Cake Decorating Blog, Tips & Business Advice for Professional or Part Time Cake Decorators

Jun 25 2018

The Biggest Cake Business Mistakes We Unknowingly Make

Mistakes… It’s not the fun-est word, but it’s a rather important word which we shouldn’t ignore. We all make em, whether it be something little like forgetting the sugar in a cake recipe (oh yeah, I’m THAT girl) or whether it be something a lil’ bigger like forgetting to pick up your kid up from school for hours (yes, MOM I’m looking at you…).

In the first few years of starting & running my cake business, I made a TON of mistakes. Small ones like forgetting to call a client back, and big ones, which are kinda what I want to talk about in this blog. These mistakes are what I refer to as the “unseen” mistakes.

In this post I’ll be discussing the habits & accidental business structures that we unintentionally find ourselves operating under which if unresolved, can lead slow growth (or no growth), frustration and eventually…burnout.

I can say all this because I was totally in that spot myself. I was hustling HARD, doing aaalll the things, but still struggled to gain customers, recognition and profits. This went on for such a long time that I started to feel burnout creeping in but thankfully, at the right time, received the help needed to go through a huge learning process of correcting the mistakes I had been unknowingly been operating with.

Now with a couple of years of losses & wins under my belt, I want to share the 3 biggest recurring mistakes that a majority of cake businesses make. From receiving DM’s from struggling cakers, to working with decorator’s in my exclusive Cake Mentorship programme through to reading comments left on my business blogs; I realise that this is an important blog post to write. Highlighting the most common cake business mistakes in our industry, from my personal experience & the experiences of others – all for the reason that you don’t have to face the repercussions of them like I did

Mistake #1

Working IN your business rather than ON your business

Here’s a question for those of you who have passed the threshold and launched your own cake business, do you ever feel like a hamster in a wheel? Week in week out, at a frantic pace just trying to keep on top of your orders, reply those emails, get photos posted on social media and everything else in between? All of this… is working IN the business. Working to keep the wheels of the business turning and functioning.

What I learnt somewhere in the third year of my business was that Cake Decorators (specifically solo cake business owners) in reality, have to wear 2 very different hats. Namely, the ARTIST hat and the CEO hat. When we operate as an artist (baking, creating, decorating, designing, collaborating etc) this is actually when we’re working as an “employee” in the business. What often happens in our everyday routine is that we get caught up in this role and forget to wear our other hat, the CEO/BOSS hat that requires us to do things like consolidate operations, re-evalutate our product offering, network, assess business goals, track profits, brainstorm new promotions and so on and so forth.

Whilst wearing the Artist hat is necessary for keeping your business running, operating as the BOSS of the company empowers you to forge the way ahead for business change, improvement & growth.

So how do we make sure we’re not neglecting our role as the CEO of our business? Here’s a suggestion of what you can put into practice. At the turn of every month, as you turn from one month to another in your diary, have a moment of reflection to ponder things like:

What were sales like in the last month? Was there growth or a decline?

What can I do in the coming month to see improvement?

Am I moving closer to my business goals?

How can I improve my client’s experience with my business?

How can I improve the quality of my products?

Am I happy with the way I’m working in the business? Am I working too much, or too little?

It can be as little as ten minutes or a whole afternoon at a café, but try and reflect on various aspects of your business from a CEO’s perspective.

Another very important thing is to keep educating yourself about Business, more specifically CAKE BUSINESS. I would encourage you to check out the Sugar Sugar Cake Business Page to learn, grow and equip yourself with the right business tools needed to keep your business moving forwards. Just as we happily delve into Youtube Cake videos to keep learning cakes, we should invest the same amount of time & enthusiasm into growing our cake business knowledge as well.

Mistake #2

Letting your clients dictate what you sell

Many of us “fall” into our cake businesses in a similar way. Here’s how it usually goes… Someone asks us for a specific cake design, we make it, make a buck, sleep and repeat.

We make cartoon cakes, naked cakes, pink swirl cupcakes, drippy cakes, number cakes, cookie cakes, stamped cookies… if they ask for it, we’ll make it.

All of this is well and good in the early stage in our business for a couple reason: One, it helps us hone our skills in a wide variety of areas. Two, it helps us identify what we’re good at (and what we’re not). Three, if helps us determine what our clients like.

However, many of us often find ourselves stuck in “custom-cake-land” for years and then struggle to see a way out.

Here’s something I realised that completely changed my cake business.

Our clients don’t dictate what we sell, WE do.

I’ll just give you a moment to let that simmer for a while…

Allow me to explain it like this… Imagine if every restaurant within a 30km radius didn’t have a menu… Imagine if they all operated on a “tell me what you want me to cook for you today” model. What would happen? Firstly, all of the food would taste pretty much the same in all the restaurants (as no one specialises in any one cuisine). It also wouldn’t matter which restaurant you picked so long as it was near to you and cheap. It would also mean that the restaurants would all struggle with a heavy workload as every meal they cook would be different for each client.

This seems ludicrous as an idea yet this is exactly what our cake industry often looks like. We want to sell everything to everybody and all it does is make us similar, monochrome and replaceable. Metaphorically speaking, we need to decide what kind of “restaurant” we wanna be. We need to pick a cuisine, develop a brand identity, determine our menus and sell that to our potiential clients. Don’t make the same mistake I did for so long in trying to fill every gap in the market and remain a one-size-fits-all business.

So what does this mean? It means that you have permission. Permission to move in a direction that you feel led to. If you’re making cakes that annoy and frustrate you, perhaps it’s time to think… “Is this really the kind of business I want to be?”. If the answer is no, then you have the freedom & choice to shift gears. You have that power as the captain of your cake ship.

There will always be an element of customisation in our area of work, however the design style, products & services that is offered should always be predetermined by the business, and not the client.

Which then leads me to my last point..

Mistake #3

Trying to be like everyone else

Let me start by saying that I personally don’t see anything wrong with looking up to other cakers and trying to learn from them in what they excel in. I’m all for that. Studying and observing the work of others helped me a great deal in developing a cake style of my own further down the track.

Perhaps this best explains it.. I read an article that when aspiring artists start an apprenticeship, they are often told to copy the work of masters. They learn form, composition and light and work hard to imitate the work of the “greats”. However, once they finish their apprenticeships, they are then told to “kill their masters” and not let their influence dictate their artistic expression.

Similarly, I personally believe it’s alright (and somewhat expected) when you’re in the early stages of cake decorating to refer and even “copy” other’s works (attached with all the appropriate tags & credits if posting publicly). However, once you find your feet and start getting more confident in your abilities, then it’s imperative to start “breaking the mould” a little to find a style, product or brand identity that makes you different to every other cake maker out there.

Try this for an experiment: List off 5 of your absolute fave cake makers, those who you admire and look up to. Chances are, their work and business branding is different and nothing like anyone else’s. Very likely, you’re drawn to their work & brand because it is both UNIQUE and EXCELLENT.

So if you’re new to decorating, then perhaps you’re in the season where you have to work on the “excellent” part to get your work refined & polished.

If you’ve been making cakes for a while and are at a point where you’re confident with most skills but are struggling to stand out, then here’s a lil suggestion: Pull back from trying to follow what everyone else is doing. Create your own style and don’t be afraid to be different from the pack. This will require some experimentation, market testing (getting unbiased feedback) and fine-tuning, but if you spend some time trying to create something fresh, new and inviting, eventually the art of drawing followers & clients becomes a whoooole lot easier.

I can betcha a majority (if not all) of the influential bakers in our industry are constantly asking themselves questions like “how can I do things differently?”, “How can I reinterpret this is a new way?”…

That’s certainly what I do and I’ll let you in on a secret… it works *wink*

So there you have it, the 3 biggest mistakes that cakers (including myself) at some stage unknowingly make. I hope this article has helped shed light on these themes and given you lots to ponder in the coming days about how you approach you cake making & cake business.

I’m keen to know which of the points here have helped you the most. You all know how much I love reading your comments and hearing from you <3

May 08 2018

Key Principles to Cake Pricing

I remember it as clear as day, hurriedly looking into my bank account for the cake payment to come through. There is was…. $100 shiny dollars. Hooray! Cha-ching!! I made a sale, I got some moneeeehhh….. I sat back in my happy little cake bubble but as I did, my eyes trailed down to my final bank balance and that’s when it hit… My bank balance was LOWER than what it was when I checked in a few days prior.

All those emails back on forth, that SKETCH I painstakingly made, the cake boards & fondant I just purchased…. All this and my bottom line wasn’t growing? What on earth??!

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation?

Chances are, there is a chorus of YAASSS happening all across the globe right now as your eyeballs lay hold of this article. I’m gonna say it now, loud & clear – I believe something in our cake industry needs to shift. The truth is, whilst making cakes is fun, fulfilling and our passion…it is very much so at its core, A JOB. The emails, inventory, designing, baking, frosting, decorating, delivering, marketing… this is all attention-absorbing, energy-requiring W.E.R.K .. can I get an ayyyy-men?

The journey to building my pricing philosophy has been a work-in-progress spanning years. I didn’t wake up one day with a revelation, suddenly able to charge over $1000 bucks for a cake like I’m blessed to do now. It was a process and one that took much longer than it should have. Along the way during that process, I also learnt so many other hard lessons about growing my cake Business. I’ve collated them all into a free Guide titled ‘Keys to Building a Successful Cake Business’, so if you run a cake hustle yourself, you might wanna check it out.

However… back to CAKE PRICING (dum-dum-DUMM). In this Blog post I’d like to share with you the “philosophy” that I’ve developed over the years which has helped me form my cake business price structure. This isn’t a How-To guide to equations nor is it a magic pill that will tell you exactly how much to charge for each product you make. That said, I truly believe these lessons I’ve learnt along the way will help you know how to approach your cake pricing with more intention, confidence and a wider perspective.

I’m sharing all this for no other payback than the hope that it helps our industry as a whole. If we ALL see our work as valuable, our clients will start to as well.. AND this will (in time) build the health and value of our industry.

Ultimately, I want to help champion your dream and to let you know that it is entirely possible to make a good living doing what you love.

Key #1 Your cake business is, a BUSINESS

So often we cake decorators only see ourselves as just that, cake decorators. We slot ourselves into the tradesperson category but don’t realise that the moment we emailed our first Invoice and submitted our business registration, we shifted from cake maker to Business Owner. This however, is something so many of us never realise until the workload starts setting in and the struggle to sell becomes apparent. And you know what? It’s not really our fault. Most of us never wanted to be in business. We just wanted to make cakes.

So many of us started our journey simply whipping up cakes in the kitchen. We made them gooood, were told how amazing they were, and received a lil pocket money from a friend and…voila! We were suddenly in business! A little down the track though we run into snags, realise this isn’t quite as easy as we first thought and the profits ain’t as awesome as we’d hoped. Here’s where I would like to offer a mindset shift:

Don’t see yourself as a cake maker who sells cakes. See yourself INSTEAD as a cake business owner who makes cakes.

Only when you see things though these lens, will you approach your cake business as it should be approached – as a BUSINESS.

Why can’t we continue the way we are right now? Why the need for a mindset shift? Well here’s a statement which will cause some queasiness: You cannot continue to make pretty cakes for a living if you are not making a profit.

You can certainly do it as a hobby and this is totally okay if this is what you want. But if you have hopes of making this a full time gig or at least a sustainable part-time job, then it is necessary to put on your business hat. Start seeing your work as both business and cake making. This will help you approach your work more strategically and intentionally, which is the starting point for growth.

Key #2 YOU are the Boss

What does this mean? It means that you have permission. You have full permission and power to decide what you want to charge for in your business and how much you want to charge for it. I have lost count the number of times I have been shown a picture of something and asked “Amanda, how much would you charge for this?”. Honestly, I never answer with a price when I’m asked this cause doing so wouldn’t be setting you up for success. It would be very much like giving you a puzzle piece that belonged to a DIFFERENT jigsaw puzzle instead of helping you find the piece for your specific puzzle.

The thing is, there isn’t a secret cake pricing rulebook floating around that we need to measure our cakes by. There isn’t a right or wrong. What DOES make a pricing right is if that price matches the work you do and is steadily growing in its capacity to provide you with a decent income. So if you feel you need to charge for delivery, charge for delivery! If you feel you need to charge for tasting boxes, then go for it! You don’t need someone to endorse this decision if deep down you’ve done the math, looked at the costs and seen that this is financially necessary. You are the best person to know your income needs and overheads, so give yourself permission to weigh all those up and decide what your business income needs are and charge accordingly.

Key #3 Don’t charge solely-based on what others do

Related to the above point, don’t measure your prices based on what others are charging. Yes, it’s necessary to consider competition in your area and what their price points are. But only take it into consideration and don’t let that be your entire price structure. In the past, I was SO guilty of blindly following my competitors pricing. If their base price was $100, then hey, my base price was $100! *Shakes head* Silly, silly Amanda.

See, the thing is, when you price your cakes according to others you are following a road map that belongs to someone else. It ain’t gonna make any sense and it won’t lead you to where you want or need to go.

So ask yourselves these questions:

What do I need to charge to cover my costs? (bearing in mind that your hourly wage is considered a COST and not your PROFIT)
What is the value of the products I’m crafting? (beyond just cake, think of the significance of a cake at a special event, sentimental value, craftsmanship, artistic value)
How do I want to position my business in the market (premium or “everyday-accessible” or somewhere in between)?
What stage am I at in my decorating career?
What profit margins am I aiming for each quarter of the year?

These questions will help you get a start in forming your own business’s price structure and allow you to take ownership of your business.

Key #4 Passion shouldn’t discount the Payoff

Hey, here’s something to think about… Just because baking is something we love to do, doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve to get paid well for it. I’ve met quite a few cakers who feel guilty for charging over $200 for a cake because they think it isn’t quite right to charge so much for something they consider a hobby. I also often meet cake decorators who squirm when the discussion delves into the topic of MONEY. Personally, coming from both a business degree AND pastry chef background, I am fairly comfortable talking about money. I looove talking about business and strategies for making things work.

Here’s where it’s important to personally come to terms with as you progress in your cake decorating:

Is cakes something you want to do for fun only when you get spare time outside of another job (which is perfectly okay too), OR do you want cakes to be the way your earn a living and what you spend a majority of your time working on (be it part time or full time)… and If you are on the fence with this, I’ve created a free business guide ‘5 signs You’re Ready to Start a Cake Business’ that I hope helps you.

If you’ve decided on pursuing the latter, then it’s important to see cake decorating as a ‘job-that-you-love’ as opposed to a ‘hobby-that-you-make-money-from’. Work, especially good work, rightfully deserves an appropriate wage. Which brings me to my next point…

Key #5 Your prices can ONLY increase if the quality & skill of your cake making does too

When someone wants to be an accountant, a mechanic or a teacher, they usually undergo some form of education, apprenticeship or internship. There is a dedicated amount of “unpaid” or minimally paid time of training & learning. On the flipside, for quite lot of decorators, the start of a cake business occurs rather instantaneously, without any formal education. Therefore, the early stages of our decorating career can be seen somewhat of an “apprenticeship” where we learn on the job. Over time, the low-priced cakes we make give us much needed practice to hone our skills and build our portfolio.

However, as you continue to work on your skills, take classes, dive into tutorials and spend time practicing your craft, it is only reasonable that your income should increase as well. As we now don’t have a supervisor or boss to give us a pay raise, the onus now falls on ourselves to incrementally evaluate our prices. It’s good practice to consider your pricing on an annual basis (the start of the year is often a good place to start). If you encounter repeat clients questioning your price increase, you can politely respond that the quote is based on the current year’s price structure and annual base price increases are a common industry practice.

Similarly, if you WANT to build up your business to a place where you can charge top dollar for your cakes, then you HAVE to put in the work in building up your cake techniques. You do need to invest in your cake education and continually improve your skills set through continued practice.

Practice, practice, practice! Don’t let failures or mistakes deter you.

Persevere in honing your craft and in doing this, the quality your work will increase and clients will more readily see the perceived value of your cakes – giving you permission and power to charge more for your work.

If you’re a caker in biz or just starting a business, you might wanna check out another free guide titled ‘5 Must Dos to Building a Successful Cake Business’. This one came out of a time of reflection on my past cake struggles and the fundamental factors that helped keep me on the path to where I am today.

At the end of it, pricing our work is tricky business. To put a price tag on a work that is so very deeply personal and a direct outcome of our own blood, sweat & tears is hard. To have someone reject those prices and say “that’s too expensive” is EVEN HARDER.

So if you’re trying to up your prices and no one’s biting, as yourself “How can I increase the perceived value of my product?” – Finer techniques? New designs? Clearer photos? Fresher branding? Better emails & communication?

Or if you’re getting busy with orders, are losing sleep finishing cakes & on the brink or burnout, perhaps it’s time to take a step back and ask yourself “Should I be charging more for these cakes so I’m able to earn more without overworking?”

I hope the above points have, like a compass, helped point you in the right direction and given you a clearer vision for approaching your cake pricing. Cake Decorating is a REAL JOB and cake business is a REAL BUSINESS and yes, it is entirely possible to make a good living from baking.

Remember that your work is valuable, your time is valuable and most of all you are valuable.

I hope that this blog has helped you.. and if it has, I’d love to know how… If you think a cakie friend might benefit from this post, I encourage you to share it. Again, remember that we need as many cake decorators as possible to understand the worth of their work. Only then will there be a shift in the value of our industry & craft <3

Till next time sweet ones xx

Apr 09 2018

Essential Guide to Hardware Tools for Cake Decorating

I know what some of you are thinking…this Blog Title sounds a lil off-kilter. Hardware tools? For cake decorating? Just when we thought a mixer & whisk were all the equipment we were gonna need..

True, there are TONS of magical concoctions we can whip up without the need of the following tools listed on this page. But today in this blog post I’ll be sharing some helpful & nifty hardware store finds which can help make our caking craft more – convenient, efficient & exciting!

THE BASIC ESSENTIALS

There are 4 basic tools that over the years, have become my must-haves for creating a whole range of cake support structures… from the simple right through to the complex.

Drill

A reliable drill with an assortment of drill bits is probably at the very top of my “essentials” list. Drills are much needed tools for building support structures and making holes in boards. I use them on a regular basis to securely stack my cakes with a sturdy & safe central dowel system (a must if you’re not a fan of having your cake tiers slide off or your cake masterpiece fall over). I personally prefer to use a cordless drill but that said, there ain’t nothing wrong with a corded one too.

Drill Bits

Then, onto the fun BITS (pun totally intended). The drill bits! I invested in 2 different sets. The first is a high speed Driving drill bit set (mine has 21 bits) which allows me to drill teeny tiny holes all the way up to 1cm holes.

Another set of drill bits that I find ultra useful is a set of Spade drill bits. I have a set which lets me drill holes from 1cm all the way up to 3.8cm. It fits just as any other bit does in a regular hand drill which makes it easy to use.

There are other tools for boring large holes through boards such as self-feed bits, hole saws & Forstner drill bits. Definitely have a look a those and purchase what suits your budget, ease, ability & needs. Personally, I find having a simple set up of 1 hand drill, 1 drill bit set for small holes and 1 spade bit set for large holes perfectly sufficient for my basic caking structure needs. It’s low cost, uncomplicated and doesn’t take up a lot of room. Tick, tick, tick!

Hacksaw

A third necessary tool is a hacksaw. A sturdy, sharp, non-rusty cake saw. This is especially handy for cutting central dowels as well as cutting pipes & pieces of wood for novelty structured cakes. For little jobs, even a little hand saw will suffice. We’ll chat about some other more advanced cutting tools later on.

Glue Gun

When I was first starting out in this whole caking thing, a craft store glue gun worked decently enough for most jobs. The trouble I started to find over time, was that these little craft glue guns wore out pretty quickly and couldn’t heat the glue hot enough for larger gluing jobs (which resulted in my futilely trying to press pieces of structure together with hardened glue).

If you face any of the above issues or are simply looking for an upgrade, I personally am a big fan of my Bosch 200w Glue Gun. It’s durable, heats glue reeeeaal hot (which gives me a bit of time before it hardens up completely) and has a longer, narrower tip (great for squeezing glue into tight spots). This is totally not an ad pitch, I just think it’s awesome if you can afford the upgrade and if you use your hot glue on a frequent basis.

SUPPLEMENTARY TOOLS & SUPPLIES

So these items here aren’t exactly essentials. Meaning, you’ll probably be able to cake rather effectively without them. But these tools are things I’ve discovered along the way that in one way or another, enhance the cake making experience with convenience, ease & speed.

Level

Topsy turvy cakes are awesome, but outside of that .. we cake decorators need our cakes to be level & straight. Whilst our eyes do an OK job of this, the best way to check if your cakes are level is to pop a level tool on top to check. It’s a very inexpensive tool and such a simple gizmo to help ensure our cakes are finished off professionally.

Floor Protectors

Have you ever have trouble picking heavy cakes off the bench top and wondered if there was a way your fingertips could be spared from weekly punishment? Enter self-adhesive floor protectors. These lil’ guys are stick-on tabs that are normally used under furniture legs to prevent scratches to the floor surface. I normally purchase the non-slip cork or rubber ones for added grip and to apply: it’s simply a matter of sticking a few under your cake drum prior to building your towering cake masterpiece. *[Alternatively, small pieces of foam core work well for this purpose too].

Scrapers

The next time you’re at your local hardware store, I would recommend perusing the paint scrapers section if you’ve never done so before. I know some decorators who swear by industrial paint scrapers as some of the best scrapers for getting smooth fondant & ganache finishes. I myself picked up a handy chisel which I regularly use for scraping hardened bits of isomalt, chocolate & batter off my workspace. Just a note to make sure that the materials used to make the scraper won’t rust and are food-safe

Pipes, Joiners & Flanges

I must admit, I do enjoy a lil browse down the pipe aisle. Who doesn’t? I particularly like to see what bits & bobs exist and the cake structure possibilities they present. In the States, plumbing pipes, joiners and flanges (all with joining threads) abound and work perfectly for creating crazy & kooky gravity-defying cake support structures (pictured*). Locally in Australia, we have access to PVC pipes, copper pipes & threaded rods which work too with some tweaking & twiddling. So go on, have a browse and see what possibilities you can find in your local hardware store!

Sanding Sheets

Sandpaper is a pretty handy thing to have on-hand if you work with foam dummies. Occasionally, foams come with slight imperfections.. Imperfections which are easily be scrubbed off with the use of some sanding sheets. Sandpaper is also useful when carving foam pieces for novelty cakes as it allows you to round off edges and create smooth surfaces for decorating. I prefer working with a fine-grit sandpaper on my foam projects and rougher-grits for smoothing off the edges of freshly cut wood pieces.

Jig Saw

By this I’m referring to a groovy hand-held tool that enables you to cut odd shapes & angles through wood and not, a puzzle that leaves you scratching you head well after dinnertime. Those 3D animal cakes and gravity defying constructions we see floating around the internet? Chances are a lot of them (note, not all of them) are built upon custom cut boards, cut with a jig saw or other similar tool. Another fantastic option that you could look into in a RotoZip (only available in the US to my knowledge) which does its cutting with a rotating drill instead of a saw.

Table Vice & Clamps

Don’t forget that with all this cutting, drilling & sawing, there needs to be something to securely hold these objects that you’re working on in place cause trust me, sawing with one hand whilst holding down a stick with your foot is NOT..I repeat…NOT a wise idea (so I hear anyways *cough*). These tools are pretty much a need if you plan on doing any of the aforementioned work. Similarly, clamps are also pretty handy for holding backdrops in place when photographing your edible works of art.

Toolboxes & Toolkits

Cake tools have an unscrupulous way of taking over the entire house, studio & kitchen. Wherever it is that you conduct your caking practice, chances are at some point, you’ll run into a space shortage issue. There is a plethora of organisation & storage solutions in your local hardware department. Think peg boards, tool boxes, shelving, stackable trays, compartment boxes … the works! It’s a great way o get organised and reduce the clutter so we can make room for…(you guessed it…) more cakie toys! whoop*whoop*

So tell me dear reader, what other Hardware Store treasures do you find useful for cake decorating?

Mar 11 2018

Complete Guide on How to Safely Deliver Tiered Wedding Cakes

There ain’t no stress like a wedding cake delivery stress. If you’ve made (or are planning to make) tall tiered cakes, you would be all too familiar with the nervous churning in ya gut prior to transporting your cake to the venue. Nightmares of fallen cakes, dropped cakes & snapped decorations are all too real in the profession with virtually every cake decorator having a story to tell.

My disaster story happened fairly early on in my career… In short, I was travelling an hour out to the country via windy lanes with a slender, buttercream beauty when an oblivious cyclist unexpectedly swung out directly in front of my vehicle, forcing me to slam on the brakes. Then I heard it… the blood-curdling, soul-quenching “thud”.

My 20-hour-labour buttercream beauty had submitted to gravity and was jostling about it’s box as I was forced to continue my drive up the narrow, windy lane. Enduring the walk of shame past the wedding planner, into the fine-dining venue, I spent the next hour frantically re-icing the entire cake (it ended up looking exactly as it did prior to delivery thanks to some nifty saves which I’ll be outlining below).

Moral of the story…? Take all necessary steps to ensure a SAFE & secure delivery. So you don’t ever have to endure a similar trauma, I’ve compiled a complete A-Z guide outlining the fine details of how to safely transport tall tiered cakes below.

From important stacking techniques, to on-site fixes; you can rest easy and drive with the music cranked up whilst your cake masterpiece is safely nestled behind you.

Securely Stacking Your Cakes with a Central Dowel

Had I properly stacked my cakes with the inclusion of an all-important central dowel system, I would have very likely spared myself the fallen-cake-fiasco. Hands down the most secure and sturdy method to stack your tiers is by first dowelling each individual tier (except the top one of course). These tiers are then built around a central dowel construction which holds all the tiers in place. I cannot recommend this method of stacking quite enough. It allows you to confidently deliver your cakes whilst knowing that there stands a strong spine holding your towering masterpiece together and firmly acnhoring it to the base board. You can get my step-by-step detailed instructions on how to properly Stack Cake Tiers & Build a Secure Central Dowel structure in this tutorial here.

On that note, some of you may be curious to know whether its best to stack your cakes before delivery OR at the venue, and here’s a system that’s worked for me over the years (its perfectly fine if you choose to do it differently based on your preferences & requirements):

2-4 tiered cakes: Stacked & decorated in my home studio, delivered fully assembled to the venue

5 tiered cakes and over: The bottom 3-4 tiers are centre dowelled & assembled . The remaining upper tiers (usually all foam) are fully assembled as a separately stacked “fake cake”. The bottom section & upper section are boxed separately and transported to the site as 2 separate sections with the upper section attached to the bottom section at the venue using royal icing.

*Note: I would not recommend having ALL CAKE tiers for anything more than 4 tiers. I learned the problems of this the hard way when I ambitiously constructed an all-cake 6 tier wedding cake which, though delivered to the venue in pristine condition, subsequently succeeded to snap my gleaming new $100+ stainless steel cake plateau like it was a flimsy child’s plaything. Simply explain to your clients that due to structural risks, anything above 4 tiers needs to be made partly in foam (upper tiers).

Contacting the Venue

It ain’t ever a good idea to rock up to the event venue unannounced. Despite receiving confirmation from the client of the address, delivery times & other details…I always recommend ringing up the venue directly approximately 1 week or a couple days before the event date. Some venues only open for short windows of time during event day or have specific parking zones for deliveries which you would need to be aware of beforehand. Other situations I’ve encountered are venues with a long dirt-road entries which require some preparation for (e.g. more spare sugar flowers needed in the event of breakage!). So yes, its always, always beneficial to ring up beforehand and chat to the corresponding event manager. You should also brief the organiser of your anticipated delivery time as this will help ensure that the cake table is prepped and ready before your arrival.

Making a DIY Wedding Cake Delivery Box

Tall cakes need tall boxes. If you’d like to make a sturdy DIY tall-cake delivery box with full coverage, here’s how I’ve built them:

Purchase a new (one or a few) tall cardboard box from a removalist or packaging supplier [make sure it is taller than a 5 tier cake height]. Make sure its clean & new
Using a serrated knife or saw, slice all the way down 2 side-edges of the box (so the front of the box opens downwards like a “doorway” flap)
Seal the top roof of the box with duct tape in such a way that allows the front flat to still open out like a “doorway” as prepped
Line the inner base of the box with non-slip material
Optionally, you could line the inside walls of the box with a heat-resistant material (e.g. foam sheets) to keep your cake cool
Place your cake inside the box and close the front flap
Use masking tape to secure the front flap in its upright (closed) position
At the venue, simply remove the tape to release the front “doorway” flap of the box and slide your cake out

Prepping an Emergency Cake Kit

Very likely, at least 1 out of 10 wedding cakes is going to need a fix at some points. Be it minor or major, you certainly need to be prepared. With every tiered cake I deliver, I pack along a kit with tools & materials that will allow me to fix up the cake in the unlikely event of a mishap. The kit is different every time depending on the type of cake that is being delivered. Buttercream cakes would obviously mean additional frosting and spatulas need to be brought along whilst fondant cakes will require additional fondant, a mini rolling pin, a knife, a bag of icing sugar and spare decorations. The best thing to do is to think of what is likely to be damaged mid delivery and to prep your kit according.

Transporting the Cake to the Venue

Make sure you have ample time to make your way to the venue. Under no circumstances do you ever want to cut it fine as sometimes, delay factors do unexpected crop up. Always aim to have your cake delivered at least 2 hours prior to the event start time to account for slow traffic, roadworks or unexpected damage. My personal policy is.. the earlier, the better! A majority of venues have walk in coolrooms where you can store your cakes for a couple of hours prior to the event (if it’s warm in your locality) or you could otherwise request to have the cake in air-conditioning.

It goes without saying, you’ll most certainly be driving at “granny” speed most of the way. I would suggest having some form of “Cake Delivery in Progress” sign which you can purchase online or have custom-made. This will help ward off dreaded tailgaters & hot-collared motorists, thus affording you the luxury of an uneventful ride.

*Bonus Tip: Always brake much earlier than you normally would at junctions & traffic lights

Setting Up Your Cake

Before lugging your cake to the front door…the first thing you should do the moment you arrive is to conduct a brief preliminary scout. If you have another person in the car, ask that person to stay in the delivery vehicle with the air-conditioning running or if you’re by yourself, leave the cake in the locked vehicle momentarily (obviously without the engine running) and make a beeline into the event space. Ask for the event manager or coordinating staff and after introducing yourself, confirm where they would like the cake to be positioned. You would then be able to unload the cake(s), cake stand and any remaining equipment from the vehicle to complete your cake set up.

Before Leaving the Venue

Hold ya horses… it ain’t time to make a run for it yet. There are 2 crucial actions you should take before leaving the premises. The first thing is to collect evidence of a safe delivery & set up. This might sound excessively cautious, but I have heard of countless incidences of cake makers being wrongfully blamed for cake damages by venue staff or other causes in their absence. So take a photo or two of the completed cake set up, even a simple iPhone snap would do.

The next thing to do is to pass on all cake-related instructions to the event manager/coordinator. Speak to the person in charge and provide any relevant information such as portion sizes, tier flavours, dietary specifications, decorative elements that need to be removed etc.. I normally have all this information typed up beforehand on a form that I refer to as a Handover Sheet.

In addition to this, I have a separate form for the event manager to sign to which I ask them to confirm that “The cake has been received and set up in proper condition”. I also include a term in this signed form that “Any damage to the cake caused in any way by the venue, factors within the venue’s control or hired staff/clients whilst the cake is kept at the event location is at the responsibility of the venue”. This is a form that I keep as insurance in the event of any unforeseen accidents that occur after I’ve completed my delivery.

And that’s it! You tiered cake delivery is DONE & DUSTED. You can now have full permission to bust out a happy dance and return home after a good day’s work.

So tell me dear reader, what you concerns you the most about tall tiered cakes?

Feb 25 2018

Website Strategies to Increase Cake Bookings

The world wide web. What a wonderful universe it is. Governing, organising and spreading information to every nook & cranny of the globe. What a marvel, what a delight! More than that, what a bursting bucket of opportunity! Many of us cake decorators however are known to approach the cyber space with much fear & trepidation. Terms like like domain name, web hosting and coding would have some of us quaking in our boots and throwing our hands up in disdain, retreating to the comforts of our kitchen whilst thinking “it’s all just too hard”.

The fact is, we cake makers NEED the internet. More than that, we need to know how to use it the right way to feature our products & services in the best light. Cause try as we might, there just isn’t a faster or better way to grow our business than with the internet.

In this blog post, I’ll be discussing the importance & role your website plays in your cake business and then sharing 5 proven Website Tips to land MORE Cake Bookings.

Now I know many of you out there may already have a cake website, but stay with me till the end friend, cause you may pick up a tip or two to make your website EVEN MORE awesome than it already is right now and consequently, enable you to convert way more people into paying customers.

Firstly, let’s demystify some thoughts & barriers for those who may be on the fence of getting a website:

I don’t need a website, I can grow my business through word-of-mouth

True, word-of-mouth can be a strong business driver for us cake decorators, but ask yourself this…how are those people who have heard of your cake decorating prowess going to find you? The phrase “I’ll just google it” has become so ingrained in our society for the simple reason that the internet has become undeniably the most used means to search for businesses & products. So think about the next time your business name gets thrown about at a birthday dinner party… Wouldn’t it be nice to have your gorgeous website pop up when one of those partygoers types into the google search bar?

But I’ve already got a Facebook / Instagram account. That’s enough surely?

Facebook & Instagram is AWESOME (and imperative) for growing your following & attracting clients. But let’s get real. Social media in whatever shape or form is borrowed space. Speaking metaphorically, a Facebook/Instagram feed would be a rental property where you’re subject to monthly term changes as opposed to a home that you own (website) – which is where you have full jurisdiction. We’ve heard & seen the “algorithm” updates on social media platforms, causing panicked chaos as business owners struggle to get their content seen.

Furthermore, a website is oh so important as it builds client trust. The “higher-end” clientele who many of us desire to have in our portfolio tend to make judgements on the “legitimacy” of a business based on that business’s online presence (i.e. website). For a vast majority of bakers & cake decorators who work from home without a storefront, a website acts as your virtual storefront.

Your online Gallery fills the shoes of a shiny brick-and-mortar window display

Your About Page acts as your personal handshake & introduction

Your Menu & Product list replaces print menus & display shelves

All of this website ramble is to shed light on the importance of having & strategically building a user-friendly website.

How Do I Build an Awesome Cake Website ??

To break it down in reeeaallly simple terms, here are the basic elements you need to build a cake website:

A domain name (your .com/ .com.au / .net …etc website name)

Web Hosting (think of it as a virtual “shelf” that provides both storage for your website on the internet and allows others to access it)

Web Design (layout & page designs of your website)

An Sensational Kick-Butt Cake Website

There are 2 ways to build a website for your cake business. Quite simply, you could ask/pay someone else to do it, or simply do it yourself.

Building a Site with a Web Developer

I have always opted for this option for a number of reasons:

I’m not overly techy
Website building is a very time-consuming activity
I am way better at making cakes & selling them compared to building a website

I figured making a couple of cakes and selling them (and then using this money to pay someone to build a site for me) would be quicker and less stressful than actually trying to learn to build & maintain a site myself. I was fortunate enough to have a friend who helped me build my very first cake website for a reduced rate at the start. So if you’re someone who’s just starting out, I would totally recommend asking around your social circles for contacts of someone remotely techy who could help build your site for free, a reduced rate or in exchange for services. That said, a website would be one of the must-make investments when you start a cake business and so hopefully, you would have budgeted for this when you set aside your start-up funds.

Build Your Own Cake Webpage

The DIY route is not overly horrendous and the easiest and best way I would personally recommend to do it would be to with an all-in-one online service like Wix or Squarespace. The reason I would prefer these services is because these sites:

Provide Hosting & domain (if you choose to) together with web design as an all-inclusive package
Have a wide selection of gorgeous, contemporary styled templates to choose from
Are relatively user-friendly with a drag n’ drop design function
Allows you to maintain or make edits to your site in your own time (rather than having to contact your web designer to do so for you)

The best thing to do is to consider and research the pros & cons of each method before committing to it. A website is a big investment (time & money) and is something that you will likely be committed to for 2-5 years (after which, would be about the right time for an upgrade).

5 Winning Website Strategies to Converting More Cake Bookings

1. Functionality

Make sure that website is easy peasy to use. If you want to test this, get your aunt or better yet, someone’s grand daddy to use your site and see if they can navigate around it easily. Make your tabs & headings easy to read and laid in an organise fashion. A beautiful website can be a total waste if your potential clients can’t easily find the information that they’re looking for on your site. Site crashes, slow load times & glitches can be a major turn-off for users and so do your very best to fix issues as quickly as they arise. Functionality & user- friendliness is arguably as important (if not more important) than aesthetics in building a cake business website.

2. Gorgeous Images

The number one thing a client wants to browse on a cake website is the cake gallery. It is almost unheard of for a client to secure a cake booking without first scanning through some of your past work, so with that in mind, make sure you put your best foot forward!

Only use images of your most impressive cake work on your website
Blurry and dark photos are a no-no
Make sure your photos are well lit, free of clutter & sharp
Professionally taken photos would be ideal if at all possible so try and obtain these (add the copyright) to use in your online gallery
Update (upload new, remove old) photos every 3-6 months if possible, or at the very VERY least, once a year

As cake makers & bakers, our products are visual in nature, and so our site does need to feature images prominently in order to attract and entice our ideal clients.

3. Clear Contact Info

So envision this, someone hears about your business, hunts you down with google, falls in love with your cake images and wants to book a cake with you… but just can’t seem to figure out how to place a booking… *facepalm*

Here’s the thing, we want to make it SUPER DUPER easy for shoppers to book your product & services. So a big tip is to make your contact info prominent and easily visible. Better yet, if you can embed a Contact Form for potential clients to directly make an enquiry via on your site: MEGA WIN! Doing this makes it a breeze for people to get in touch, which in turn…results in more enquiries and you guessed it – a higher potential of bookings!

4. Call to Action

A call to action is exactly that, a prompt to get your web users to take action. Stats show that 70% of websites’ landing pages don’t feature a call to action, resulting in lost sale opportunities. Here’s the thing.. Filling your site with stunning images & attractive wording ain’t enough. You gotta nudge your potential clients to DO SOMETHING that will take them a step closer to making an enquiry/placing a booking with you. A good way to do this will be to have buttons or links on multiple pages asking your users to “Enquire Now” or “Request a Quote” which will direct them to your Contact Form.

5. Testimonials

Nothing helps push a potential customer over the line quite like a positive testimonial can, so make sure you feature these visibly on your site. Those browsing your webpage might be wondering what your cakes taste like, or may be curious to know what kind of service quality they can expect from you. Having testimonials from past clients could help answer all these questions in their minds. Soooo… always remember to collect feedback from your clients SOON AFTER the event (cause asking them 3 months after they’ve eaten the cake can be kinda weird)…. It can something as simple as a follow up email thanking them for their order and asking them how they enjoyed the cake. Easy peasy! More often than not, these be turned into testimonials for your website. You might be temped to think of this as a hassle or an extra task with little importance, but in actual fact, collecting a client’s feedback could very well be the thing that earns you your next booking.!

Do you already have a cake website? With these tips in mind, what are the tweaks you think you can make to improve the functionality, aesthetics & conversion of your website?