Personal Archives - Sugar Sugar Cakes

Feb 12 2018

How to Style a Modern Kid Birthday Party

It’s true what they say.. when you have a child, its a series of long days and short years. How on earth is my little ittie baby already ONE?

For years as a cake decorator I’ve been so immersed in creating lovely things for others… The truth is, I’ve never actually made or done something special for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I loved to do it (and it’s mostly cos I get a bit funny about throwing myself a party). Sooooo… after years of making birthday cakes and farewelling them to other’s homes & parties, I FINALLY had a chance to make a birthday spread for my own baby boy’s First Birthday!

Having worked on countless dessert buffets for major events & parties, and was so looking forward to creating something special to celebrate surviving the first year as new parents! (cause really, in reality a baby’s first birthday is more or less a big celebratory pat on the back for mum & dad). We did it!

The 3 things I had in mind when styling this party were: Modern, Happy, Fresh

I worked towards creating a Contemporary-styled event (cause if you know me, I’m reeaaally into modern cakes & sweets) yet keeping a recognisable “kid” element. I drew inspiration from the incredible artwork of Beci Orphin and transformed our home into a fantasy URBAN|ART technicolour dream party.

So here is this Blog, I’ll be walking you through every element of the party and showing you how to create a modern, unique baby/kid themed party with minimal stress and without breaking the bank.

Ideas on How to Style A Modern Urban Art Theme Baby/Kid Party

The Decor

I knew from the get-go I wanted to create an immersive colour experience for the event. I had long fantasised of having a stunning balloon garland as a focal point behind the main dessert table, so you can only imagine how overjoyed I was to find the perfect DIY Balloon Garland Kit from Ruby Rabbit Partyware. Despite how impressive and intricate it looked, we were surprised to discover that it was rather easy to blow up and put together – proving to be the perfect job for my hubby Henry to complete whilst I ran fussing with my cookies & such. My sweet sister helped cut out strips of coloured card to make “sprinkles” for the walls to make our home look like one ginourmous cake! (cause who doesn’t fantasize about living in a house of cake?!). With a scrapbooking paper cutter/guillotine, it was a snappy job to do; and we stuck sprinkly goodness all over the walls with a small touch o’ white tack.

The streamers were mostly sourced from Ruby Rabbit but I wanted to add some element of geometry to the bundle to reinforce the theme. So I went about making a few paper streamers from cut pieces of cardboard (circles, squares, triangles) sewn together with a simple running stitch using a sewing machine. Floaty shapes… me like!

The Cake

I can’t tell you what a BALL it was to make this cake. The entire cake was covered in fondant and topped with gumpaste decorations which I had made a day earlier. I painted on fun splashes in my signature graffiti style using Edible Art Paint by Sweetsticks (one of my favourite decorating mediums of ALL TIME). Elements that I wanted to include in this design were strong contrasts, bright colours, geometry, grid lines and fluid painted motions.

I drew grid lines using an edible marker and creating textured decorative pieces using a fabric texture mat.

The Dessert Table

More angles, shapes & bright colours! Yeehaw.. I had envisioned a table covered with funky, coloured blocks & shapes and my craftsy interior designer sister helped me bring this to life. She covered foam dummies (cut to customised measurements) with coloured cardboard, cut to size and stuck on rather simply with glue. It formed the perfect prop setting to feature the choc flavoured cake popsicles, sugar cookies & green tea custard eclairs. Oh, and if you’re wondering where we got the cute lil’ wooden “house” blocks from, those were made (by a friend) from wooden offcuts, cut at an angle and sploshed with paint.

The Grazing Table

If there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that I didn’t want to be sweating in the kitchen cooking on the day of Josiah’s party. No sir-ee! I opted instead to have a grazing table of nibbles, which suited my strategically timed “afternoon tea” party to a tee. My wooden island bench was transformed into an overflowing oasis of dips, bread, cheese, crackers, fruit & nuts lushed up with a blend of foliage & florals. It ended up bring such a hit with my guests as it was a far cry from the party pies & cold sandwiches that we had all grown accustomed to at kid parties. And the prep? All that was involved was laying out my collection of platters & vintage stands, opening a mountain of food packets and spilling them on the table in a fashion that can only be described as “organised chaos” …aaand voila! A generous grazing galore sure to satisfy any peckish posse.

Fun, fresh, bright. This is one event very dear to my heart and I hope this party DIY helps spark new ideas on how you can style and jazz up your next celebration. If you’ve got a question, hit me up! And if you wana hold on to any of these party images as inspo for future reference, you can go on right ahead and pin them to your Pinterest boards 🙂

xx Amanda

Ruby Rabbit Partyware: https://www.rubyrabbit.com.au/

Jan 28 2018

How to Make Your Cake Career Dreams a Reality

Sometimes our “dreams” can seem so far away from where we are right now, it gets overwhelming. Trust me, I know this. Often we gape at the sheer magnitude of the mountains ahead of us and just decide, “It’s simply too far away” or “It may never happen”. We look at the dream and realise it’s all too much and walk away.

But here’s the thing you gotta ask yourself. How is it possible for other regular human beings to get to live out their dreams despite the odds? What are THEY doing that I’m not?

Last week, I shared my Behind-the-Scenes Story of How I Started My Cake Business, and for those of you who read it, you would know that my beginning was far from perfect. I had a million reasons to walk away and do something “easier” or “safer”. But somehow deep within my gut, intuition and heart I knew I had to pursue this.

So you’ve heard my story, and now you’re dreaming up a storm for your life. What now?

Today I’ll be sharing the 4 things that helped me position myself towards actually ACHIEVING my career goals. 4 actions that made sure that I didn’t fall down the slippery slope of wishful thinking but actually DO the things I so wanted to. These are goal-setting pillars I learnt from business coaches & life mentors which helped propel me towards my own career milestones. That said, I am still walking out my own journey, and I’m soooo not done kicking goals yet (cause I always believe in the potential for even “greater things” ahead no matter what we’ve already accomplished).

So today I’m sharing my insider goal-setting actions that I know from experience will help spearhead you in the direction of your aspirations, in hopes that you get to experience the delight of walking in the future your dreams have written.

#1 Write Down Your Goals

If you’ve already done this, then big pat on the back to you. Marvelous.! But stay with me on this…

Why is this important you ask?

Let me explain…. Having a dream or idea in your head is all well and good, but putting it down on paper (or your laptop or whatever) is the FIRST STEP to actually planning our your dream-chasing course. You need to gather your thoughts and work out IN DETAIL what it is exactly that you want to achieve.

So you want to actually write & list out a 3 year goal, a 2 year goal & finally your 1 year goal (yes, working backwards).

Your 3 year goal should be your “big dream” goals. The big scary stuff you want to work towards but aren’t quite sure how they’re gonna happen.

The 2 year goals are in between milestones that you know you need to achieve in order to reach your 3 years goal.

Your 1 year goal is a list of things you have to complete by the end of the year to set you on the right track towards achieving year 2 & 3 goals. These first year goals should be both realistic, yet ambitious.

The key to all this again is to be SPECIFIC. Don’t just write down “Imma gonna be the best cake decorator EVAAA” or “I’m going to make lots of $$$$$ cha-ching!”

That is not an achievable, realised goal. What you probably want to write down is something like:

“I want to enter 2 cake competitions or collaborations by the end of the year”

“I want to start & grow my Instagram account by at least 5000 this year”

“I want to start booking $1k+ weddings by mid this year”

And so on & so forth…

You want to write & plan out calculable goals that you can actually take steps towards.

Working backwards in Goal planning in this way also helps make your BIG GOAL look more achievable. Why? Cause you’re breaking it down into smaller bite sized pieces that you KNOW will eventually lead you towards your BIG DREAMS.

#2 Invest in study & development

If you’re reading this blog, then well done you! You are INVESTING in your skills & knowledge which makes you not just a “dreamer”, but DOER. High five!

The ones who get ahead in life are really those who never ever stop learning, growing or evolving. The ones who are hungry for knowledge and who actually invest time & money in their education.

The more we apply ourselves to learning, the better cakers & business people we will be. Over the years, I have invested heavily in courses, online tutorials, live classes, books, blogs, articles…and they have been the biggest asset in my caking career. Every investment I’ve made to growing my business knowledge & cake skills have always paid off in spades not just in my confidence, or skill…but especially so in my business profits.

That’s what investing means. To put something of value into a venture in hopes of reaping a greater profit or benefit. Whatever time, effort or finance we invest into our education isn’t a lost… we reap the fruit of in in a different, compounded form over time.

It’s a lot like the act of planting a seed. We need to tend to the soil, water the seed, fertilise the ground and invest time & resources into this seed. But later on, as time goes by, we get to experience the FRUIT of our early labours with a bountiful harvest!

#3 Don’t just dream…DO.

Planning, learning, & investing in our “dreams” alone ain’t enough. We have to actually DO it. Otherwise, our goals & wishes remain just pipe dreams…whimsy’s and fancies that eventually, never go anywhere.

So what does it look like to not just dream, but DO?

Well, it would be to set aside a set amount of hours each week to action out your goals. So for example you could determine to make 1 cake or new edible décor each week. Or perhaps you could set aside 2 hours growing your social media following each week. Or you might want to learn 1 new cake skill every month.

Whatever it is, just DO IT. Set aside time each week (even if it’s as little as 1 hour) dedicated to working towards your 1 year plan.

#4 Create a Habit of Using a Planner or Diary

I would totally recommend using a planner or diary to map out each week so you KNOW you are taking small steps towards your goals. Successful people are very good at maximising their time. Think about it, we all get 24 hours a day. You, me the President of the United States. But how is it that some achieve more than others in their set 24 hours? The difference is in being organised with our daily schedule & responsibilities by planning out our weeks & months with intention.

I used the word HABIT because it is something that has to be cultivated over time. Not everyone is used to living their lives according to a planner, but this is something that should be learnt if you are serious about running a thriving & organised cake business.

You can choose to use a diary that’s inbuilt into your phone, or if you’re like me and love to scribble everything down (to have it visually & physically mapped out) you can use a weekly or daily planner. I love doing this, as it allows me to make sure I’ve got all my weekly tasks mapped out, my day-to-day mommy duties & my work all neatly slotted somewhere into my week. I don’t have to worry about doing this or that, because I’ve got it all out of my brain and onto my diary, which I simply have to follow.

Yes, sometimes things come up and our week doesn’t quite go as planned. Life’s like that. Simply reschedule and move those important things into the next week and go from there.

If you struggle with procrastination, then set yourself little rewards so you’re motivated to finish mundane tasks (like reward yourself with a cookie or something). Another great tactic which I picked up in my teenage years back when I was a junior state athlete (say whaa..?) is to mentally visualise the end goal (e.g I’m going to spend 2 hours practising my piping so I can make those beautiful iced cookies I saw someone make last week). Try it, it works 🙂

In my first Blog post of the year, I talked about Achieving Your Wildest Cake Dreams and so many of you responded that this post resounded deeply with you. One of my personal goals this year is to equip you with keys & tools to actually achieve YOUR wildest cake dreams.

So my sweet friend, don’t just fantasise about your dreams… Do something about it. Don’t live with the regret of “what if” or “if only I had…”.

It’s all possible.

Write your goals, make a plan, invest & learn deeply, map out each week & most of all….

DO.

Jan 15 2018

Behind-the-Scenes of How I Started My Cake Business

Today I want to share something very personal with you: my story

I’ve been wanting to tell the REAL story of how I started my cake business for a long time now. The true, raw, uncensored story.

Welcome to draft no. 3… I’ve written, deleted, rewritten and deleted multiple drafts of a chapter that very (VERY) few know.

Many who have been following my cake journey know me from the glossy details of … BUT hbeing a cake blogger, Youtuber, Cake TV! instructor, award winning wedding cake designer, an online cake school business owner, winner of Threadcakes, social media personalityow I started couldn’t have been further from all of these things (which I’m immensely humbled and grateful for).

So, how did I start my cake business?

It starts in a hospital. Me, stuck in a hospital to be precise for over two long, sucky months fending off a sudden autoimmune condition that left doctors baffled. Prior to this, I had just wrapped up a Business degree at uni and was in the midst of clocking up some serious hours as a pastry chef in hopes of one day conquering the world of haute patisserie.

So at the age of 24, I found myself quite suddenly caught in a whirlwind of medical complications, infections, MRIs, tests, seizures, memory loss, stroke, ICUs, operations .. you name it. Call out any medical division in a hospital and I can betcha a slice of tiramisu that at some point, I was there.

Like I said…sucky.

It was only by a complete and utter miracle, that I didn’t die. As things seemed to peak to a terrible crescendo, fervent prayers of my church, friends & family led to a sudden breakthrough when I was in ICU. I can’t quite explain it, but I know God healed me. In the deepest darkest time of my life, He was right there with me and walked me through it. And in the weeks that followed, I gradually inched my way to a full and complete recovery (!!!) without any lingering impairments or need for ongoing medication (can I get a ha-llelujah..?)

Once recovered, I was keen as beans to start LIVING again, and I thought that meant getting right back into my pastry job (prior to the whole hospital fiasco I was promised an awesome promotion which would see me designing new desserts for the large hospitality franchise I worked for). But fresh outta recovery, I was unexpectedly made redundant, which I suspect was a result of my bosses getting freaked out with my whole sicky-stroke-seizure-gross-weirdo fiasco. So yeah…MAJOR bummer.

Almost at exactly the same time, my then fiancé (now husband) lost his job too. Which meant we were planning a wedding and a life together without any money.

So here I was, post recovery, skinny, semi-balding (due to prior treatments), broke, jobless, living in a moth-infested rental… what was a girl to do?

I bounced between random jobs at the time to keep things afloat but I knew I needed to embark on a new career path. The only question was…what? Starting a business couldn’t have been further from my mind. What I needed was a safe, secure job which paid the bills and put some stability back into my life. I mean.. who on earth starts a business under such circumstances?!?

Cue random phone call from a friend one day…

“Hey, do you make those pretty colourful cakes? The ones with the sugary figurines..?”

(Internal voice: err…no) Oh, why you asking?

“It’s our anniversary and I just thought to ask if you would make one for us, we’re happy to pay”,

(Internal voice: Hrm…I’m a pastry chef, how hard will it be to figure it out.. I wonder what that sugary stuff is called..) Yeah sure!

So that night, I taught myself how to make the “sugary stuff” (which I later found out was called fondant), then proceeded to cover & decorate a novelty cake for the first time and *cue confetti drop*…

My first sale was born.

(Yes, I know, I know… I had broken all the cardinal rules for properly starting a Cake Business and very simply, fell into it. We’ll talk about THAT in the very near future). But broken rules aside, something had gone off inside me.

A spark was lit and I was bewildered to realise how much I enjoyed making a handcrafted, meticulously designed cake AND selling it to someone who appreciated and loved it so much.

It was a no brainer for me.

I realised didn’t JUST want a job for job’s sake. I didn’t want to work for (or have my future reliant on) under-appreciative bosses. I didn’t want to spend a majority of my life doing something I didn’t remotely enjoy.

I wanted to create. I wanted to bake. I wanted to be a #girlboss (cause c’mon, that just sounds way cool). And call me immature, but I wanted to work at home in my pyjamas everyday!

So the decision was made and I went for it. I had set myself a steep learning curve but I was determined to make it work because I thought “if others can successfully carve out a career out of this, then I can too”.

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Which leads me to share a few very important core mantras that saw me through the rough patches of my caking odyssey:

There’s always room at the top

The fact that there seems to be many, many others more successful than you, doesn’t mean there isn’t space for you to succeed too. No industry ever says “Nope, we’ve got enough gifted, influential people here. Please try somewhere else”. There is opportunity and space for each one of us to come out tops in our chosen field of work.

You have to faith it till you make it

In the lyrics of the rock band Journey (or Glee if you’re a millennial) … Don’t stop believing! It’s actually possible to make a career out of something you love. I’m living proof! When the doubts or fears hit, you just have to “faith it” and move forwards.

Success is an iceberg

Err…where you going with this Amanda? Hear me out. It’s a metaphor. People only see the tip of the iceberg (success) however the REAL bulk of the iceberg is underwater and goes completely unseen. That’s majority volume represents the hard work, focus, learning, grit & persistence that is required to form that wondrous, icy tip. Success doesn’t come by luck, accident or ease. It costs us something.

Healthy builders are Happy Builders

In the pursuit of “greater things”, don’t neglect your health, wellbeing or families. Yes, sacrifices are sometimes necessary – but be wise. My husband & I have shifted responsibilities depending on the different seasons of my business. Unavoidable sleepless nights should be followed by some proper form of recuperation, and if I’m feeling stressed or pressured, I always open up to someone for help. You cannot be your most effective self if you’re not looking after YOU (body, soul, mind) & your family.

Rome wasn’t built in a day

And neither is a cake empire. Give it time. Build it every day. Keep laying those bricks and eventually, you’ll look back and see how far you’ve travelled.

The reality is that it wasn’t smooth sailing all the way when I first started my business. Far from it… every win would be followed by a loss and it was a constant “two steps forward, one step back” situation. I was a no-name cake decorator trying to make it in an endless sea of talent. It was H.A.R.D and at one stage, I very nearly threw in the towel and quit my business completely (I’ll be talking about THAT in a future blog post).

I remember times where I’d quietly cry in bed after a night out with friends having just learnt of their shiny new jobs or promotions, whilst I had only managed a $50 profit that week. I recall being so consumed with self-doubt as I was constantly comparing myself to other cake decorators (I share more about How I overcame Caker Comparison in an older post). I also remember the many occasions I’d have to forgo sleep on a Friday night just to remake a cake or fix a topper that fell apart (due to my shoddy skill level).

Nonetheless, I could see very clearly where I WAS, and where I WANTED TO BE.

So I determined in my heart to keep chipping away at the dream until it became a reality. I invested in courses and classes and got skilled. I practiced, perfected and honed my craft. I pored over my business textbooks. I then started a strategic plan of developing myself to become the cake decorator I KNEW I could be (if you’re interested, you can read more about How I Accelerated My Cake Skills in One Year).

The truth is, I’ve never stopped chipping away. And I think, I never ever will. But today as I share my story, I’m taking a sneaky peek behind my shoulder and seeing that indeed, I’ve come very, very far and am living out the career I had wished for way back when I first made that “sugary stuff”. I get to make pretty cakes, work every day as a creative entrepreneur, teach passionate like-minded bakers & connect with incredible people from all over the globe.

And I get to do it all in my pyjamas.

If you’re telling yourself defeating things like having a dream is for other people but not you, or that others have a better shot at it than you do, or if life’s throwing you some serious punches… Then I hope my story helps encourage you that dreams ARE achievable and they are doable. I’m living proof.

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in, and day out.” – Robert Collier

Embrace the process, stay the course, live each day with gratitude & most of all, never stop learning.

You’ve got this.

xx Amanda

Jan 01 2018

Achieving Your Wildest Cake Dreams

What if 2018 was the year where you finally stepped out? What if you could finally start earning an income from cake decorating? What if you won a cake competition? What if you launched that cake business?

What if, what if, what if…

If you follow Sugar Sugar Cakes on social media or are a regular reader of this blog, you would know that I drop a new blog post here on Mondays. So with the opportunity of releasing a new blog post on the FIRST day of the NEW YEAR, I want to challenge you, that this could be YOUR YEAR. The year that you turn those ‘what ifs’ into a something tangible.

I don’t know about you, but I got a stirring in my gut about this year (and it ain’t from all the Christmas trimmings I had last week). I’ve got this unshakeable sense that there are quite possibly big things in store for each & every one of us if only we position ourselves (our goals, our priorities, our learning & our mindset) in the right direction.

I’m convinced that it should very well be time to shake off the doubts, the naysayers, the fears and take purposeful steps forwards to turn our secret hope & dreams into our reality.

For some of us, the ‘cake dream’ is clear. Perhaps you wake up in the morning wishing you could stay home and bake all day instead of going to work. Or maybe you twiddle you pen at the office dreaming of starting our own cake business. Or perhaps you spend your afternoons watching Youtube videos on cake and wonder if you could ever be one of those chirpy teachers you see on your screen.

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So here are some bold statements I’d like to discuss on the subject of ‘Discovering & Achieving Your Cake Dream’….

You don’t have to be ultra-special to be a success

“Wha…? Amanda..?! This is ridiculous …” you say. All the “reasons” built up in our minds about why we can’t have the wins that we see others have are mostly fabricated & untrue. All those people you admire, aspire to be like, hope to emulate… are all in fact, regular normal people.

Which could only mean one thing. Lil ol’ me, you, she, him, her… all have a shot at achieving our biggest wildest cake dreams regardless of where we were raised, which country we live in, how much (or little) money our family has, our social standing, our age etc.

One thing that I appreciate from Snapchat & Instastories (a new “insider video” form of social media) is the ability to take a sneaky peek into the lives of affluent & notable individuals from all over the globe. Seeing them do their weekly grocery run, buy coffee, get stuck in traffic, go to the doctors and stroke their pets are all wonderful reminders that the “greats” out there are JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE.

The fact is, ANYONE can achieve their cake dreams and find success in the cake industry.

You may ask then “why isn’t EVERYONE successful?” ahha… I’m glad you brought that up. Therein lies some very interesting factors that separate the exceptional from the ordinary, the legendary from the mediocre. And THAT, will be covered in my next upcoming blog post in exactly a fortnight from today.

You don’t have to wait until you’re the most talented caker to START achieving your dreams

Now let’s get one thing straight. In making this statement, I am NOT endorsing laziness or passivity in working/schooling-up on skill & knowlege. I believe every caker needs to constantly work hard at being the creative BEST that they can be.

The point that I’m making here is that you don’t have to wait till you win “so & so” competition or till you are good at “so & so” skill till you venture out and do something BIG with your caking. The key point I’m trying to make here is to JUST START ANYWAYS. If you keep “waiting” till you reach a certain height or accolade, the danger is that you may spend too long (or maybe your whole life) waiting. And that will be so, very sadly unfortunate.

I was casually chatting with a friend last week who is currently attending art school and I asked her, “How come I never see you post or show people your artwork… like, ever?” to which she replied “I only want to show my work when I feel they’re professional enough, and until then, I’m not going to display my work”. I get it, the feelings of insecurity & fear-of-judgement when our work is exposed onto a public platform to stand alongside those with 1M followers & a gazillion likes. It’s hard and kinda freaky.

But friend, I’d like to offer an encouraging nudge.. Take intentional steps forward this year towards your cake dream. Don’t sit around waiting. Cause here’s another fun fact for ya..

There is no perfect time to start chasing you dreams

You. Just. Gotta. Start.

One step at a time. The longer you wait, the longer you’re putting off your own progress & achievement.

Something veeeeery interesting that I’ve observed in my own journey & others: Success comes progressively over a long period of time, and not overnight. You know the age old adage “Rome wasn’t built in a day”? Well, it’s true. And the principle applies in the building of cake empires.

The growth, the learning, the refining, all happen along the way. We don’t start building our dreams when we’ve got all our ducks lined in a row.

We build our dreams when our heart & gut tell us to, and as we take each progressive step forward, each learning curve brings a mini success (which in time, leads us to bigger and then big success).

One of my favourite things to do (when I’m “busy” procrastinating on my laptop) is to scroll far faaaaaar back in the online History of some of my fav cake & business personalities (the people I admire who are really slaying it in their field). One very fascinating common vein I observe is that all these people started off pretty average. Don’t believe me? Just look up popular cake personalities and hunt down their earliest video, blog post, Instagram post or whatever. You’ll find that they started from humble beginnings. The cakes probably looked a lil wonky, the video quality sketchy and the cake images amateurish. But they started anyways and look how far they’ve come, how much they’ve learnt and how influential they’ve grown.

My friend, if you’d seen some of my earliest cake work, you’ll feel a WHOLE TON better about yourself. I caked some of saddest looking cakes I’ve ever seen (no joke!) in my early decorating days. But I persevered, I studied hard, I invested in my cake education & over time, I’ve finally reached a place where I’m living out my cake dream for reals. I pinch myself daily that I get to bake, create & connect with cake enthusiasts all over the globe for a living and be my own #girlboss.

And if I can do it, you can too..

Remember..

“The distance between your dreams & reality is called action”

In the coming posts, I’ll be sharing steps on how to make your cake dreams a reality, and also my personal (never before shared) detailed story on how I started my cake business. I’d love to know dear reader, what’s been holding you back from chasing down your cake dreams?

Dec 11 2017

Ask Me Anything – Series 1

Ups, downs, over & over again. That would pretty much sum up the early years of my cake decorating journey (though there were probably more downs at the start if I’m honest!). Hard work, mistakes, studying, constant deep learning & lots of perseverance has brought me to a place in my career where I’m SO THANKFUL to be. As a teacher, cake blogger & Youtuber, I’ve had so many cakers (both hobbyists & professionals) reach out to me with a wide spectrum of questions and so I thought it would be a pretty smashing idea to do a blog post to answer the many questions that aren’t enough to stand alone as a single topic on the blog. I hope it helps you!

Hi Amanda, I love making cakes, but am wondering how to juggle caking with my day job?

It is important to have some sort of plan in mind regarding how long you want to juggle cakes & a full-time job. This will help you know how to approach this whole arrangement. Do you want to maintain caking as a side gig on a long term ongoing thing? Or is this something you are doing in the interim until you can finally make the big switch into caking full-time? The former will require you to make space in your schedule to manage both on an ongoing basis without burning out. Perhaps if your job allows it, you could work 4 days instead of 5, or perhaps be disciplined to keep aside 3 nights in the week strictly for baking. You may also want to streamline your orders (eg. cupcakes only, or a certain style of cakes only).

If you have aspirations of caking full-time one day, I would suggest setting a timeframe of when you’d like this to officially happen. For example, giving yourself 1 year (or more) until making the switch into full-time caking. This would help focus your efforts and motivate you to work towards a specific goal.

Some other tips to help you manage the heavy workload of caking alongside a full-time job are: Setting up automated emails, creating a healthy cake workflow (I teach you how I personally organise my cake production workflow in my last post), outsource (eg. use pre-baked naked cakes instead of baking from scratch) and get support (moral support and manual assistance from trustworthy friends/family).

How do you bring an assembled cake to your destination? Tips and what cake holder container do you use ??!!

For cakes that are 4 tiers and below, I normally bring my cakes fully assembled to the venue. I use a large, clean, tall cardboard box with the sides of the front sliced down the sides (so the front of the box opens down like a flap). I then use strong tape to hold this flap in place and I place the entire (sturdy) box into the boot of my 4-wheel car. I also bring along my camera & a handover sheet (cake information to pass onto staff at the event venue).

I HIGHLY recommend bringing an emergency kit and the contents will change all the time depending on what cake you’re delivering. For buttercream cakes, I’ll bring extra buttercream, a palette knife, additional flowers, posie picks, paper towels & scissors. For fondant cakes, I’ll pack along additional fondant, a small rolling mat, a small rolling pin, additional decorations, paintbrush, sugar glue & ready mix royal icing. Chances are, you probably won’t end up using the emergency kit a majority of the time, which might cause you to neglect bringing it at all. But trust me when I say, the time will come, and you will be so very grateful to have it on hand! (like that time the cake fell over when I was travelling uphill, but that’s a story for another day)..

For 5 tier cakes and up, I’ll assemble the first 4 tiers and transport it similar to the aforementioned. I’ll then bring the upper tiers in separate cake boxes (all pre-dowelled) and stack that on-site with royal icing.

How did you grow your business locally without a store front?

Knowing how to effectively market your product and brand is key to growing any business, store front or not. The common misconception is that owning a store front cake business will naturally generate higher awarenesss of your product but that isn’t always true. Having a physical location can provide some benefits in this area but the crux of the matter is how effectively you market your product to your clients. Some factors that have helped me grow my home studio based business is an effective social media strategy (and no, I’m not referring to merely posting up images of finished cakes), collaborations with complementary brands, a well-built website with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), quality-fine-tuned products, good client communication & an identifiable brand identity.

In the warmer weather how do you control the buttercream, ie: with using piping tips, colouring , transporting. Do you just use a crusting buttercream or is there another method

There are 2 general ways. Alter the recipe to make it more temperature resistant, or control your atmosphere. I tend to reduce the butter content in my buttercream recipes during the warmer months and replace with vegetable shortening. My Swiss Meringue Recipe is one that I’ve developed to stand well both in cold & warm seasons (as my local climate swings from one extreme to the other). I would also recommend using a high-chocolate content ganache whenever possible instead of buttercream. Crusting buttercream is also used in suitable scenarios whenever possible (and only if client is agreeable).

I usually have the air-conditioning set to arctic in the warm months and keep my cakes in the fridge in between decorating periods. It sometimes gets so cold I’m wearing sweaters in my workspace/delivery vehicle right in the eye of summer!

I have piles of pictures on my computer, but I do not post them, because after few days I don’t think that this cake is good enough to show… How in the world stop thinking that my cakes aren’t good enough?

There are a few possible reasons why this could be happening. Most commonly, its insecurity, comparison and/or high personal standards – all things that I have struggled deeply (and to a degree still struggle) with. I would highly recommend heading over to my top-read article which talks all about ‘How to Overcome Caker Comparison’ in becoming a self-confident cake maker.

For me, comparison was a daily battle that I gradually overcame by understanding that everyone has to start out a beginner at some point. I also learnt to focus more attention on MY WORK (which will accelerate one’s skills quicker) rather than spending time thinking about OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK (which will not propel anyone forward in any way).

As for the struggle with displaying your work: Post up cake pics that you like, and try and post them quite soon after it’s complete. Also, keep honing your cake techniques by practising and enrolling in courses that teach you how to get a professional looking finish. I would also suggest learning some basic photography skills so you’re more confident of the images you post.

Ultimately, simply follow your passions, know your goals, never stop learning, keep honing your craft and deep down, know that YOU as a person (aside from cakes) are significant, worthwhile, unique and valuable <3

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Thank you everyone for your awesome questions, and if you haven’t seen an answer to your question yet, don’t worry! I plan to do follow up series to this AND create content, guides & future blog posts dedicated to the bigger cake business topics asked such as pricing, business growth & many, many more. Stay tuned!

Have a question for future “ASK ME ANYTHING” posts? Remember to ask in the Comments below!

x Amanda