cake

cakes, chaos & a lifelong sugar addiction: the reality of running a cake business

I honestly still have to pinch myself when I remember that making cakes is my job. I love what I do. Make cakes for a living…. r u srs… yes! Every day I get to create edible art, experiment with ideas, and bring something to life with my own two hands. It is creative, challenging, rewarding, and unlike anything I ever imagined I’d be doing for a living.

But there is a lot more to this job than you think. It isn’t all pretty cakes, licking buttercream off spatulas, and floating around the kitchen singing songs (I mean yes, a lot of the time it is). Running a cake business also means being a baker, creative director, accountant, customer service representative, cleaner, delivery driver, and problem solver all at once.

What might look like a simple photo often represents hours of work behind the scenes, from developing ideas and making the cake, to styling, photographing, editing, and managing the business side of things. It is incredibly rewarding, but there is always more happening than meets the eye.

In this article, I want to be completely honest about what I’ve learnt so far: how I started, how the business has evolved, what it’s really like running a small creative business, the highs, the challenges, and everything in between.

I have always loved baking. From a young age I remember my dad making chocolate cakes and always wanting to join in. Licking a bowl clean of the left over tiny amount of cake batter at the end is such a nostalgic moment to me & I am sure most people can relate.

I would spent hours on youtube watching baking videos, how someone could make something so beautiful & delicious with their bare hands. Once non existent & now a beautiful edible creation. I also remember a family friend of mine making the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I don’t know what magical ingredient she put in them to make them taste so good & addictive (lol sugar & butter).

Looking back, I have always had a serious sweet tooth. I’d come home from school, put Disney Channel on, watch That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire or The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and proceed to inhale an alarming amount of junk food. My afternoon snack usually consisted of a giant bowl of potato chips, half a block of chocolate, and a huge glass of Coca-Cola. Throw in McDonald’s a couple of times a week for good measure and, honestly, I’m still not quite sure how I wasn’t obese.

Maybe that’s how I became so obsessed with making sweets. Sugar is probably in my DNA. Looking back, the signs were all there from the very beginning.

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