Blossom’s First Birthday

I thought that as I’m coming up to my first birthday, or should I say Blossom Cakes and Bakes first birthday (I’m actually a wee bit older!), that it would be a good point to review my first year. Have I met my original objectives? Am I in profit? Am I still enjoying it? ....

My original aim  when I started was to set up a business that allows me to earn money flexibly around childcare commitments. As many parents will know this is not an inconsiderable challenge but I think I have achieved this, albeit with a small profit.

Have I enjoyed the work I’ve been doing? Yes I have. It’s nice to do something creative with your hands rather than sit at a computer all day, drive miles to a client or sit in a stuffy meeting room.

And so to the future. The main challenge is to develop the business into something that pays a bit more than the minimum wage! Once my youngest is in pre-school, I’ll have a bit more time to focus on the business (or is that wishful thinking?)... I’m thinking about a monthly cake club supplying  local businesses, cake decorating workshops and gluten-free cakes amongst other things.

Would I recommend this career choice to anyone else? Yes I think I would, but not in Hitchin – I don’t want any more competition!

The Perils and Pitfalls of Being a Bake-At-Home Mum

People think it’s all sweetness and light in the world of home baking but sometimes it’s not all plain sailing. Here are a few of the pitfalls and perils of being a bake-at-home Mummy (my hubby made up the ‘Bake-at-Home Mum’ bit, he’s very pleased with himself for that!):

• You have to fit in all the work when the kids are not around. You’ve got to meet food safety requirements in order to have your kitchen approved for use in a home- baking  business and little fingers and helpers don’t always don’t always make for clean caking. In practise this means I have schedule every activity around school hours, my toddler’s nap times and any child-free time in the evening.  If the toddler decides not to have a nap then the pressure’s really on.
• There’s often tempting cake off cuts and baking experiments around so it’s hard to resist the temptation to nibble (or scoff!). The waistband has definitely suffered since I started my baking business!
• Sometimes I have to shove hubby and the children out of the house on a Saturday morning so that I can finish off a cake to meet a lunch time deadline. Actually, that’s not such a hardship as I have the house to myself and I can listen to Radio 4 whilst I’m busy caking.
• There’s always something that needs doing, whether it’s updating the website, tweeting, posting photos on Facebook, researching product ideas or writing blog posts. This means that any time I’m sitting down in front of the TV I’ve got the laptop in front of me and I’m tap, tap, tapping away on the computer. I never really switch off from it. If I upgrade my mobile to a Smartphone I might never get away from it!