Cash from Baking??

TashaC

blue~skies The course is at my local college and starts next week, I think it runs for 10 weeks with 1 2hourly session a week. I've been told that we will be given a list of equipment needed next week... will keep you posted!

skintbint_2

blue~skies wrote: »

Hi eveyone! I am currently looking for ways to up my income and this sounds like the perfect idea for me! I ave always been good at baking but I haven't yet explored the realms of cake decoration. I'm quite artistic and think I owuld really enjoy it. Can I just ask for some advice from those of you who are more experienced as to where you learnt to decorate and which course are the best?

TashaC if you don't mind where are you doing your course is it a local college or something? xxxx

blue-skies, i just got myself a really good book and a chunk of icing from tesco and just tried, one good thing is if it doesnt work just scrunch up and try again - the book i bought was perfect party cakes made easy by Carol Deacon from WH Smith £12.99, you could try ebay and amazon for a cheaper copy. Once you see it broken down into steps it becomes a lot easier and if you are artistic that where your imagination then kicks in!. concentrate on one thing at a time if you plan to do novelty cakes master figures etc first, then move onto the sugarcrafting of flowers etc. once you have a feel for working with icing.

blue~skies_3

Thank you so much Tasha C and skintbint....some real food for thought...excuse the pun! Be really interested to know how you get on with your course Tasha xxxxxx

TashaC

So... I've had my second week at sugarcraft and I've definitely caught the bug! Nearly half of the class want to start or are already selling cakes. Next stage is to sit down and really start planning. Skintbint are you going to be selling just novelty cakes and have you thought about where to sell them?

skintbint_2

TashaC wrote: »

So... I've had my second week at sugarcraft and I've definitely caught the bug! Nearly half of the class want to start or are already selling cakes. Next stage is to sit down and really start planning. Skintbint are you going to be selling just novelty cakes and have you thought about where to sell them?

tasha - will be selling any kind of cake anybody wants!! but it seems novelty cakes are the in thing just now, at the moment i dont seem to need to advertise - have 6 cakes to do between now and end of march (just orders since thursday)- 1 being a golden wedding cake and suggested they had two tiers - 1 fruit and 1 madeira so that will be a more classic style, was thinking about a free advert on Gumtree and also got free pictures from true print to make up an album of any i do and will keep it in my handbag. will post more later as have to be out and at my cleaning job for 10,

skintbint_2

tascha - will be offering matching cup cakes too- capitalise on what orders i am getting as people would probably never think about those!

craftdaft

You might want to have a look at Lindy's cakes website. I've just made one of the cakes from her 'Cakes to Inspire & Desire' book. In the past I've either decorated cakes using my own designs or pictures from books or magazines. The book has lots of different designs that I would never have thought of and there are matching small/cup cakes to go with each design.
Sorry to rave about it but I was really impressed with the book!

Jo_F

Re insurance

I have a specialist craft insurance with Ian Wallace, it comes in at just under £100 per year for £5 million product and public liability.

Not sure if baking would count, but it sounds like a craft. Maybe worth getting in touch and asking him, he can make the policies fit what you do and don't need.

debbie_debt

Well, thanks so much everyone for all the advice, looks like there's a few of us up for starting this kind of thing up so it would definately be nice to support each other!

I've had a look at the counrty markets website and there's loads near me but none open again till march But that gives plenty of time for planning so i'm off to the kitchen with the calculator and asda website for prices of what I use. Then trying with my faulty maths to factor in insurance, increase in bills for cooking and the 5% for wastage (which was a very good point, thanks!).

I'll keep you posted!

debbie_debt

As an add on to that, I've been checking out the country markets website and that 5p fee is to become a shareholder and means that you're fully insured for sales with them AND you don't need your kitchen inspecting through some 'causal sales' loophole in standards. Obviously I'm thinking getting inspected would be a good idea anyway but it's good to know you can get started earlier if that takes time to arrange/comply with standards etc.

Sounds a pretty good way to get started, thanks for the post! I like that its a corporate sale and so you don't stand with your own table - everything is sold together and you get a monthly cheque for your sales. Although that means no quick cash, it does mean that if you don't have a massive selection to start with, you stall doesn't look bare and you can build up your range gradually.

I like it!