Episode 42: Day in the life revisited

Speaker A: Welcome to the Adventures in Cakeland podcast. I'm, um, your host, Yvonne, and this is the podcast where we talk about the ups and downs of cake life, running a business, exploring the latest cake trends, and hearing authentic stories from other cake business owners. I really hope you enjoy today's episode. So welcome to another episode of the Adventures in Cakeland podcast. So how are you and how is business? So the topic of today's podcast is that I wanted to look back and compare Prepare a day in the Life. Now, the reason why I wanted to do that, in the end of April, very early May, I put up a post on um, the Instagram, um, page for the podcast. Just a reintroduction, allow me to reintroduce myself kind of post and just saying who I am, that I run a business full time, I would have my business part time. And you know, there's many people that choose not to give up their day job to run their business for whatever reason that is. And so I thought, you know, it was just a good way to reintroduce the podcast. But underneath there there was a comment from somebody who said that they listened to the podcast and that they also, they have a full time job as well and they're trying to start their side hustle. And uh, the podcast is showing that it's possible to do that. So I thought, you know what, let me revisit and compare what I was doing. Right. I think it was 2022 when my first day in the Life episode went out to what I'm doing now in 2026. I think it was episode four of the podcast that I did like a day in the just compare. But before we do any of that, let's do as we always do and rewind the clocks back to the month of May to see what I was up to in the business and what, um, was trending in the month of May. So the first thing that I'd say, and I've been saying it since the beginning of this year really, that business is definitely picking up for me now. That is for me, it doesn't mean my busy is not somebody else's busy. But obviously last year we had a twisted knee, we slowed things down, we're picking it back up and it's the emails, doing the quotes, the orders they're delivering. It just seems a lot. So May was quite busy and I wasn't posting nearly as much as I, um, wanted to just because I was too busy and I just didn't want to, I didn't have the headspace to sort of think of things to create, to put on social media and like the algorithmic algorithm in any way. So it was no skin off my nose. But yeah, things are definitely improving and I've done a few cakes with that brushstroke effect which I'm really liking actually. And I am getting orders for that cake. So I think that will be a cake that would definitely be going on the website as a ready to order and a bit of a signature style that people like. That style of cake, um, that would definitely work for them. But yeah, overall things are picking up. But I do cap my orders and I only want to do two orders a week. Now for some people that is nothing, but for me that is plenty because don't forget we're running this alongside a full time job. And when we get onto the main portion of the show, I will share my day and how I facilitate that and how doing two orders a week is really manageable for me, just about. So in episode, the last episode we interviewed Charlotte Giddings, didn't we, who was from Brownie and the Bean and I ordered some of her brownies and oh my God, they are absolutely delicious. I don't order many postal treats obviously because I make cakes myself and so I don't really tend to do that. But I thought I'm definitely going to order some. I used the um, the code that she gave us and I ordered them and I had an assorted box and they were absolutely delicious. Really, really nice texture, really nice flavors in there. Uh, so if you want to try them, you can go back and listen to episode, what was it, 41 of the podcast and see if you can get the code to get a discount. But they were really, really nice. I would definitely, they were top tier. Also in May I went to a real, in real life event that I haven't been to in absolutely ages and it was the lovely Natalie Freeman from 13Rhythms. Natalie, I interviewed her on episode 20 where we was talking about lots of different subjects around cake and she's such a, uh, she's such a lovely person to listen to. She, if you ever catch her on Tick Tock when she does her Tick Tock lives and she's talks about business and it's not just cakes, it's anybody that's got a product based business and she does do service based businesses and she's a coach but she's a really lovely person to listen to, full of really wise knowledge. And so she had an in real life personal event that was going to be Housed in Birmingham M at the hotel Divan. So of course I had to go because that's on my doorstep. And um, it was a lovely, lovely day. It went from, run from about was it 10:30 till 4 and she had lots of people, product based businesses that were there and it was a really interesting, fun day. One thing, there's a couple of things that stood out to me. Well, this is for me personally but I'll talk about the day generally was when I arrived and you get your coffee, don't you, you sit down, you start talking to people. And there was a couple of ladies I were talking to that I've got a really interesting business actually. They make. Right, let's see if I can get this right. They make kind of, they make kind of hoods for dogs. Really unusual. Um, and if you've got a pet you're probably going to be able to relate. But it was a really interesting business concept to be fair. So I was talking to them and they were saying, oh, what business have you got? And I said oh, I do cakes. And went oh, ah, are you the blue logo? And that just made me giggle because as much as you think you spend time working on your branding, working on your logo or somebody else doing that for you, you don't to know whether it resonates or people remember. But on this occasion they did. So that was absolutely lovely to hear Also while I was there, obviously it's um, a networking event talking about um, sharing our voice and being present on social media and things like that. So she got us doing a few exercises. So one of the things that she got us doing was standing in a semicircle and she would throw a ball to anybody random and then they would to talk about their business. And when she threw it to me I was like, right, my name's Yvonne and I run cake and cupcakery. I tend, you know, I make cake and cupcakes. I tend to focus on flavor. And as soon as I said that this head popped out of the semicircle and looked at me. She goes, this lady goes, I've had your cakes. I turned to her and I said the lady's name and she was a customer. She then proceeded to say how delicious and how gorgeous the cakes were. She re, um repeated the cakes that she had and I have delivered to her a couple of times. But it was so weird that one of my customers was in the room. And the unique thing about this particular lady was that she doesn't follow that she, well she didn't follow Natalie, she wasn't part of the community. She didn't see her on Tick Tock Live. She saw it on an Instagram ad, saw that it looked interesting, saw that it was in her hometown. I thought why not go? And so she came and so that was a really interesting thing that happened. So when you think that you're not being noticed or recognized or where your customers are, you never be. You will always be surprised where they can crop up and pop up. But overall it was an amazing day. I hope she does another one. And if you get chance to go, I would really recommend going because it was a real, it was a nice to meet a real person. And I know that I've spoke on this podcast about get togethers and meet up to nostalgia and you know, community and you know, even the treat boxes about get coming together. It was just really nice to come together with a group of like minded people that have got different businesses from cakes and pastries and treats and stuff and just talk in general. It was a really, really lovely day. So if she does another one, you get chance to go. It' definitely worth attending. So normally my treat box is going to go out on the same day as a podcast. Um, the sit back kickback. And it was due to go out today. The book, the box reveal was supposed to be today, but I've pushed it back a week and because I was tired, like I said, it's been a busy, busy month and um, personally it's been busy as well. There's been lots of going on and so you sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and just step back from the situation. And nobody was going to be crying at my doorstep that they weren't getting the box reveal on Tuesday. So I thought it's perfectly within my rights with having free will to push back the box reveal of what I'm going to do. And um, the sit back kickback theme for this month was berries. So when I do the next episode, I will share with you what I did and um, how well it went and, but if you can't wait, you can always have a look at my Instagram page next week. But talking about cake, how have you been coping in the hot weather? Because last week a cake came along and humbled me to remind me to don't get, don't get too cocky when it comes to this hot weather. So I had an order to do and um, the actual cake is on my Instagram. It's the lemon cake with the torch meringue and the brushstroke and I did this cake and it was fine. Everything was fine. It stood up in my kitchen. Okay. I put it in the car. I really. It was in the morning so I was going to work because it's for a work colleague. I really was contemplating putting it in the foot while I put the aircon on. But it wasn't that warm because it was like 7:30 in the morning. So I thought it'd be fine in the boot. And so I took this cake to work and I carried it into the office and I put it on my desk. And then I always have a little sneak peek. And when I had a sneak peek, I'm like, for heaven's sake. This cake had moved. It has shifted. Oh. Uh, so I went into my colleague and I said, look, I know your cake is for tomorrow. I'm gonna have to give it some attention because the cake has actually shifted. Now. That hasn't happened to me for quite a number. A couple of years at least. We all have cake disasters. I'm not, um, I'm included in that number of people that have cake disasters. But I couldn't figure out why this cake had shifted. But when I came back home and I thought about it, I thought, I reckon, number one, it's the combination of the warm weather. The, the buttercream that I put inside was my normal ratio and it was a lemon one. It was soft, not overly soft, I thought, but it was soft. And my chocolate ganache, I used a combination of caliber white chocolate, which is my favorite chocolate to use, and I had some Dr. Oetga white chocolate. Now I used up the Dr. Oka and uh, which was equivalent to about maybe 300 grams, and then topped it up with the Caliban, which I thought we were fine. It was okay. Generally it did split a little bit, but generally it was okay. I managed to bring it back to life and I covered the cake and I did the buttercream. And I'm just concluding that that could be my problem. That could have been what? It didn't keep it as secure. It had a center dowel in it. That's the only thing I can think of. And my driving wasn't particularly bad because the children on holiday, so the roads were fairly quiet, especially on a Friday. So it just, it just sort of tickled my brain. I couldn't figure out why that had happened. Um, and that's the only thing I could think of. So anyway, I managed to keep the cake chilled for the majority of the day. So when I brought it home, I Just took the buttercream and the ganachev and did the whole thing again with pure caliber and lemon buttercream, etc. Etc. So the picture that you see on my Instagram is the before the disaster happened because obviously it's in my house, I take a picture and it's fine. I redid the cake exactly the same and then it went off to the customer and it was fine. I had to deliver it to her home and home in the end and it was fine. But every so often, um, these cakes will come to humble us. And you know, I have a very strict process when I'm making my cakes, as we all do, we know what works and what doesn't work. And with chocolate, I know that it's more of a spendy chocolate that caliber, but I like it because I trust it. I know how it works. Um, when I'm doing the brushstroke I know how to handle it. I know not to get the chocolate too hot. I don't really temper it that much because you don't have to with this particular brand. But every so often this cake will humble you. And I just was like mortified. And it was funny because the day before I was on Tick Tock and I saw this woman complaining that her aunt had ordered a cake. It was a two tier cake and, and when they got it home, the thing is actually all the, the outer coating, the buttercream and everything had just fallen away. And I was looking at it, I was thinking, oh my God, how awful. I wonder how that happened. And sometimes we can't, we haven't got an explanation for these. We can do, take all the precautions to do all the right things but we just don't know how things are going to work out. So that was my little bit of a, a cakey disaster. But yeah, with this heat I think we've just got to be a bit more savvy with things. If I thought about it, probably I would have chilled it overnight because I don't chill my cakes because they should be, they should be able to hold at an ambient temperature no matter what that temperature is. And so, you know, if I can't keep it at an ambient temperature, how does the customer expect to keep it at an ambient temperature? So I don't, I don't refrigerate because I don't like the whole sweating process after. Um, and that's just me. And I just, it's just something that I don't do because I feel quite confident in the places and how I Do things. Um, but yeah, um, wasn't pretty and it wasn't a lot of damage. It just slid and it just touched the box. And, and funnily enough, the customer that was having the cake, she was like, it's okay, I'll just push it back together. I was like, absolutely not. You will not. I will take this cake back home and I will give you the cake that you're paying for. You're not gonna just push it back together? No, absolutely not. But she was lovely about it. But yeah, just, uh, be mindful of this hot weather. That was a lesson learned. And I'm definitely, definitely, definitely sticking to caliber. That is my chocolate. That is a use. So now let's talk about the things that I've seen trending over the past month or so. So the first thing that I'm going to talk about is cake sheds. So I have saw a number of posts sort of mid May, towards the end of May regarding people that had cake sheds, how they were getting potentially fined by their local authority for not having the correct license. Now this is something totally new to me in regards to the cake sheds because they were so popular. I wasn't really sure of the process to having them because I don't have one and I don't know anybody that has one personally. I know that there is some in the area because on some of these local Facebook groups people are promoting them, but I don't know anybody personally that's got one. But apparently you need to have some kind of license which people should have anyway. And it's a tricky one really, because if you've got a cake shed, I'm assuming that they're on your property. So if it's on your property, why would you need to have a license? But there could be some people that have cake sheds and then maybe on the border of their property or it's causing, I was going to say causing a nuisance. But for example, where I live I have off road parking, so I've got a, a small drive that I can park on. Um, if I was to have a cake shed, it would probably have to go in front of my house. Um, and then cars would be pulling up, people would be congregating and it would royally get on my, my neighbor's nerves. I know it would just because the way that my home is set out. So I don't know whether, you know, for some people, you know, neighbors and stuff don't like it. But it was an interesting, um, post that I was seeing and an interesting Turn of events. It's a shame because some people have decided to close them. But I've said before, I really like the cake sheds. I really like the concept of it that you can have this like little mini bakery, um, at the front or the side of your house where people can pay with an honesty box. I think it's a really cool idea. And on Tick Tock there is a woman called, I think she's called Topsies Bakery and she's got an honesty stand. And when she comes on Tick Tock, I have to always watch her content because she doesn't just do cake, she does bread and she does chia, uh, pudding and she does cheese straws and sausage rolls and then she does cookies and treats. But it's a really lovely little Tick Tock to watch, just to watch the process and how popular they are. I think she does it full time now. So I'm sure if you do me something like that, you know, you've got to just double check and make sure you've got the proper licenses so you don't get like a hefty fine. That was quite sad to see really. But there's still some, you know, many are still going and there are uh, the Facebook groups and stuff where people are taking you through the process of how to, to do it properly. But yeah, from, from what I gather, having a permit or something like that, you should be having anyway. But yeah, my advice is just if you're thinking about doing one, you need to totally get it checked out and be sure that you're following. You know, you cross the T's and dot the eyes and you're doing everything as you should be. Really. The other thing that I've seen loads of on, ah, my uh, while I've been scrolling through social is Tiramisu. Tiramisu seems to be absolutely everywhere. Um, it's either in a restaurant or there is a guy that I've seen on Tick Tock, he has a stand where we sell Tiramisu's. The tiramisu just seems to be everywhere all of a sudden. Really, really, really, really popular. Um, so that was interesting to see. I mean I've done a tiramisu cupcake really nice and was really popular and I probably will revisit that but try and tweak it in some way. But, um, yeah, tiramisu was everywhere as well as, um, there's really. I'm sure there's a name for them. There's really large. They're quite low in height, um, raspberry cake that a lot of the times you have to make at the venue, they're really popular. And also the, the type of runner cakes or the rectangle cakes, which look lovely. And we've spoke about this before and like, I've mention it on the episode a couple of episodes ago, how that's becoming really popular. But the one thing that I would say about that, before you take an order on for those cakes, how are you going to refrigerate it and how are you going to transport it to the venue? Ah, because I saw a lady that had, uh, done one of these cakes and the top had slid off with the heat. So just be mindful that if you're going to do these, if you're not going to assemble it at the venue, then you've got to refrigerate it and you've got to transport it it and how you're going to do that, especially if we have another heat wave like we've recently had. I mean, that was so hot. It was quite ridiculous, really. But, yeah, that was another trend that I saw. The most recent trend as well. I'm going to mention it even though it's May, because it really. It was the. It was the, um, Even though it's June, rather, it was on the cusp of May, towards the end of May, is the dot cakes. Oh, my God, they are everywhere now. There is a bakery, uh, that has a queue around the block in America for these duck cakes. So clearly this is their thing, this is part of their unique selling point, this is their niche. And they do customize them as well, so you can have, like, initials and numbers on them with the same, um, like sprinkles. But basically I'm like, it's a cake in a tub, vanilla cake in a tub with buttercream and sprinkles. It's not that deep, but it is everywhere. And people keep replicating it. And I'm like, why are people replicating these, these duck cakes? Because they're very specific to the brand. The actual company that does them, the actual bakery, that's their thing. Everybody else recreated. It's not the same. It's just a Funfetti cake. It's just a cake with sprinkles. It's not the same. So I, I won't be making one because it's not something that I do and it's a trend and I don't. You really tend to jump on trains hard like that. But it's. It's very specific to that particular bakery. But everybody's jumping on the trend and it's all over. Tick tock and M people are queuing. But it's tickled me because it's so, it's so basic. But at the same time it's bloody genius as well because the food cost must be so incredibly low for that. You know, it's butter, it's cake, it's a tub, it's sprinkles. So they're not very expensive ingredients. But the markup must be massive. I'm not sure how much they charge. I should have really looked at that to see, but I reckon it's got to be around the 4, 5, $6 mark. But the food cost for that is probably a dollar, if not less. I could be wrong. But yeah, that was really interesting. But it's very, it's a very, um, clever project to sell, like I said, because it's quite basic. The skill level isn't particularly high, but everybody's going crazy for them and it's give it a month and they'll probably die down and then that business can keep doing them as they do it. But yeah, that, that was, that was insightful. And so the last thing that I saw trending is Michael Jackson. Now, if you've seen the film Michael, you will know that it's an amazing film. And what's been really lovely to see, I'm a Michael Jackson fan and what's been really lovely to see is that so many people have been embracing him or listening to his music for the first time or seen his videos for the first time. And they always say about Michael Jackson that a lot of his fans haven't even been born yet because for some reason children really love to, to connect with, you know, to see his videos and hear his songs. It's really cute to see. But the reason why I mentioned in Michael Jackson is because I saw a post that and I thought this is so true, that he was a brilliant marketeer and he was very niche and very repetitive. So what I mean is if you see a sequin glove, you think Michael Jackson. If you see the moonwalk, you think Michael Jackson. If you see that silhouette of him where he's bending his knees and he's on his toes, you know it's Michael Jackson. If you see a military style jacket, you know, it's Michael Jackson. Now those four elements he did continuously, they were always along with his aviator shade. It was something that he repeated time and time and time and time and time and time again. So we always associated these Things with Michael Jackson. So with us as cake makers, we niche down and we get repetitive about what we shop on our feed. So if you scroll through your feed and you see a lot of the same thing, same kind of style of cake, maybe a color palette, um, maybe flavor profiles or whatever, it's very, it will resonate with your customer because it's repetitive and they will get to know that's what you do. So for example, with me, and I've mentioned this before, when I used to take pictures of my cupcakes, I would put the flavor on um, um, the same image in a really bold font in a really bright color and it used to stand out quite well. And so I've only recently stopped doing that. To be fair, I was doing that for years. But um, a colleague, like, um, she's not a colleague, she is a pr. Another cake maker, she said she could always recognize my cakes when she was scrolling through Instagram because of that look, because it was repetitive. I did the same thing over and over and over again and it became synonymous with me and my brand. I mean, like I said, I don't do them anywhere. The same, the same way is in Michael Jackson. He just stuck to the core things and people recognize that. So there's a lesson to be learned there. Quite cleverly done. I saw it on um, somebody talking about it on a post. But a, uh, quite clever observation in how we just need to be repetitive with things. And that's what I'm trying to do a little bit more. Keep my, my Instagram feed very cohesive. I've done some other cakes recently that is not my style, my current style. So you won't see them because I'm only going to put cakes on my feed. Number one, that people resonate with and probably want to order and number two, cakes that I actually like to make. So there are some other cakes that, that people have asked before but I'm like, well that won't make the feed because that's not quite my style and I don't particularly want to make another one of these just yet. So it won't see the light of day. But yeah, there's nothing wrong with being repetitive, but I thought it was just a really clever observation. Regarding Michael Jackson. I'm um, briefly interrupting this episode to bring to your attention three books I think will help you in your business. Created by me, they are, ah, the Cake Business audience form book to record all your cake orders, a weekly baking planner to plan out your baking schedule, and lastly a food management book. To assist you with the food safety in your business. These books are tools to assist you with the process of managing the admin side of your business. You can find out more by visiting the link in the show Notes. Now back to the episode. So if you're listening to this podcast, you're either a full time cake maker, a hobbyist, or you've run your business part time alongside a full time job. And when I was starting this podcast, I wanted to talk to other cake makers. But one of the things that I wanted to share was that I run my business alongside a full time job and it can be done. And that post that I said that I saw on Instagram just really prompted me to, to revisit this, this subject. So I thought let's do it. Let's just look back and compare things that I used to do. I've made any changes. Now one of the first things I would definitely say that if you're going to run a side hustle or do run your business, um, five to nine, as they say, is to be really clear on what it is that you want to do, what kind of cakes that you make to do. Because time is limited and I'm finding that out more and more and more. And when I look back, I don't know how I used to turn out the amount of cakes that I used to churn out celebration cakes, the sugar paste type, um, supply a coffee shop, doing my sit back kickback. It was ridiculous the amount of time that I used to spend. But I had to make some changes because I felt very, very close to burnout. And the kind of cakes that I used to do used to take up so much time. There was a lot of sugar paste and I remember when the drip cake started to become popular and there was a cake maker from Australia and his name was Cakes by Cliff. And for me I attribute the popular, the popularity of the drip cake to Cakes by Cliff because he was the one of the first bakers I saw do it and he used to do an upside down drip. There was really, really lovely cakes and as they started to become more popular I started to get asked to do those more and less sugar paste, which I wasn't mad at to be fair. And I remember putting a poll up on my um, Instagram and had like a sugar paste cake and a drip cake and I put some words in around what do you prefer? Just do you prefer sugar paste or modeled characters or do you prefer cakes with buttercream or chocolate ganache? And it was the buttercream and chocolate ganache cakes that were coming out strong. So for me that was my perfect excuse to store. Can't give me where's that to sort of try to wind down the fondant type sugar paste cakes and focus more on, um, buttercream ganache. And one of the reasons why I wanted to do that is because buttercream ganache for me is a much quicker cake to execute. It doesn't take as much work and they can look really pretty, really nice, but they're just a lot faster. So if you're going to run your business alongside your full time job, that's one thing I'll be serious consider. And I think one of the nice things about the industry at the moment is that we have that flexibility. There is. So there's so much differentation in the industry right now. You. When I first started making cakes, it was cakes or cupcakes. There wasn't many people doing brownies, there wasn't many people doing cookies or doing postal treat boxes. There wasn't hardly any of that. But now you find a niche and you niche down. You could, you know, run a business just doing cake jars or just run a business just doing cookies. You could do whatever you like. But it's got to suit you and it's got to suit your lifestyle. And I'm, um, gonna get more into that as we progress through this portion of the episode. But one of the other things that I did when we're talking about the style of cakes that you want to do is drop wedding cakes weeks. And um, for me that couldn't come soon enough. I decided, I made that decision in 2020 when the pandemic happened, because I thought that was a perfect opportunity to draw a line under that. But as much as I like the brides, I like talking to people and I like the cakes. The whole process, excluding those two elements, the whole process around wedding cakes was not for me because I'm too time poor to give it that attention. The brides want to talk to you, they want to see you, they want to keep emailing. You might have to go and see the venue, you might not. Then you've got to make the cake. When I used to make the cakes, I, uh, used to have to take annual leave off work to make the wedding cakes, which wasn't good because that means I wasn't getting a proper rest alongside my job. And so I used to have to do that. And then you've got to deliver the cake and then you get to the venue and the tables, the table's wobbly. Then you find out that like, you know, there's no air conditioning, the room is really hot or it's in a marquee. It's just the whole process, you know, going back to pick up your stands, I just didn't enjoy it. It was just like this. It's too much time. I haven't got the time. So I made the decision for me that I, uh, would stop doing wedding cakes. Now I do cupcake towers for events and for weddings. I enjoy making m those. It just seems like a quicker process and I can cope with that. But wedding cakes was just not for me. I just had enough of them. So, yeah, that's my one. My first bit of advice is think about what you want to do and how much time you've got to do it. Because if you've got a family, um, or not, you might not have a family, but you might be caring for somebody. Whatever your circumstances are, you've got to have enough time to do it. And as I, you know, talk more about my little routine, you'll see how I've sort of like had to niche down and really hone down what I do to, to make it comfortable and work for me. So now you've decided and you're clear on what you're going to do. Now what I'm going to do, I'm going to talk about. I'm going to take you through my day and we're going to start from the morning and go straight through and I'll just share my routine and things that I do. So in the episode, episode four, when I was speaking about how I run my day, one of the things that I used to do that I don't do anymore is I wake up about six and I get out of bed about 20 past or whatever. And um, that's what I do now. But before I used to be in the gym for 6:30, I used to get up and I used to go to the gym. But what I realized is as time's going by and I'm getting a bit more mature, I really enjoy a very slow, a very intentional morning. And so leaping out of bed and rushing to the gym and getting back home for after seven and getting ready for work was not, not, it was not for me. I, and I know you say, oh, you could get ready at the gym. Um, but yeah, that means taking all my stuff and the amount of times I've done that and I've forgotten things. So it's just like. And I live close enough to the gym that I can come back home. But now that I like a much slower morning, that doesn't work for me. So I brought a treadmill. I brought my treadmill last year when I hurt my knee as part of my rehabilitation to get me moving. But the handy thing about that is that in the morning when I get up, I can do 10, 15 minute walk on the treadmill before I've started my day. So I can listen to some music or watch a bit of GMB M or listen to an audiobook and just have a little stroll and just gather my thoughts and get my steps together. So that is the thing that I do. So I no longer go to the gym, I've got a treadmill, um, because I like a slower morning. Now you might not have have, you might have an exercise routine, you might not. But if you going to do those kind of things, you've got to try a way to slot those into the day. Now this routine is for one of my cake days I call them because I obviously we have cake days and non cake days. So this routine is for my cake day. So on the days that I'm not baking I can go to the gym after work because I've got m more time. But when I'm baking I have to be so focused because I don't have much time in the evenings to get get things done. So my working day has changed from the previous episode. I now do 8 or 4 rather than 8:30 to 4:30. And I think when I recorded the first version of this podcast, um, episode I think we were just coming out of the pandemic. So I just switched around my hours a little bit. But when we went back to regular hours or regular opening, I decided to go back to eight or four. So because I wasn't doing as many cakes in the pandemic either. So now that we're back up and running, I needed to get back home to be able to start. So I do wait till 4 and then I get home roughly 4:30, 4:45 ish. And one of the first things I do when I come home is do some meal prep if I haven't done it the night before. And let me just explain that I am one of these people that we always, you know, we want to stay fit and healthy and our weight fluctuates is up and down, up and down. But one thing that I adopt and I do literally daily, I'm an intermittent faster, I like to do time restricted eating. I will stop eating at 7 o' clock in the evening and I will not eat another thing until 11:00 the following day. Number one, because I'm working on cake so I haven't got time to eat. Number uh, two, I tend to skip my lunch at work, so I'll have breakfast, I'll skip the lunch and then I'll come home and have an evening meal. Um, and number three, I like to go to bed roughly between, I'd say 9:30, 10:30, and I don't like to go to bed on a full stomach, so I like to eat quite early. So when I get home from work I start to meal prep and then what I do, I can put that in the oven maybe about 5 o', clock, ish, whatever. And then when that goes in, I might have a drink or just chill out for a little while. And then I start work strictly at 5:30. Um, and while my dinner's cooking, I could be covering a cake board, I could be making some chocolate pieces, I could mix up my cake blind tins, anything to do with cake, make the buttercream, make the ganache. But I start strictly at ah, 5:30 because I want to be out of the kitchen at uh, half past seven, eight o' clock the latest. So if you are going to be doing cakes in the evening, be really, really strict on your time. I used to come home from work and I used to sit down for a couple of hours and I used to get up and start work at 7 o', clock, 7 o' clock in the evening and then work till about 9:10, sometimes 11:00 clock at night. And I was like, no, this can't work, I hate it, I absolutely hate it. And this was in the height of me doing sugar paste cakes as well. I'm like, no, this can't, this can't go on. But as I've made the shift with the kind of cakes that I do, it requires less time. And so I thought, what am I going to do to make my life easier? I'm going to bring the time forward. I'm going to sacrifice that time to bring the time forward so I have more downtime and relaxing time in the evening. So I'm not getting up to start doing work at 7 o' clock and that's what I do. So I start at 5:30. So by the time 5:30 comes around, my dinner is ready. I take that out, the cakes go in and I sit down and I eat. Now this is my routine. Yours could be a little bit different, but I'm um, just giving you an idea. Of how you can make this work. And so I eat my meal and then I'm back in the kitchen and then I will work solidly till 7:30. Sometimes 8 o' clock is the things that I absolutely need to do. But I will not work past 8 o'. Clock. There is no way. I mean, back in the day, a lot of cake makers used to work till the early hours of the morning, didn't we? Stupid o'. Clock. And I'm like, absolutely not. That cannot work for me now. Not at the. Not where I am in my life now, that will not work for me. I need that downtime. I need to be able to come and have a bath, go in the garden if I want to, go out if I want to, but I need to have that time. For me, it can't. My whole evening cannot be about cake. Because if we're doing cakes, that's roughly, what, eight to ten hours a week we might be doing. You might be in the kitchen Tuesday, you might be in the kitchen Wednesday and Thursday, you might be delivering on the Friday or the Saturday. So you really need to be organized and really, really strict with your timings, I think. I think that's really important to help you facilitate your. Your time in the, you know, while you're working on orders. So regarding cakes, it's very, very rare that you will see me make a fondant cake. I do have some customers that have children that still want the occasional cake, but you won't see it on my Instagram feed. It'll sometimes show up on my stories and I will occasionally do that if I'm asked, but I don't do them. I've had to really be conscious about making the shift to an easier star cake to decorate that will suit me and my business. I haven't got time to be spending hours and hours. And I also don't think that customers, not all customers, are willing to pay for cakes that are going to take hours and hours either. So, um, that's. That's something that I've pretty much stuck to, really. If you look at my Instagram, you will hardly see any fondant at all. And, and that. That decision is very, very, very intentional. My boundaries as something that has stayed the same, they haven't shifted and they're stricter than ever. So there is. Is no working on a Sunday and admin only on a Monday. Now, occasionally I might have somebody ask me for a cake on a Monday very occasionally, which means I have to work on a Sunday. And if I do that, let me Tell you I was, I resent every minute of it and I would, I would do the cake but I don't enjoy it and sometimes I curse myself for taking the decision to do it. But it happens so few and far between that, you know, it's usually for somebody that I know, you know what I mean? And then maybe they live quite local. But otherwise I don't touch Sundays and Mondays, uh, when I do my admin and it's very rare that I will deliver a cake on a Monday. So regarding that, you know, I used to be a person that tried to do a little bit each evening as long m as, as well as doing cakes but that just doesn't work. So be really, really clear on your boundaries and the times as well that you contact a place. I will not check business emails after 6:30 the latest. I certainly won't reply to them. Regarding DMS on social media, um, they're very limited. Facebook it will direct you to the website. Instagram. I always m tell people to go and visit my website. Um, and I don't have my phone number out there so people can't phone me for orders or text me for orders because people will be quite inclined to want to ring you at all hours and text you all hours, hours and I'm not having that. So all roads lead to the website and an email address and I will get back to you the following morning from between 10 and 6. I can check my phone on my break, I can check my phone when I come home. But I'm not Amazon, I'm not 247 so I definitely, definitely won't be doing that. But yeah, if you, if you're going to do this alongside your full time job, you really, really, really need to be firm with your boundaries, you know, because it can overwhelm you if you've got things coming from your left, right and center. So you really need to ensure that you, you've got that locked down. The other thing that I do is regarding shopping. I never shop on a cake making day and I, and if you, you haven't got time to do that um, because you're eating into your precious time. So any shopping for cake orders has to be done either on um, maybe a Sunday, a Saturday or even a Monday and admin day but will not take place on a cake making day because like you will just eat into your precious, precious baking time. So that's one bit of advice not to do that. And then the other things I'm doing while I'm talking about shopping, I Have created a little custom GPT, a little AI agent just to help me source out the best value for butter and eggs etc because you know we things are increasing and you don't always pass things on to the customer do you? If it, there's pence in it. So for example butter, um, butter is 1.99. The majority of the major supermarkets, Morrison's, Sainsbury's, Tesco, I put into the AI agent asking it to check the price of booker cost, um booker cash and carry and they do Mulligan butter which is 175. It was 170. It's gone up to 175. A case of 20 was 29.99. So that puts the price down And I was using AI to help me be more savvy about that. Just having a look where some of the ingredients so I could have a shopping list where I needed like Dougal Supreme. Flour, eggs, margarine, sugar, maybe some whipping cream for ganache. Put that into ChatGPT and ask it to compare against Tesco, Asda, uh, Morrison, Sainsbury's which give you the cheapest shopping basket and go there and get your stuff. Now I've got a Morrisons on my doorstep, I've got a Sainsbury's M on my doorstep. But sometimes going to Sainsbury's, my usual supermarket but going to Morrisons is a little bit cheaper. So do that. Use AI to help make your things better. Now uh, that's not something that I did back in 2022 when I did this first style of episode because AI wasn't as prevalent then. But now as we got more confident with it we can use it in a very savvy way to make things easier. So use AI to help you with your shopping list to get things cheaper and um, don't do shopping on a cake bake day. The ordering process for my customers is also not changed. I try to get it as close to a three step process as possible to make it as easy for the customer possible and that hasn't changed. My website hasn't changed much. I update it but not much has changed there because it works. And one thing that I've got on my website as well is an availability tracker that I need to update really. But one of the things that I would advise you doing is at the beginning of the year or maybe a few times a year just update that in bulk. So just block out all the times that you're not going to work. So I don't like to work around bank holiday weekends. I don't like to work on my birthday, I don't like to work, um, the run up to Christmas. And I mean that, that, that short week I have done before. But just fill in the times that you know that you don't want to work and just block it all out so everybody's clear and everybody understands how or when you're available. That's really important as well, to give people a heads up of when you're doing orders and not doing orders so you don't get sort of inundated and overwhelmed with things. And one of the main things I like to do is plan ahead. So, so when I did this first episode, episode four, I spoke about the process. So I had a calendar, I had a whiteboard and I used to make a list. Well, since that time, I've created, um, cake planners. I have a dated one, I have an undated one, I still have my whiteboard. So I really like to plan out or do my mise en place, as they say in chef's terms. And so the day before you are baking, you could always line a tin, you could weigh out your ingredients and cling, film them over if you wanted to. I sometimes do that, especially if I've got an early bake to do. Um, but it's all about think working smarter, not hard. I say anything that you can do to put you one step ahead. So line those tins the day before, weigh out things the day before, don't shop on your baking day, things like that, just to make things super, super, super easy. And also think about limiting your orders. Don't just have an open book where you would accept four or five orders if you know you're going to struggle to fulfill them. My quota now is two cakes a week. That's all I want to do. I've done a lot more than that. And I have been guilty of being the busy fool where I've taken on lots of orders and I've got my coffee shop orders to do and I'm doing my treat boxes. You can be a busy fool, but no, to make it manageable because don't forget, you're running this alongside a 9 to 5 job, or 8 to 4 in my case. And so, um, be really, be really savvy with how many orders you want to take. If you have a specific income generation target, then that's still doable because you just got to ensure that your cakes are priced correctly. So if you want to make, I don't know, um, 20,000 a year and then you're going to do two cakes a week, three cakes, then you're going to have to do the calculation, do the math to make sure that your cakes are priced correctly. But also the price needs to reflect the quality and the um, the not professionalism, I can't think of the word that I wanted to say then. Um, the talent that you've got to make the cakes that are worthy of that price, if that makes sense. So, yeah, lots to think about. But don't be scared to take the time to plan out and plot out what you're going to do. I might create some kind of like a little PDF ETF just for people that um, are in this situation because it can be quite hard to try and to manage your business around alongside a full time job. And I have had some customers who thought I did this cake thing full time, which I don't. But obviously with me I work in hospitality and one of the things that has changed as well from the early days is that we used to do weddings at the venue that I work at, but when I focus in on other things. So we still do events sense but we just don't do weddings which it gives me more flexibility at the weekends. But that does not mean I'm going back to um, there's no way I'm going back to wedding cakes. So I hope that's giving you a little bit of a heads up and if you listen to this and you want to ask me a question, please feel free send me a dm or you can use the text me, um, uh, tag that's in the show notes for this episode. But yeah, ah, it can be quite challenging and I think, you know, we focus a lot of um, you know, if you're a full time baker, you're doing it full time and that's challenging in itself. But if you're trying to manage this alongside a job and everybody's jobs are different, everybody's circumstances are different, everybody's time in the evenings is different, but this is just an example of what works for me. So I hope that was really helpful. So anyway, so this is the penultimate episode of this season. We've got one more episode to go and then we're calling it, it quits for the summer. We're having some down time in the summer, um, and I'm hoping to have a guest episode for the last one. Who knows, we'll see how it goes. But yeah, but I hope you enjoyed listening and if you found this useful or you know somebody that is either contemplating starting a business, it's running one and a bit stuck, or just needs to hear a different way of doing things. Feel free to share this episode. Good with any of your cakey pals. And, um, yeah, so have a great week. Happy baking, and I hope that you're managing the heat. It's cooled down a little bit this week, so it will be getting a bit cooler. But when it ramps, um, back up. Oh, my goodness. Just take it easy out there. And, um, see you the first Tuesday of July for the last episode of this season. Happy baking. Bye, Sam.