Five business mistakes I have made

I’ve been in the cake business for over ten years and have really learned everything the hard way. At times I have come VERY close to throwing in the towel because it seemed impossible to ever make it work. 

So, what have been the biggest mistakes I have made? And what have I learned from them? 

1 Agreeing to EVERYTHING

In the beginning, you’re desperate, I’ve been there. Even though I’ve never sold a fondant cake, as a non-fondant cake maker I really felt that I had to cover all non-fondant bases. Like my niche was way too small. How could I ever make a living only offering palette knife decorated cakes?

So there was me up until 3am sweating over geode cakes, drip cakes, lambeth cakes, shag cakes, golf course cakes:  you name it, if it wasn’t fondant I was there for it. Scared to turn any job down because I was skint and desperate to make a name for myself.

The thing is of course you can turn your hand to anything, if you’re prepared to waste a ton of ingredients and spend an entire week figuring out a technique from scratch while your anxiety level goes through the roof. And your near-future self is feeling wretched that you can’t even really post it on Instagram because you can’t risk getting another order for a cake like that.

I made this mistake over and over again, sacrificing time I could have spent honing my palette knife skills making golf balls from white chocolate and burning macarons for drip cakes. I won’t get into drip cakes RN it’s a saga.

 2 Copying other cake designs

Who hasn’t done this? A customer sends over a Pinterest image and you jump at it immediately. How ridiculous. Even working with a niche technique, it’s literally impossible to copy another cake accurately. Also the photo may have been edited (these days it’s probably AI), you don’t know exactly what tools or techniques were used etc.

Also it’s rude. The original cake designer has created that design and it’s not on to simply copy it. 

The thing is it’s SO EASY to not copy another cake but keep the sale. Tell the customer that you can’t copy another cake but if they describe to you what they like about it you can sketch a design that will incorporate these elements but it will be in your own style.

You’re strangling your creativity when you copy other cakes. I made this mistake far too many times. I guess my mindset was that I couldn’t come up with a design that would be as good, I could only try to replicate another cake to the best of my abilities. So many cake makers do this: judge their own work as being substandard because it’s different. Also I would try to recreate fondant designs in buttercream. Least said about that the better.

Now that I work with a single technique and have carved a niche, I look back and see copying other cakes as my biggest mistake by far.

3 Basing my prices on other local cake makers’ pricing

Of course I’ve made mistakes with pricing. I bet there’s not a cake maker in the world who’s confident that they’re charging the right price for their work.

When I started offering piped buttercream wedding cakes, there were only a handful of other cake makers in the country doing a similar thing. It was SO HARD to estimate what I should be charging. So I did the stupid thing of researching wedding cake prices locally (all fondant dressed with sugar flowers), and went loads cheaper because a) I thought what I was doing was quicker and easier than the mystical art of sugarcraft, and b) I wasn’t using any expensive equipment or buying fondant.

When several couples I had quoted for a two tier cake came back and said they’d actually like a four tier, the penny dropped.

Thing is (and I talk about pricing A LOT in my emails and on the course), while you obviously need to know and cover all of  your costs, pricing is an expression of demand, and demand is created by desire. Your costs are kind of irrelevant to this. So other peoples’ prices are even less relevant. Levi’s don’t price their jeans according to the price of denim do they?

There’s a lot of trial and error involved in arriving at the right price, but if you are a skilled cake decorator, offering a style of cake that is in demand and that only a few people can do, you have to formulate your prices (and charge for your time) accordingly. 

4 Making free cakes

Making a cake in return for ‘exposure’ is a mugs’ game. Unless it’s for Harry Styles or Margot Robbie (and I can’t imagine either of them blagging a free cake tbh), forget it.

Reshmi Bennet of Anges du Sucre, has famously called out a number of third-rate celebs for trying to get a free birthday cake. The truth is, even if a shot of your cake made it onto the organiser’s Instagram stories, no-one will read or remember anything about where the cake came from.

I’ve only made this mistake a couple of times but I’m full of indignation about it now. What a liberty.

5 Baking

I know. I’m a decentish cook, but a terrible baker. I hate the mess, don’t get the science, and found baking sponges for wedding cakes beyond stressful. When the iconic Suzi Witt (of Pretty Witty Cakes, look it up kids) said “Just buy your cakes in. It’s a no-brainer,” I was scandalised.

It was probably two years later that I started buying my cakes in, from Sweet Success and it was the best decision I ever made. I wish I’d stopped baking earlier. Customers simply don’t care who bakes their cake as long as it’s fresh and tastes delicious. 

If you hate baking, just don’t do it. There’s enough on your plate.

Let me know what I’ve missed, because if there’s a mistake to be made I will have made it, I’ve just blanked it out.

Best

E xx