I run a cake business from home. AMA

[JamesDelayneysTattoos]

Thought this might be interesting.

thevicarofnibbleswicke Massa Ticino is the best. It’s stupidly expensive but you can roll it out much thinner than any of the other brands (and I’ve tried a lot ) so goes further. Just painful at the checkout.

I like Satin ice too, lovely light vanilla flavour.

Differences is as I mentioned, you can roll it out much thinner, lots of people don’t really like sugar paste so a thinner coating is good.

No elephant skin

Handles well in the warmth.

I'll take note of that! Thanks! I pick icing off as it's just too much!

thevicarofnibbleswicke so many people don’t really like the taste so it’s good if you can get a thin coating that still looks good isn’t it?

I buy mine from The Cake Decorating Company. Free delivery over £40.

Interesting thread! I'm currently struggling a bit with cake mixture splitting when I use my new(ish) stand mixer. I follow exactly the same method when I use a hand held mixer, but it rarely splits then. Any idea why that might be? Thanks!

HI kiwimummy what method are you using? If it’s the creaming method then add your eggs a little at a time then a tablespoon of flour. Just beat enough to incorporate then more egg and flour. Does that make sense? X

Can we have a couple of your favourite cake recipes please? Not necessarily the things you sell if that's a trade secret .

Like how do you make the cake pops?

Please can we see some pics of your favourite creations?

cheshirecat cake pops must be made with heavy ish cake and proper buttercream ( made with real butter ) or ganache. Make sure you don't make them too big and use candy melts to coat them, normal chocolate melts when they come to room temp so not very stable.

A tip for a decadent chocolate cake is to add a couple of tablespoons of a decent espresso coffee to your batter. Gives a lovely deep flavour and doesn't taste of coffee.

My best vanilla cake is using the weigh the eggs method. Weigh your eggs and use same measurements of caster sugar, Sr flour ( I use extra fine cake flour, more expensive but definitely worth it ), butter. Use the best eggs, it makes a difference and decent vanilla bean paste. I guarantee you'd notice in a blind taste test.

Here's a few I've made.

They're amazing!

itsbritneybeach thank you very much.

Can't you buy a fine sieve to sieve ordinary flour, rather than pay more for extra fine?

hollowtalk perhaps but I think it’s possibly a better quality flour all round so don’t mind paying. A vanilla cake has nowhere to hide so paying a bit more for quality ingredients is worth it IMO.

You mention that higher value wedding cakes etc can make you a decent return, why do you choose not to do those types of cakes?

sorry another question! do you also compete in cake competitions such as Cake International at the NEC?

How much do you make a year?

The cakes are beautiful!

pancakesandmaplesyrup the wedding market is really hard to get into and If you’re self taught then it takes you time to learn how to make flowers for instance. Whilst you are learning as you go you make novelty cakes, celebration cakes etc and when you’re good enough to make wedding cakes you’ve got yourself a name of a celebration cake maker. Does that make sense?

The cake market where I live is saturated with good bakers. Last year I made 3 wedding cakes. This year I’ve got 10 booked in . Once you’ve got cakes to show and excellent reviews then people will trust you, understandably it’s a big thing to trust an unknown with your wedding cake.

I can’t afford to do wedding fayres at over £100 a pop with no guarantee of a booking so I just try and keep my eyes peeled. This year all of my weddings have been recommendation so that’s good.

I haven’t competed yet at CI because the standard is ridiculously high and I’d be so disappointed with myself if I didn’t get something. That said I’m competing this year on a collaboration and also in carved cakes category. Having started yet, I haven’t even decided what to do but I work well under pressure so I’ll start maybe September r October.

xmasbaby thank you

xmasbaby I’d say I probably “make” a couple of thousand a year at the moment. That’s profit. Enough for a few treats but nowhere near as much as I’d like. 😂

Thats interesting..im hoping to join you in the ranks of cake maker! just sent off EH form yesterday! 🙈 just doing for friends atm but would like to be able to charge! Not just cost of ingredients. Have you done any courses or completly self taught? And the age old question, how do you price your cakes and do you expect a certain % of profit per cake?

pancakesandmaplesyrup welcome to the madness. The world of cake can be quite a bitchy place so I'd start growing your thick skin now in preparation. Cakers are very competitive and very much smiles on the outside. However, there are some lovely ones too.

My best advice to you would be start as you mean to go on. Price properly for everyone except family. If you do mates rates to get some pics in your portfolio/ insta feed then just knock a tender off not half price ( bitter voice of experience).

Value your time as well as your skills and if you have a talent for something, say sugar flowers, then play to that.

Pricing, cost of good quality ingredients, factor in utilities, wear and tear on goods, oven, micxers etc. And add on your hourly rate. Do not work for less than minimum wage. It's not fair on you and it's not fair on fellow bakers. Drums ( thick board that the cake is presented on cost around 3/4 quid each. Boxes are a couple of quid each.

I'm completely self taught. I've never done courses. One of the main reasons that I won't do courses is that one if my goals in life is to get on GBBO and in order to get on you mustn't have been professionally trained. I've applied 4 times so far. Last year I got to phone call stages. One day 😂😂

There are lots of courses out there but they're very expensive. Prohibitively so Imo.

Join some Facebook groups. Look for a local one as well as the big groups because that's where you'll make friends.

If you want to chat feel free to pm me any time

Your cakes look beautiful! Couldn't tear my eyes away from the unicorn but then the digger and the teapot! Wow