Sugarcraft chat

[wem]

I started a thread for cake people a while back but it got a bit lost in Chat so thought I'd try to tempt people into our lovely new baking topic.

Hopefully I'll see some of the posters from the chat thread, but for any new people popping in, introductions: I'm wem, I'm a recent cake obsessive and have been bothering mumsnetters about it a fair bit as I'm starting up cake decorating business. I don't have anywhere near the experience or knowledge of some of the posters in here, but I do have an excessive willingness to chat about cake :)

Let's try this again, eh?

Hi,
Is it ok if I join in? I don't make cake professionally but love making them for my DC birthdays etc.
I am thinking of possily looking into doing a sugar craft course or 2 after september as we are moving abroad in a few month and I would love to look at cake making as a possiblity for a little extra money evey now and again (it would be lovely to do something I enjoy and make a bit of extra cash too) :)

If you're moving somewhere hot, don't go down the sugarcraft route! I've been desperate to try out all my lovely new stuff but the temp in my kitchen hasn't dropped below 30° since May.

Thats a good point Viking I had not thought of that.
I am going to Dubai where everything is airconditioned, not sure if that will be good enough though!

Hi Leo, welcome :) You might want to ignore this post though, as I'm in a grump about cakes and their minimal money making potential.

My weekend (and some previous evenings) were entirely taken up with making two cakes for a joint birthday party. Both mates' rates, even though one was only a friend of a friend, which I shouldn't have done really but I felt a bit tied as it was for the same party and would have felt weird charging different amounts.

I still liked having created the cakes, but it was soooooo much work, for the first time it just didn't seem worth it. I hope when preschool starts up again in September I'll feel like I have a bit more time and energy to devote to it. I was exhausted by the time I'd finished the two cakes.

Hi Wem, totally agree with you, its difficult when you make cakes for friends etc, i've started to learn abit now though and do charge enough i think i do anyway, like you i made 4 cakes in one week, way too many and working full time, was so tired and grumpy, and in all that last hot weather we had, arrrgh! sooo much work went into one cake i was up til all hours, its calmed down abit now, in a way i miss not having them to do, i know, cant win.

Thanks for the kind welcome wem and nannycook one of the main things that worries me about charging for cakes (obviously I would need to break even + charge for my time etc) is that it will take the joy out of making them as I will be under pressure to make a paying customers 'dream' cake.

I have the cakes I made for my kids and family at different times (some are on my profile) but it would take a lot of practise, equipment and some cake craft courses to even consider making them for others, maybe its safer to stick to that :)

leothelioness, everyone needs to start somewhere, and from your pics you have good ideas, quite adventerous! if you do start to charge people, maybe start with something really simple, you'll be surprised how quickly your confidence grows. i started back up making cakes after a 20yr gap, and the first one was a two tier cake with animals, which i didnt think i could do, but if you check outmy pis, it came out ok.

forgot to say that i have updated my profile pics with some of my display cakes from the wedding fayre I did. Got quite a lot of leads and have just had 2 more birthday cakes booked for october.

They look lovely Nigel !

They look great Nigel. I really want to get into wedding cakes, as it seems it's the only time people really appreciate how much work goes into them. Most of my stuff is a bit 'novelty' at the moment though, I need to get some dummies and work on some serious gorgeousness like those :)

Nigel, your cakes look lovely, love the white one, so elegant!

Thanks all, I am really, really pleased with the white one - it got a lot of attention.

Had a Tinkerbell cake last week which I've put on my photos. The face of the model was a different style to what I usually do and it didn't work at all how I wanted it to. It looked ok but not how I'd planned. Never mind !

Does anyone get this magazine ? I've bought a few issues now as they have some nice little giveaways. This issue has a pearl stencil which I am going to get

Nigel, Ha Ha, you haven't got cameras in my house have you? i've just put down issue 22, i have it every week, got some nice ideas now and again, plus some handy tools, i think it goes right up to issue 99.

I was particularly pleased with the little embossing rolling pin - very art deco

Which issue was that in then? only started reading it from issue 7, may have missed one or two of them come to think of it.

about 3 issues ago i think - was in the one wiht the peacock cake

Ah, that was one i missed then, shame that, i think you are able to get back issues,I like the sound of that!

Yes, I was thinking about that as I would quite like the alphabet embossers

back copies available here

I missed 5 issues, not to bad, you missed quite a few then?

yes - all the really good ones !!

By the time we've bought all these issues, we'd have spent hundreds of pounds!

I only buy the ones with the giveaways i need - as i have a massive kit already it's not many of them

Hi all not been around much but have uploaded some new cake photo's to my profile..
Have a batman cake on the go and a cricketers cake for a couple of weeks time really looking forward to it!!