I read several articles “How to bake cakes to order” that are very far from real life. Then I noticed that they were all posted on sites for collecting business ideas “about making money on the Internet for women”, “open a business”, “secrets of millionaires”, etc. From the point of view of a person far from the confectionery business, everything is logical there. I bought the missing equipment, took courses and started earning money.
7. When treating friends and colleagues, collect feedback.
First of all, we describe the assortment in lively, bright, appetizing language. Attached are photos of the cuts. We indicate the price of the cake. There is no need to hide this information and respond in direct messages.
We show examples of work. Under no circumstances take other people's photos. You can immediately put an end to your reputation. Don’t overestimate yourself; you won’t be able to repeat it the same way. Maybe you can do even better, but not 1 in 1. And this is already a deception. Let these be simple cakes with berries and drips, but neat and yours.
Post reviews from friends and colleagues
Write about the delivery terms.
Some enjoy tasting sweets, while others enjoy the process of creating them with their own hands.
If you finally have the time to make more complex dishes than soup and mashed potatoes, learn how to learn how to make cakes at home for yourself and to order. We'll tell you where it's best to start this delicious and beautiful hobby, what you need to buy, where to learn the skill and how to ensure that your confectionery masterpiece will delight your guests.
Where does the path of a respected chef begin?
Any skill begins with desire and practice. But if you dream of learning how to bake beautiful cakes, then do not rush to immediately take on masterpieces from the portfolio of cool confectioners. Start with the basics, gradually moving up the steps.
Simple recipes - quick results and powerful incentive
It is known that success inspires and gives confidence in a new business. There is only one way to quickly get the desired result - first choose the simplest recipes with simple decorative elements accessible to a beginner.
The easiest way to learn how to make cakes is from ready-made sponge cakes, which are sold in stores. They are always perfectly smooth and have the same thickness of the cake. All you have to do is prepare the cream and decorate the product.
Equipment and tools - necessary tools
If you want to learn how to bake cake layers, you will definitely need a gas or electric oven. For biscuits, it is convenient to use a multicooker with a baking function (read more about this technique and its choice). You will definitely need a mixer from household appliances; it is advisable to buy a stationary one so that you can do other things while whipping cream or dough.
If you have a lot of dishes, then most likely you won’t have to buy anything, but make sure that there are bowls of different sizes, containers made of plastic and stainless steel, with non-stick and enamel coating, spoons and forks of different sizes.
However, the most important thing in preparing confectionery products is the decorating tools; it is difficult to create admirable beauty with “bare hands.”
What a novice pastry chef should have:
- kitchen scales, measuring cups and spoons;
- baking molds - professionals recommend buying metal ones with a non-stick coating with a removable ring; silicone molds and non-stick mats are also useful;
- a pastry bag with a set of nozzles - it is better to purchase a bag, since working with a syringe is not very convenient;
- stencils for quickly transforming simple homemade tori using powdered sugar or cocoa powder;
- brushes for decoration;
- tools for rolling out dough, sugar mass and mastic;
- leveling blades;
- cling film.
Supplies you will need: baking paper, border and packaging tapes, boxes or disposable paper coasters.
There are many cooking recipes, but there are products that are bought in stock because they are used very often:
- dyes;
- vanillin, cinnamon;
- flavorings;
- nuts;
- cocoa powder;
- powdered sugar;
- impregnation for cakes;
- powdered milk or cream;
- gelatin;
Later, when you learn how to make cakes and decide on the basic recipes, this list will be supplemented with other ingredients.
How to learn to make beautiful cakes
There are a lot of techniques for decorating homemade confectionery products; we will consider only those suitable for beginners.
Mastic is a quick result without any disadvantages. Mastic is a sweet, elastic mass that is used to cover cakes and make decorative elements. To cover the cake, the mastic is rolled out into a layer (like dough for dumplings) and the product is wrapped completely or partially with the resulting layer. The result is a ready-made field for creativity - other decorations and inscriptions can be applied to the surface. You can buy ready-made or make it yourself.
Confectionery spray - a new product for instant effect. This product deserves special attention; unlike mastic, it does not require any preparation. The spray just needs to be sprayed onto the product, after which its surface will acquire the effect of a flocked coating.
Ready-made sugar figures – beauty without effort. Today there is a huge selection of ready-made decor for cakes on sale:
- flowers for every taste in different sizes;
- figurines of animals and people, including the bride and groom;
- toys and cartoon characters for children's cakes;
- numbers for anniversaries and children's themes;
- inscriptions, names and individual letters;
- imitation fruits and berries and other decor.
All kinds of sprinkles in the form of gold and silver balls, beads, and stars look interesting.
Edible decals are another secret to a beautiful cake for those who are just learning the confectionery craft. Such pictures are printed with food dyes on rice, waffle or sugar paper. The decor is applied to the cake lined with mastic.
Openwork decorations and chocolate figures also quickly transform an ordinary cake into an elegant and festive one. Later you will learn how to make lace and leaves yourself, but first you can buy ready-made decor.
The most popular types of homemade cakes
Homemade cakes do not have to look like the masterpieces of famous confectioners. Over time, you will have your own flavor, and perhaps your own style. But with all the variety of options, they can all be divided into several types. Let's look at the most popular and fashionable ones, because the confectionery world also has its own trends.
Jelly cakes contain a minimum of dough and fat, for which they are valued by adherents of a healthy diet. Jelly is made from sour cream, cream, cottage cheese, soft cheeses, juices, and fruits. Read about how to prepare and decorate sour cream cake.
Products made from puff pastry are most similar to homemade ones, as they resemble grandma’s favorite Napoleon.
Waffle cakes are suitable for making simple cakes at home. They do not require complex decoration and can be quickly transformed by sprinkling them with chocolate, nuts, and powder.
Honey cakes are a favorite delicacy for those who love tender and aromatic dough. The degree of softness of these cakes depends on the cream. If it is sour cream, you will get a very soft and delicate dessert; if you use butter cream, there will be a slight crunch left.
Biscuit cakes are the most popular; there are dozens of others in this group, classified by the number of layers and tiers, types of cream, and type of decoration.
At the peak of popularity is the naked cake - with this method, the sides of the product are not covered with cream, but are left as is, showing creamy layers. Fresh fruit is most often used for decoration.
Where to improve your skills and learn professionalism
If you have been baking sweets at home for several days now, but want to learn how to make custom cakes, consider taking a course. There are three options here:
Homemade cakes are in demand because they are associated with naturalness. Making money from dessert lovers is a hot trend, but making it a reality will require a little more effort than learning to bake for yourself. This is described in detail in our other publication.
If you are determined to learn how to make homemade cakes with your own hands, then start baking! Only with experience come skills and abilities; no books can replace practice.
Many people start working for themselves, usually purposefully, but I was an exception. I started making money making cakes completely by accident.
Subsequently, this resulted in a small home business, which brought me up to 30 thousand rubles a month.
My first experience was related to my son's birthday. Two years is not a big and significant date, but we invited a lot of guests and it was no longer affordable to buy a cake that would be decorated with figurines of different heroes. That's why I decided to bake it myself.
After all the guests saw and tasted the cake, they immediately forgot about their son’s birthday. For the rest of the evening they did nothing but praise me, and two days later, a friend suggested that I make about the same cake.
She showed the photo to her work colleague, praised my creation, and thus I received my first order.
Initially, I refused because I felt somehow uneasy. It’s one thing when you do it for yourself at your own peril and risk, it’s another thing when you do it for someone else, especially if you take money for it. I would never have come to this on my own.
A friend persuaded me, convinced me, and even set the price herself, having studied market supply and demand.
For my son, I prepared a cake with characters from the cartoon “Cars,” so I didn’t experience any difficulties, but, in my opinion, I completed the first order terribly.
But everything worked out fine. The cake was successfully sold. Later, the customer admitted: the appearance of the LoL dolls left much to be desired (in which I completely agree with her), but the taste of the cake was amazing.
About cake making technology
The cake making process is incredibly simple. It only seems so: to bake such a culinary miracle you need to be a born pastry chef, have talent, patience and a lot of experience.
And before I started preparing it, I thought so too and, until the very end, I doubted that I would succeed. But in reality, all you need is desire and a little patience.
I don’t have any culinary training, but it only took me three hours to bake a large-sized cake (1500 grams). Half of this time was spent decorating and making figurines.
The cake can be divided into three components:
- THE BASIS . Cakes, regular sponge cake and the famous American chocolate brownie sponge cake are used as the base. 3-4 cakes are enough, depending on their thickness. Various creams, boiled or simple condensed milk are used as filling.
- FILLING . Usually cream or chocolate is used. If you need to change the fill color, make it blue, green, then dye is added.
- FIGURES . In my opinion, this is the most difficult process, since I have never had the pleasure of studying in art circles. The figurines are made from ordinary confectionery mastic. It's best to buy it. At least I couldn't do it myself. In its consistency, confectionery mastic resembles plasticine.
This is the order in which the cake is prepared. In order to prepare it for the evening feast, you need to start in the morning.
The shelf life of this cake is 4 days. In order for the figures to stand on the cakes, they are attached to toothpicks or skewers. They are also used to fasten arms, legs, head and other elements.
Before giving away the cake, you should warn the buyer about this so that no one gets hurt during consumption.
Demand
Images and figures are the most important requirement of customers. Parents give preference to the taste of the child. In fashion, popular modern toys, cartoons and animated series:
- Cars;
- Cold heart;
- MostrHigh;
- LOL dolls;
- Ralph.
Where to purchase ingredients
All products for making cakes can be bought in regular supermarkets. For cooking you need eggs, flour, sugar, salt, soda, honey.
Things are more complicated with confectionery mastic. This is what the figurines are made from. I bought it in online confectionery stores.
Sometimes on the wholesale market. You can also buy white or dark chocolate there.
Costs associated with making one cake
All ingredients are quite cheap, with the exception of confectionery mastic. When I made the cake for the first time, I bought quite a bit, but for serious production, it is best to buy in large quantities.
It is sold in online confectionery stores and wholesale markets, in small one-kilogram buckets. Each bucket contains mastic of a certain color. It is very rare to find buckets with several flowers.
The cost of one kilogram of confectionery mastic is 200 rubles, plus or minus 20 rubles.
Confectionery chocolate is not cheap. The average cost of one kilogram is 450 rubles. In order to save money, it is best to take tiles weighing 2-3 kilograms.
To bake one cake weighing 1400 - 1700 grams, you will need:
- 6-7 large eggs – 40 rubles;
- butter – 100-150 grams – 60 rubles;
- 5 glasses of flour – 15 rubles;
- 1 glass of kefir or sour milk – 20 rubles;
- boiled or plain condensed milk – 60 rubles;
- 400 grams of sour cream – 40 rubles;
- 400 grams of chocolate – 120 rubles;
- confectionery mastic – 100 rubles;
- a glass of sugar - 10 rubles;
- salt, soda, a couple of pinches of vanillin - 10 rubles.
Result: 475 rubles are spent on the production of one cake.
Sometimes, the costs associated with producing one cake can be higher. It’s also worth adding the cost of a cardboard box – 15 rubles.
Income from the sale of one cake
I have heard that in pastry shops where cakes of this kind are made, the price is set per hundred grams or kilograms. The cost for each figure is added to this price.
Thus, the cake can cost 3,000 rubles or more.
I set the price (or rather, my friend set the price when she first ordered, and I just continued to work according to it) - 1500 rubles per cake and chose a weight category of 1500 grams.
It is not profitable to make cakes that weigh less.It takes the same amount of time to produce, but the benefits are less.
I spent 400 - 700 rubles on making one cake. Benefit – 800 – 1100 rubles.
Search for customers (clients)
The first three months there were few orders. If my memory serves me 3-5 per month. These were friends of friends, relatives. Word of mouth worked, but at some point I realized that you won’t earn much with this approach.
For all three months I was at a crossroads: either go to work and send my child to a private kindergarten, or wait until they provide a place in a state kindergarten and bake cakes at that time.
I don’t remember who suggested me to create a group on the VKontakte social network. I was advised to use all possible social networks, but I only used one and was very successful.
Creating a VKontakte group, posting examples of your cakes there and indicating prices is not enough.
You need to attract subscribers. I started with all my friends. I asked you to repost it on your pages. But this was not enough. Then I started climbing in other subgroups of our city and spreading information there.
These were mainly communities: “mommies on maternity leave”, “my baby”, “mommies”. In general, wherever there is at least some hint of children. She also invited women with children to join the group directly.
Women who have children eagerly joined the group. Every cake that I made and posted in the group was heatedly discussed and praised.
Things got going.
I didn't even expect that it would give excellent results. Orders began to arrive almost every day. Largely thanks to the large population of our city.
I asked everyone who bought a cake from me to post a photo on a social network and sign under the photo: “Cakes to order: 8 – –– ". I didn’t keep track of who made such a post and who didn’t, but I assume that not everyone is ready to post photos from the holiday and sign it with such text.
Soon, people began to contact me to make wedding cakes. Baking a masterpiece weighing 4-5 kilograms is not an easy task, but it is profitable.
Income that I managed to get
After I received more orders, I managed to earn money per month 22,000 – 28,000 rubles.
The production record for one month was: 29 cakes.
The hardest day was when I had to make three cakes at once. On this day I had to send the child to his grandmother. Whatever one may say, having a child makes working from home more difficult.
Work process from order to receipt of money
Usually everything happens quite simply. The customer (most often the customer) calls and places an order for a certain date.
Choosing a cake consists of three parts:
- Base (brownie, regular sponge cake or shortbread).
- Filling (condensed milk, chocolate or protein cream)
- A cartoon whose characters will sit on a cake.
On the day the cake is ready, they come and pick it up and make payment. In the group, I indicated that the order must be placed a few days before the birthday, and picked up after lunch. But despite this, several times orders arrived the day before.
Difficulties and unusual situations that I had to face
By and large, I cannot say that there were many difficulties in the process of work, but I had to face some difficulties:
- One day I didn't complete an order because I accidentally dropped my creation from the table. Of course, the customer was unhappy and this incident even crippled me for several days. I didn't accept orders for two days. I just didn’t pick up calls from unknown numbers.
- An unusual situation occurred when a man came to pick up a cake and asked to see his health certificate. Fortunately, I had it, although the last entries in it were made before maternity leave. The man leafed through it with the air of an expert and, taking his order, paid.
- Several times customers asked to bring a cake, although I always told everyone: no delivery. I had to carry it. There was nowhere to put the cake, but I didn’t want to lose money.
Making cakes at home is not a difficult job, but you always have to get up early. After the cake is baked, it needs time to brew.
It will taste better this way. No matter how beautiful it is, taste matters.
Conclusion
Making cakes at home is an excellent income for those who are on maternity leave or simply cannot find a job.
Many people claim that working at home is relaxing, but it depends on how you look at it.
Even my capricious child didn’t stop me. I managed to organize myself.
Making cakes at home is not only a good income - it is interesting and very entertaining. I still do this, but I take orders exclusively on weekends, since I returned to my main job, after their maternity leave, I had to think about how to reduce the number of orders.
A cake is a must-have attribute of almost any holiday, be it a birthday, wedding or Easter. At the same time, a sweet treat can be both the main gift for children and adults, and an addition to it. Despite the wide variety of factory products, products prepared at home have always remained the most in demand. If you know how to bake and have decided to open a custom cake business, we suggest you read this article.
Where to begin?
So, where to start your custom cake business? First of all, you should do advertising. The most common option for selling sweet products is the Internet and disseminating information through friends. Let's look at everything step by step:
- Tell your friends and acquaintances about your business idea for making money on cakes, ask them to spread this information if possible.
- Bake some culinary masterpieces for the holidays for friends and family. Before giving sweet gifts, be sure to take beautiful photographs of your cakes for the future catalog.
- When you have enough photos, create your own group on social networks and place them in special photo albums. For each photo, write a description with composition, name and any information you consider necessary.
- Invite people from your city to your community and constantly update your photo album.
To quickly promote a group online and attract subscribers, you can resort to smmbox services, which will significantly save your time. Social networks are a good opportunity to attract customers.
To begin with, such actions are quite enough to get your first income from making custom cakes. Remember that in order for your business to become successful and profitable, you need to stand out from other chefs. Constantly improve, use new materials and study numerous recipes on the Internet. For example, it is now very fashionable to prepare confectionery products using mastic, because thanks to this substance you can give the product any shape, as well as decorate it beautifully. 
As you may have already noticed, there is nothing particularly complicated about this type of cake business. However, there are some special points that you need to be aware of. We invite you to familiarize yourself with useful tricks to be fully armed:
Any family or corporate celebration without a cake is considered incomplete. This is a tradition, there is no escape from it. But this is also an idea for an excellent business if “your hands grow from where they need to be.” Let's figure it out. Let's start with who this business is for - custom cakes.
Don't think that you need to understand cooking. This is a desirable quality, but not at all mandatory. The fact is that to start any business you need “start-up capital”. One will have talent, another may invest money and organizational skills in the production of cakes. But both need to understand where to start.
How to start baking custom cakes
The first step, as any marketer will tell you, is choosing a team. Let's say you yourself are excellent at baking and decorating your products. This means that your small team will for now consist of one person - yourself. To let the world know about your talents, you need to prepare promotional materials. You will have to work hard for this. You need to prepare a whole catalog of photos of your own products.
The “custom cakes” business will have to start with a “charity event”. Where else will you put the dozens of products that you will need for the first photos? It is recommended to turn this preparation into a kind of advertising. The prepared masterpieces can be presented to potential buyers, whom you can easily find at school, kindergarten, at your husband’s work, and so on. People will see your talent and at the same time have a tasting. You will be guaranteed your first clients.
Advertising
Next you will need to develop. Attracting customers can be expanded by searching for advertisements on the Internet or publishing your own. Be sure to use photos, dividing them into “topics”. That is, make separate texts for children’s cakes, holiday, anniversary and other products. This will expand the audience of interested parties. In addition, you will demonstrate the versatility of your skills.
Feel free to choose epithets to describe your masterpieces. The “custom cakes” business is a very delicate area. Firstly, the product can be sold in a specific, well-defined territory (it is not profitable to transport it to another city). Secondly, you may have competitors. Most likely, you will also find their advertisements online. Therefore, colorful photographs need to be accompanied by colorful descriptions. If you do not have literary talent, then you can order “tasty advertising” from an experienced copywriter.
Organization of the first production
Naturally, at first there will be few orders. The space of your own kitchen is enough to carry them out. Of course, it makes sense to find a convenient room in advance. Just renting one until you understand whether the custom cake business is right for you is not recommended. You will spend money, but there will be little profit.
If you initially appointed yourself to the role of manager, then the first orders can be made in the kitchen of your “chef”. You will have to do the delivery yourself for now. Although this issue is resolved individually with each client. Someone can come pick up the order themselves. Don't be shy and ask what's more convenient.
Procurement of products
Baking cakes is a rather expensive and material-intensive process. In order to master a wide “menu”, you need a lot of different products and decorations.
Do not forget that some products will have to be sent to the buyer in their own container. You will need to purchase many different products and materials.
Naturally, you will have to think about special equipment. Nobody whips creams or biscuits by hand anymore. For this purpose, specialized devices have been invented.
You need to make sure that your equipment is reliable, powerful, and does not fail at the most crucial moment. Products can be stored on your home premises for now. Moreover, for the most part, fresh ones are used in confectionery production. Therefore, they will have to be replenished daily.
Business plan for cake production
When you have roughly imagined how and what you will do, proceed to boring calculations. This must be done before the first sale. The point is that you need to know exactly how much a certain product costs. For this purpose, a calculation is prepared. Enterprises strictly calculate how much one kilogram of a particular product costs.
Don’t forget that you need to include other costs in addition to products. These include electricity, water, and most importantly, labor, that is, wages. You may not receive it at first, but it must be included in the price of the product. In addition, you need to calculate the cost of boxes, stickers and other decorations. You can order them at the nearest topography.
Naturally, the total figure will greatly depend on the region. But we can assume on average that you will need about one hundred and eighty thousand rubles for products, six thousand for advertising and decoration. It should be taken into account that the calculations include a profit of at least twenty-five percent. Otherwise, the “company” will burn out.
How to win the competition
In order to overtake your business colleagues from the start, it is recommended to immediately think through the “highlights” of your products. To do this, you should wander around the confectionery shops and study the assortment. The client can be attracted by originality and specificity. So, every time before official holidays, offer people new ideas for cakes.
For men, it’s worth coming up with something grandiose. Please note that the stronger sex loves scope and volume. This woman will be tempted by miniature cakes with small details (she protects her figure). An ordinary man will look at a three-tiered masterpiece,
decorated with large appliqués. This is, so to speak, a “classic of the genre.”
It makes sense to work on children's themes. You understand that parents buy sweets with great pleasure for their offspring. Therefore, it is advisable to come up with cartoon, fairy-tale and other decor for your products.
