Starting a cake business.

 
Why did I decide to start a business?
 
For most of my adult life I worked in Mental Health services or as a life coach. My only link to baking was making an annual Christmas cake and occasional birthday cake. In 2018 I was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer which led to a large operation in my neck followed by subsequent treatment. It brought about significant changes to my lifestyle and left me with a lot of time on my hands.
 
Every Saturday I would head down to Wigan Hockey Club for their league games, I started to make cakes for the team a little treat for the end of the games       

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Slowly over the next twelve months the cakes got more elaborate and I started to receive requests to make birthday cakes and thank you cakes. People started to suggest I set up a business and so the seed was planted.
 
What did I stand to gain from running a business?

1. The first thought is money, I currently only charge for ingredients and materials needed to make the cake. But deciding what to charge is a whole new blog post.
2. Improved Self Esteem, people’s validation is a great boost. Knowing that I have created something that someone loves is very rewarding.
3. Being able to work from home and control how much work I do is a great benefit and allows me to work within my own capabilities.
4. Gives me a focus.

 
Doubts and concerns, am I good enough?
 
Alongside all the positives lives that little voice in my heads that asks me who do I think I am to think I’m good enough to do this. Am I qualified enough, Do my cakes taste good enough, Is my work neat enough? I guess these will continue until I’ve been doing it long enough to have a stronger belief in myself.
 
Six Lessons I am having to learn.

• Improving & developing new recipes.  

I quickly learnt the lesson that my usual cake recipes would not neccesarily be the best for cake decorating. A slight tweek to ingredients and the texture of a cake can completely change. Its exciting experimenting with different flavours.

• Daily hygiene.  

​Personal hygiene has to go up a notch when baking for others. Effective handwashing is essential for preventing the spread of bacteria to food. This means washing your hands before and after touching raw food. When entering the kitchen, after emptying the bins, after touching phones and light switches, after blowing your nose and especially when preparing foods for clients with food allergies.

• Creating a contract.

 I have had to learn how to create a baking contract. It is important that customers know exactly what they can expect from me an what is their responsibility. I have had to complete comprehensive risk assessments to cover every possibility.

• Stock rotation.  

This is one of those jobs that take a lot of sorting in the first instance but done correctly becomes quite routine. Daily records are kept regarding all food stuffs entering the bakery including use by dates, place of purchase and allergy information. All bakery foods are kept separate from household food and are all rotated on a weekly basis to ensure everything is safe for consumption.

• Food Allergies.  

This has been a steep learning curve its important that I know what to do if I have to serve a person with a food allergy. By law I have to inform customers if certain food allergens are in the food I have prepared. These include nuts, peanuts, eggs, milk, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, cereals containing gluten, celery, lupin, mustard, sesame seeds, soya, sulphur dioxide.

• Develop the use of tools  

I never knew just how many gadgets and gizmos were out there for decorating cakes. With Pinterest being available to everyone some of the cake requests can be very intricate and each one often needs a new tool to create whether working will rubber moulds, ball pens, veiners, cutters, sprayguns and even a pasta machine. (In future blogs I will demonstrate some of these.)

Why I still feel it’s the right thing to do
 Whilst I am definitely on a steep learning curve, I love what I am doing and hope that I can continue to develop my skills and bring joy to people through my cakes. Watch this space to see if I can make success of this.
 
What happens next?
 
Well if I think it has been difficult for me tomorrow I will share with you the adventure of retraining my family. Have a great day Ma x
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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