Adventures in Kakeland

Adventures in kakeland: The podcast

I am embarrassed to say 2022 was the last post I wrote for this blog and in that post (The lipstick effect) they’re a couple of paragraphs that I mention that l host a podcast that accompanies the blog.

Why have I not shouted about it more? So, this post will be all about my PODCAST called you guessed it Adventures in Kakeland

It had to have the same title as the blog and the format is literally the same but an audio version. My meet the baker from the blog is now a full on interview with other cake business owners, I still share what I get upto in the business, what’s trending in the world of cake and reviews, But basically the premise is that I share my experience of running a part time business along a full-time job (to help you run yours)

Now you might ask why is your experience a valid one to share and I cannot lie before l launched, I asked myself the same thing, but often in life we question our knowledge, we question our experience, we are riddled with imposter syndrome and just don’t believe that anyone would want to read or listen to anything l have to say. But have you ever commented in a Facebook group when someone has asked a question and you have given some advice such as, how much would you charge for this cake, where do you buy sugar paste, has anyone ever supplied a coffee shop? If the answer to this is yes, then you are actively sharing your knowledge with another who finds it valuable, and it was that thinking that l encouraged myself to overlook the imposter syndrome and launch a podcast.

Did I know what I was doing? Absolutely not but was I willing to learn ? Yes I was.

I purchased some basic equipment from Amazon, went to youtube to watch tutorials on podcasting mainly Pat Flynn and downloaded editing software, again I didn’t have a clue how to edit but as long as the sound was ok with no hissing, I was good to go.

So I have the equipment, have learnt a little about podcasting and have found a hosting platform and now I have to launch, but before I can even record the first episode I need to have a plan.

• What will I talk about?

• How often will I post an episode?

• Should I interview guests or not?

• Should I have seasons or not?

• What is my overall goal/outcome for the podcast?

• Should I have a co host?

There was so much to consider.

So the answers to my questions,

• I will talk about different aspects about running my business and be as honest and authentic as I can.

• I will post once a month as I work full time, run my business part time so I had to be realistic on what I could achieve, PLUS recording and editing takes time so once a month it is.

• Should I interview guest or not? Just me talking episode after episode would be boring for not only me but the listener, plus I’m a people person and love conversations so I wanted to definitely have guest on.

My strategy and mindset is that I wanted to speak to small business owners who are happy to share their story, as I think sometimes because we are small it doesn’t reflect on how talented we are as a community and my strategy is working because I have spoken to some amazing business owners that have done some amazing things and created fabulous products.

Podcast Seasons, Yes, or no?

Initially I wasn’t sure about having seasons, when would I schedule a break, would seasons be suitable for me? I decided I would go for seasons. The podcast is hosted for 10 months or rather episodes, I take a break for 2 months during the summer and then return just before Autumn. This works well for me as I am busy in my day job but the break also gives me some me time during summer.

What is my goal for the podcast? To be honest in the beginning I didn’t have one, I just wanted to launch a podcast and have my own little voice on the internet, but I also now realise I can use my podcast as a lead magnet to share some books I’ve created for cake business owners plus like I’ve mentioned l love conversation and that’s it.I don’t have a sponsor and the podcast isn’t monetised. This may change in the future but for now I am happy as I am.

I seriously considered having a co-host but who would I choose? Or rather who would be willing to co-host with me. After much thought I decided not to have a co-host and the main reason was time and scheduling. Knowing how busy we can be as cake business owners I did think scheduling would be difficult, but I interview guest so not to dissimilar from having a cohost.

So now I have set myself some guidance on what I will be doing I need to sort music, branding etc.

My music I purchased and had to learn a little about that especially around copyrighted music and what I could and couldn’t use.

My Branding, I just decided to use a colour palette similar to colours I use in my business but a softer hue and created some artwork in Canva (I do love me some Canva lol) And I also love branding so as long as I had a cohesive look I was good to go.

Finally promoting my podcast. This has been the hardest thing to do to get to people to listen. I am an avid podcast listener and I am hoping cakey people are too.

I had to think of away to build a little community that enjoyed listening to someone talk about cake and cake business. I envisaged cake makers listening while they bake, while they decorate and while they deliver, basically your audible baking companion.

For me the easiest way has been to promote on social media, primarily Instagram. I created a page with the same name and use the platform to promote guest, episodes, and little more content related to running a cake business. I also have a Facebook page that I linked to my Instagram which saves me time posting to another platform. I have a small following but again even if 10 people decided to follow me its 10 people. Can you imagine going into a room standing up and speaking to 10 people (exactly).

So its nearly two years in and I have recorded 22 episodes, had 11 guest and the podcast has been featured in D’licious magazine.

And for the first time I have also been a guest on a podcast which was the Art cake coach podcast hosted by the lovely Cristina Arevalo who I also met at cake international last year.

So what does the future hold for the podcast you may ask?

I want to keep recording, keep interviewing fab guest, and keep sharing my knowledge.

And just to add if after reading this you’re feeling inspired to either launch a podcast or you would like to be guest just drop me an email. I would love to have you on or even give tips to launch your own.

You can listen to Adventures in kakeland wherever you stream your podcast

Review: My Baker

Business

Disclaimer: I was gifted the red velvet cake in this blog post, no other renumeration has or will be received. All thoughts within this post are my own

Have you ever heard of a cake concierge service or you may have used one ? well If you run a cake business/baked goods business you may consider joining one. My Baker is a virtual bakery platform that delivers celebration cakes and cupcakes across the UK within 24-48 hours and as a baker you could possibly see some benefits of joining such a platform to sell your cakes/ cupcakes.

Customers can order a range of celebration cakes, cupcakes, branded cupcakes, wedding cakes. or a bespoke designed cake. Looking on the website they have a variety of decorative styles from semi naked to more elaborate designs.

The main benefits I would see for my business would be that I would possibly reach a larger target audience who maybe wouldn’t find me via google within my delivery area. Also If I had a social media presence but I didn’t have my own website (which some bakers do not) it would be a great way to generate additional income through selling your cakes or give you additional income with something that you may not offer in your current business.

The disadvantage for me would be that you’re selling under the My baker brand as opposed to your business name but it could almost be like having a pen name as an author, you produce the goods but people wont know its you so could be an opportunity to test out a new cake flavor or style to a new/different target customer.

I was kindly gifted a cake (for this blog post) via My baker and I chose the 6” red velvet cake which feeds 12-28 people.

The cake was delivered, and the packaging was super neat and professional. As a cake maker myself I am going to notice every aspect of the delivery. The cake looked lovely, and again as a cake maker we tend to look at celebration cakes with a different eye but I have to say it was immaculate not a crumb out of place.

The outside of the box had a card detailing the use by date and the allergens as this is super important and quite honestly to be expected.

The cake was a good tall height which is industry standard these days and was 3 layers of cake. It looked lovely when sliced with the distinct red velvet hue.

Now time to tuck in, it had a subtle hint of chocolate (as red velvet does) the icing wasn’t too sweet and had notes of vanilla . The original description did state cream cheese buttercream if any was in the buttercream it was very subtle but regardless the balance was there. The cake was enjoyable and l honestly couldn’t fault any aspect of the service.

The price for this cake was £73 which is without a delivery cost, what commission you would gain as a cake business l am unaware but if you think you might consider using My baker as a customer or as a cake business you can contact them here. https://mybaker.co/

The lipstick effect: podcast episode 1

Baking, Business

I have briefly spoke about the lipstick effect before in a previous post but as we head into another recession (UK) i think it will be making a resurgence.

The Lipstick effect is basically in the time of an economic downturn consumers like to treat themselves to an affordable luxury/treat and in the last recession in 2008/2009 it was the sales of lipstick that were on the increase.

In my business (kake and cupkakery) l have a monthly promotion called sit back kick back cupkakery cupcake Friday #SBKB for short. This is a small themed treat box that is my lipstick effect. I create them to be an affordable treat for my customers to enjoy over the weekend, and with the cost of living crisis l price them to be under £20.00 where possible so l have to be very savvy in what i produce.

I talk about this more in my new podcast which you can listen to on Spotify and amazon music which i have launched to accompany my blog,

The podcast has been a longtime coming I’ve wanted to be a guest on one for years but this year l needed to make it happen, I’m a novice and learning as i go but i hope you enjoy the listen.

I’ve always been an avid listener and in an earlier post i even wrote about all my fave shows which i need to update .

Anyhowwww future episodes will air once a month with a bonus episode here and there and will be a combination of solo episodes and guest interviews which I’m excited about.

I hope that my podcast will become your audible baking companion.

My 24 hr day

Cakes

I don’t know where this quote came from

“You have as many hours in the day as beyonce”

This statement seems to have caused a great deal of upset. Now I’m not going to discuss the whole Molly Mae thing as enough has been said on that already and she was factually correct, yes we all have 24 hours in a day BUT read the room Molly not all 24 hours are the same and lets just say her comments didn’t go down well.

For me my 24 hours mainly consist of day job/side hustle/ me time etc..

I run my business part time as I have a full time job from Monday to Friday so I have to ensure that I try to maintain some work life balance within my 24 hours.

If you’re running a side hustle I have learnt the hard way that it cannot be all about work and never has this become more apparent than living though a global pandemic. I don’t know a single person that this pandemic has not impacted in one way or another whether that be positively or negatively.

For me it made me focus on a few different things and one of these is how I run my business alongside my job and be able to maintain my overall health and wellbeing.

So I decided to make some changes because as much as I love love love my business I didn’t want to compromise my wellbeing because of cake. So these are the changes I decided to make to ensure my 24 hour day and working week was as balanced as I could make it.

Style of cake

When I started my business I was a sugar paste cake maker (weren’t we all) which are quite time consuming to make.

but over the past 4 years or so there has been a explosion of buttercream and ganache style cakes. It seems that both cake makers and customers were moving away from sugapaste cakes (excluding wedding cakes) and leaning more toward a pastel coloured drip.

You only have to scroll through your Instagram feed or the FYP (for you page) on TikTok to notice this and this was up my street. Pretty cakes, modern,faster to make, and in demand. So I slowly phased out sugarpaste cakes and redirected my business towards buttercream and ganache. This wasn’t just my doing but I asked for opinions via polls and I researched what my ideal customer would like, the votes were a yes so this style of cake so this is what I decided to switch to making.

Making these style cakes gives me more time especially in the evenings. I usually start work at 5.30pm and I can fill and decorate a cake within 2 hours and be sat on my sofa for 7.30pm or go out and about and still be home before midnight lol. if I’m making sugarpaste cakes you can add on a couple more hours to my finish time.

Boundaries

In my planner I have my own operational plan I suppose they’re are my own KPIs detailing when im working, when I’m not. My turnaround for answering emails, admin days, working hours, how many orders I can take on in a week etc.. and I stick to them religiously, and I can safely say it’s been the best thing Ive done for me and my business, I’ve never felt so organised.

Wedding cakes

Many cake makers strive to niche down there business to make only wedding cakes. Some are really successful following this business model but for some they decide to give it up for whatever reason and I am one of those cake makers. I never marketed myself as a wedding cake maker however I would make them on request. I made the decision to remove tiered wedding cakes from my business. I will however make cupcake towers for weddings on request which is within my niche plus they’re faster to make, but I will steer clear of tiered cakes and my main reason for this is that I don’t have the time.

They’re are some lovely wedding cake makers that this is their niche so for me I can redirect any customers to these more specialised business but for me it had to be a NO. From wedding consultations, making samples, delivery, set up, collection of stands, wedding fairs the baking and decorating it was just too much out of my 24 hours alongside a full time job and I just had to be honest with myself about my limitations with time and drop into the mix the busy summer season it clashed as I’m also at my busiest because of my day job. So in 2020 I made the decision to stop and spoke about it on my insta stories that I no longer will be making tiered wedding cakes. I received a few DMs with the Noooooooooo but I will make the odd exception.

Standardisation

A fellow cake maker once said to me that “I had a good business model” which made me smile as this came from a peer and made me feel like I was doing something right.

I currently make artisan cupcakes celebration cakes and postal Kake jars.

The way I operate I wanted to make it easy for the customer and easy for me so I have a cupcake menu that stays the same with seasonal tweaks which allows me to stay focused. I tweaked my website so that customers had control over what they wanted as well as making it as easy as possible to use, no more than three clicks to get to what you want and I wanted to avoid the backwards and forwards with questions regarding their cake design. Time is one of the most important resources we have and we cannot waste it so the quicker I am the more time I have in my day and the less time the customer needs to spend discussing cake.

Holidays

On the first week of January I get my planner out and schedule in all my annual leave dates for the year. My annual leaves also coincides with my full time job so I get a proper rest.

annual leave from day job + annual leave from business= no baking.

Its so important to make time for yourself as you cannot work on empty so Remember your business your rules and this is the rule I choose to live by.

So this is basically how I manage my 24 hour day with a side hustle/ full time job and personal life. I work hard (don’t we all) and I’m certainly not a millionaire,but what i am doing is working on my passion on my own terms and trying to get the most out of my 24 hour day which is definitely not the same as Beyoncé’s.

Supply chain:Vulnerable or not ?

Cakes

The new series of Dragons den has recently started on BBC 1 and I’m an avid watcher as I love to see all the different business proposals as well as watch how they deliver their pitches, it must be so nerve wracking for them but if they want the investment they need to deliver a good pitch.

Budding entrepreneurs get three minutes to pitch their business ideas to five multimillionaires who are willing to invest their own cash.

One of the businesses that pitched was a subscription cheese service which I thought was a great idea. I did think it could be easily replicated by their competitors but I loved the concept.

The newest dragon Stephen Bartlett asked the entrepreneurs

“whats the biggest risk to their business”

now like I mentioned earlier I would have said competitors, but it is in fact their supply chain and I thought of course, it’s the supply chain. The cheese company dealt with small producers who either supplied organic products but ensured the cows were grass fed, so being ethical was at the core of what they do. But if these suppliers closed or couldn’t keep up with demand this could have an impact on their business.

In any business we source elements such as ingredients, non food items and packaging to enhance our products and services but what happens if your key supplier for a product, packaging or key ingredient goes out of business and what impact would this have on your business

Well, this has happened to yours truly.

When I decided to merge the two sides of my business Kake (specialising in just celebration cakes and Cupkakery (specialising in just cupcakes) I had to source cupcake boxes. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted which was a kraft brown box with no window as I was inspired by some box’s i had seen on a programme called George Town cupcake so I knew what I wanted.

Anyway as if by chance I found a lovely little supplier that stocked these boxes. They were shipped to the UK from the USA and were perfect, perfect height, good price and looked the part. At last I had found my boxes and all was good, but then the EU referendum was looming and many businesses were unsure what was going to happen.

The particular business I was using were affected by price and supply so stopped stocking the boxes and they eventually ceased trading. I was gutted for them as we had built a good relationship and they were always so helpful So basically my supply chain had been affected by a situation out of my control.

I then found another supplier who also did a kraft brown box but with a window. The boxes were nice, but I missed my old boxes, but I used them and they were well received, then the pandemic happened.

Supplies of everything literally ceased, I wasn’t trading so wasn’t too bad but when the time was right for me to reorder I had two issues, the new supplier I was using claimed they struggled to get the card needed to make the boxes but also treat style boxes were everywhere and this particular company were focusing more on packaging for the treat box market so once again my supply chain had been affected.

During the pandemic I started researching my third cupcake box supplier and found a lovely company that did a kraft brown box which I used but I now use colored boxes from the same supplier as they are more on brand . They’re a bit more premium in look and in price but was absolutely perfect for my cupcakes the only problem is that because they are not a dedicated cake supplier the boxes did not come with cupcake inserts, so I researched box inserts, finally found a company to supply them so perfect, I now had a new box and the inserts for them.

Its now 2022 and guess what, the company that supplied my inserts no longer supply them (I could scream) I am now in the process of researching a supplier for inserts before the business reopens in January.

Watching dragons den remined me of how vulnerable business can be if their supply chain is affected. If you’re a cake maker you’ll know that before Christmas it was so hard to get hold of cake boards. Certain sizes were just not available and the added stress is just a nightmare.

So what do we do?

Well my advice from one cake maker to another is think about how a change in your packaging or a vital ingredient will affect your business if this becomes no longer available.

Source an alternative and maybe have a back up supplier
Ask in Facebook groups as I always find them very helpful
I could buy in bulk but I don’t have the space to store large pallets of stock, so I buy smaller batches of boards and boxes at a time and when I’m near to running out I will reorder.
I have a couple different suppliers for similar items such as labelling, cake toppers, ribbon and some ingredients and I’ve made notes regarding their service such as speed of response, turnaround times.
I keep upto to date on what is going on in the cake world, if I get a sniff that a shortage is becoming apparent on an item, I try I ensure I have the stock in for the orders I have booked in asap

I’ve learnt I can’t put all my eggs in one basket and luckily for me the supplier changes didn’t affect my business and I managed to keep it moving, but I hated the inconsistency of having to change my presentation packaging because for me like others consistency is key.

In this ever changing new normal in a post pandemic world this is something that I’m going to have to keep an eye on more than I have in the past.