small cake. Maybe in London, but not round my way. Glad I didn't pursue it further in the end.