New Year, New Venture

Introducing......

 

It's good when a plan comes together. In February 2015, when we were living in London, I wrote a post about my work experience at the Cavan Bakery in West Molesey and ended it with a paragraph saying ....

So it's back to my public sector 'day job' on Monday – I’m coming to the conclusion that a part time admin job (for the steady salary and boring pension....zzzzzz) and part time baking role (for the job satisfaction and variety) is what I need to keep me sane!! So that needs to be my next plan……

Nearly a year later, we're back in Shrewsbury and I am working part-time in the NHS (steady salary and boring pension - tick), I successfully completed my NVQ3 City & Guilds Diploma in Patisserie & Confectionary and we recently moved house. I now have a lovely smart kitchen large enough to create cakes, worktop space for my new Kenwood stand mixer and plenty of room to store my ever growing collection of cake decorating equipment and books. Time to see if I can make a success of a cake decorating business.

There's still a lot to think about and organise including marketing and ensuring I operate legally, complying with all regulations. I've registered our home as a Food Business Establishment with Shropshire Council, I passed my Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering and have arranged Public & Product Liability Insurance. I now need to sit down and develop a pricing structure - probably one of the most difficult things to get right. Too low and I won't cover my costs, too expensive and people won't use me - see my previous post here about the tricky business of pricing home-made bespoke celebration cakes. 
 

Input from my son Owen, who is a graphic designer, has been invaluable. I came up with the company name - Crescent Cakes - based on the area of Shrewsbury we have moved to. From this he has created a fantastic logo, designed business cards and is now working on my website. He even designed and commissioned a crescent shaped cookie cutter and arranged for it to be produced on a 3D printer as a Christmas present. You should have seen my face when I unwrapped it - you wouldn't believe anyone could get so excited about a cookie cutter!

I really need to get up to speed with marketing my business on social media. I've decided to concentrate on using Twitter, Instagram and writing blog posts. If you like what I do please spread the word, or better still commission a cake from me! But bear with me while I work out the price......  

3 Tiered Mini Cake

I'm still recovering from making my first 4 tiered wedding cake a couple of weeks ago. Time wise it 'physically' took about 40 hours or so to complete but 'mentally' it took over almost every waking moment for a month or so. Making this little mini 3 tiered cake was a breeze in comparison!

I'd been inspired by a beautiful array of entries into the Miniature Wedding Cake competition when I visited the Squires Kitchen Exhibition in March this year. I preferred the simplicity of some of the non-winning entrants but the intricate work on these tiny (regulation - maximum 6" height and diameter) cakes was so impressive. 

My favourite - Entrant 525

So when I came across this mini cake pan set from Lakeland costing £7.99 I didn't hesitate to add it to my ever growing cupboard full of bake-ware and not long after quickly knocked up some lemon cakes and covered them in sugarpaste.

The flowers were made using simple cutters and were attached to the cake using royal icing with a matching thin sheer ribbon attached to each tier to finish it off.

My cake - 5" high and 5" diameter

 

I reckon you could easily feed about 8 guests with this little cake so it's ideal for a small gathering.

Cute isn't it!

Wedding Cake

Weddings - lengthy planning, so many decisions, the nerves .... and that's just me making the cake! 

Although I've made quite a lot of quirky celebration cakes it's been some time (21 years!) since I last did a formal wedding cake for friends. I put a lot of time into this one - getting the dimensions, finish, textures and especially the sugarpaste roses just right. I'll probably do another post explaining the steps and intricacies involved in producing this but for now here's a small gallery of photos....

The brides brief was for 4 sponge tiers all sitting on each other with navy ribbon to match the bridesmaids dresses, a small number of hot pink roses and simple icing dots on the sides. I haven't heard from the happy couple yet but I'm hoping they liked it.....

 

Computer themed cupcakes

Life's got a bit busy recently.....starting a new admin job in the NHS, helping out casually in a bakery, getting organised to sell and move out of our house, buying another house, making a wedding cake for a friends son and volunteering with a charitable organisation offering people advice and support when using computers.

For the launch of the charities new venture I offered to make some cupcakes. If truth be known I'm probably better suited to helping people learn about baking and cake decorating than computing but we're not talking programming or analytics here just the basics for those with limited knowledge of, or access to, computers. I decided on a computer themed cupcake design for the launch party and created a variety of royal icing run-out logos for the toppers. I also modelled a few laptops out of black gumpaste finished off with the flying windows desktop screen printed onto rice paper and,  again using rice paper, decorated a few cupcakes with the organisation's 'Go-to' logo.

The launch party was a success, the mayor cut the ribbon, the venue was officially opened, the ethos explained and plenty of food and cake was eaten. I hope it proves to be a valuable resource for the community - good luck Go-to Internet Cafe at the Roy Fletcher Centre in Shrewsbury! Now I'd better brush up on my knowledge of cookies of the computer not edible kind!

 

Sourdough September

How long does it take before something becomes a habit? Research seems to indicate that it depends on how difficult that task is. Drinking more water on a daily basis - relatively easy, getting into running - very difficult (for me anyway), making sourdough......? I think, after 6 weeks, I'm just about there. But it does take commitment, an organised mind and, for best results, some new additions to your baking kit.

The Real Bread Campaign has been championing Sourdough September for a few years now and it is well supported by a range of businesses and promoted in local and national press. I've recently been helping out in a small artisan bakery in Shrewsbury called Bread and Loaf on a casual basis. They specialise in sourdough and interesting yeasted and rye breads and seem to have a loyal and growing customer base.

Telegraph - 12/09/2015

The Shrewsbury Chronicle - 03/09/2015

A few weeks ago, to promote Sourdough September, Bread and Loaf gave away a small tub of sourdough starter to anyone interested in 'having a go' along with a recipe and information sheet. Over 160 starter packs were given away and 13 plucky customers returned with their loaves on Saturday to be entered into a competition judged by Kate and Martin who own and run the business. Interestingly all looked and tasted quite different despite starting with the same recipe and starter.

I wonder how the other 150 recipients are getting on. Is their starter languishing in the fridge waiting to be refreshed? Has it grown and grown as people feed it and can't bring themselves to throw half away? Or have people given up as they cannot fit making soudough bread into their busy lives? I'm probably making a loaf every two or three days and alternate between using the Bristol sourdough starter we acquired and my own 'home grown' starter. Below is a pictorial story of my sourdough 'journey'...

In the beginning....... sourdough starter

Equipment list - bread stone, lame (scoring blade) & banneton basket

Sourdough rising slowly in the basket (12 hours plus)

Sourdough turned out and ready to be scored and cooked

My 6 weeks worth of sourdough loaves - all different!

So although Sourdough September has come to an end I hope making soudough bread is one habit I'll try and keep up.