How to start a cake business. Own business: cakes to order. Cake production as a business from A to Z. How to win in the competition

Some people enjoy tasting sweets, while others enjoy the process of creating them with their own hands.

If you finally have time to cook more complex dishes than soup and mashed potatoes, learn how to learn how to make cakes at home for yourself and to order. We will tell you where it is better to start this delicious and beautiful hobby, what you need to buy, where to learn the skill and how to ensure that the confectionery masterpiece is admired by guests.

Where does the path of a respected culinary begin?

Any mastery 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 stairs.

Simple recipes - quick results and a 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 - choose the simplest recipes to start with simple decor elements that are accessible to a beginner.

The easiest way is to learn how to make cakes from ready-made biscuit cakes, which are sold in stores. It is always perfectly even and has the same thickness of the cake. You just have to 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 slow cooker with a baking function (we read more about this technique and its choice). From household appliances you will definitely need a mixer, it is advisable to buy a stationary one in order to do other things while whipping cream or dough.

If you have a lot of utensils, then most likely you won’t have to buy anything, but make sure that there are bowls of different sizes, plastic and stainless steel containers with non-stick and enamel coating, spoons and forks of different sizes.

However, the most important thing in the preparation of confectionery products is decoration tools, it is difficult to create admirable beauty with “bare hands”.

What a beginner pastry chef should have:

• kitchen scales, measuring cups and spoons;
• baking dishes - professionals recommend buying metal non-stick coatings 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 with powdered sugar or cocoa powder;
• brushes for decoration;
• tools for rolling dough, sugar mass and mastic;
• blades for leveling;
• food film.

Of the consumables 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;
• flavors;
• nuts;
• cocoa powder;
• powdered sugar;
• impregnation for cakes;
• dry milk or cream;
• gelatin;

Later, when you learn how to make cakes and decide on basic recipes, this list will be supplemented with other ingredients.

How to learn how to make beautiful cakes

There are a lot of techniques for decorating homemade confectionery, we will consider only those suitable for beginners.

Mastic - a quick result without flaws. Mastic is a sweet, elastic mass that is used to cover cakes and make decorative items. To cover the cake, the mastic is rolled out into a layer (like dough for dumplings) and the product is completely or partially wrapped 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 do it yourself.

Confectionery spray - a novelty for an instant effect. This product deserves special attention, unlike mastic, it does not require any preparation. The spray should simply be sprayed onto the product, after which its surface will acquire the effect of a flocked coating.

Ready-made sugar figurines - beauty without effort. Today on sale is a huge selection of ready-made decor for cakes:

• flowers for every taste of different sizes;
• figurines of animals and people, including the bride and groom;
• toys and cartoon characters for children's cakes;
• figures for anniversaries and children's themes;
• inscriptions, names and individual letters;
• imitation of fruits and berries and other decor.

All kinds of sprinkles look interesting in the form of gold and silver balls, beads, stars.

Edible decals are another secret to a beautiful cake for those who are just learning the pastry craft. Such pictures are printed with food coloring on rice, wafer or sugar paper. The decor is applied to a cake lined with mastic.

Openwork decorations and chocolate figurines also quickly turn an ordinary cake into an elegant and festive one. Later, you will learn how to make lace and leaves on your own, but for starters, you can buy ready-made decor.

The most popular types of homemade cakes

DIY cakes do not have to look like the masterpieces of eminent confectioners. Over time, you will develop your own zest, and perhaps your own style. But with all the variety of options, they can all be divided into several types. Consider the most popular and fashionable, 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 healthy eating. Jelly is made from sour cream, cream, cottage cheese, soft cheeses, juices, fruits. Read about how to cook and decorate a sour cream cake.

Puff pastry products are most similar to homemade ones, as they resemble grandmother's favorite "Napoleon".

Wafer cakes are suitable for making simple cakes at home. They do not require complex decor and are quickly transformed by sprinkling with chocolate, nuts, and powder.

Medoviki is a favorite delicacy of those who love tender and fragrant dough. The degree of softness of these cakes depends on the cream. If it is sour cream, then you get a very soft and delicate dessert, when using butter cream, a light crunch will remain.

Biscuit tori are the most popular, dozens of others are distinguished in this group, classified by the number of layers and tiers, types of cream, type of decoration.

At the peak of popularity is a naked cake - with this method, the sides of the product are not covered with cream, but left as is, showing cream layers. For decoration, fresh fruits are most often used.

Where to improve skills and learn professionalism

If you have been baking sweets at home for more than a day, but want to learn how to make cakes to order, consider taking courses. There are three options here:

Homemade cakes are in demand because they are associated with naturalness. Making money on dessert lovers is a hot trend, but making it a reality will require a little more effort than learning how to bake for yourself. This is detailed in our other publication.

If you are determined to learn how to make homemade cakes with your own hands, then start baking! Skills and abilities come only with experience, no books can replace practice.

If you know how to cook deliciously, and your confectionery creations have long been in demand among all relatives and friends, then all that remains is to learn how to make cakes to order and how to start a business at home. After all, such an occupation can be mastered by any woman who wants to earn independently for all her needs.

Of course, when reaching a wide audience and producing large volumes of finished products, you can start opening a cake shop and even organize a whole network across a city or region. But for now, let's focus only on exclusive products that one person can make at home.

Advantages

The relevance of this type of business will never disappear. After all, cakes are a product for all occasions. Throughout the year, we buy them or bake them in honor of the holidays, use them as a gift, serve them on the table when guests come and just occasionally pamper children or the whole family in the mood.

And in recent years, a fashion for unusual confectionery has come to us from American culture. People want them to be exclusive, created and decorated according to their wishes, especially dedicated to some important event. Hence the fashion for making cakes to order.

When creating such an exclusive product, not only the skills and mastery of the chef are manifested, but also his creative talents, aesthetic tastes. Here a professional can show everything he is capable of. And if you know how to bake such sweets, then you can earn money on it.

The business of baking cakes has a number of other advantages:

• To begin with, you need the most minimal investment, and only with development and a good stable income, you can switch to more professional equipment.
• It is available to work at home, which is especially important for young mothers or people with disabilities.
• The competition in any city is low to medium, as the mass production of confectionery is focused on standard recipes.
• To begin with, it is not necessary to register with the tax service.

Where to begin?

Usually people who have the gift to cook tasty and beautiful by themselves gradually reach the level when acquaintances periodically place orders for certain events or holidays.

But what about a person who has just decided to open this kind of business?

1. Start by evaluating competitors in your city. Find their groups on social networks, review the ads. It is important for you to find out the offered assortment, the terms for making cakes to order, as well as the pricing policy. It would be useful to pay attention to the ways of advertising the most popular confectioners in the region.
2. Then think about what exactly you can offer. If the level of competition is high enough, then try to stand out in some way, for example, with unique decorations, non-standard recipes, or at least low prices.
3. Create a portfolio. Every time you bake a beautiful cake, do high quality photo. By presenting visual evidence of your skill, you will be able to interest customers.
4. Also use different ways advertising.

Are documents required?

It is advisable to register a business on cakes accordingly. But experienced entrepreneurs in this business do not recommend for beginners to immediately go to tax service as soon as the idea came to mind. First, try if you can do this business, earn client base, organize the kitchen itself properly.

If you decide on official registration, then in order to bake cakes to order, it is enough to register an individual entrepreneur. To do this, an application is submitted in the prescribed form, a copy of the passport and identification code, as well as a receipt for payment of the state fee. This process will not take long.

It is much more difficult to obtain permission from the sanitary and epidemiological service and Rospotrebnadzor. They have to check the terms of compliance sanitary norms in the kitchen and the quality of manufactured products.

Here you can download for free as a sample.

room

Since we are considering making cakes to order at home, there is no need to look for a suitable building or workshop. It is convenient enough to equip your kitchen. First, it must be perfectly clean. Secondly, all tools, utensils and products are arranged in a way that is comfortable for you to work with.

Another important point is that there should be enough space in the kitchen to fulfill orders. If the business becomes successful and you are unable to cope with the existing influx of customers on your own, you will need to hire assistants. And then, for the convenience of work, you will have to find an appropriate large room.

Equipment for the production of cakes

What do you need to start baking custom baked goods? Most likely, you already have enough equipment and tools for this. But here's a short list for inventory:

• food processor;
• oven and stove;
• fridge;
• various forms for baking;
• confectionery syringe or bag with nozzles;
• bowls;
• pots;
• rolling pin for dough, regular and curly;
• a set of tools for mastic;
• knives and a string for cutting even cakes;
• mixer and whisks for whipping;
• kitchen scales, measuring cups and spoons;
• spatulas, brushes, spatulas, etc.;
• sieve for sifting flour;
• cutting boards;
• baking paper;
• turntable for decorating cakes;
• various accessories for decoration (molds, plungers, curb recesses, molds);
• food coloring and markers.

Professional fixtures can be acquired gradually only after you start to fulfill large volumes of orders. To start, there is enough equipment, which, so, is in your kitchen.

Staff

Whether or not to hire someone to help you is your personal decision. Much here depends on the influx of customers, and if you can’t cope with it, then it is advisable to take the help of specialists who have experience working with confectionery.

But there is another side of the coin. If you start hiring employees, you will need not only to register an individual entrepreneur, but also to expand the kitchen space. And this will entail large financial investments in the enterprise.

Where to look for clients?

Baking cakes also involves trade in confectionery products. Well, if already at first you have friends who periodically order something for themselves. Over time, they will start recommending you to their friends. Word of mouth is the most The best way dissemination of information in your case.

1. Create groups or pages on social networks and post photos of your work there.
2. Make a separate website for viewing your finished products, as well as placing an order online or by phone.
3. Post ads on the Internet public transport or various institutions.
4. Several times for free to prepare beautiful and delicious cakes for some corporate party.
5. Agree on permanent cooperation with small shops that sell homemade or sweets.
6. Make business cards and distribute them to everyone you know.

Cost and profitability

Since you do not need to purchase expensive equipment, you will first have to spend only on the products themselves for the first masterpieces. If you bake them for free for the purpose of advertising, then this is the cost of starting a business. But the most profitable is the work to order.

Calculating the cost is pretty easy. To do this, accurately measure how much and what products you used for the cake. Add to this the cost of electricity, gas and water, and don't forget about packaging. The final amount just shows the real cost of the product. To make money on this and evaluate your efforts, it is recommended to double or even triple this amount.

But when pricing, be sure to stick to the framework. For example, if there are many chefs of the same kind in your area, then you should not overcharge. To become one of the most popular and sought-after craftsmen in the city, it is better, on the contrary, to reduce the cost of your products. For example, for starters, it may be as little as 20-40% markup.

To reduce the cost of products, it is desirable to purchase some of them (assuming long-term storage) at wholesale depots, warehouses, farmers. For example, by purchasing flour, dried fruits, sugar, cocoa and other similar ingredients in large volumes at a low price, you can significantly reduce the cost of the finished product.

The profitability of this type of business is considered quite high. And at minimum investment after 3-4 months we can talk about net profit. If initially you already have everything you need, then from the first days you start earning only from the difference between the amount spent and the amount received.

As in any business, this business has its own troubles and difficulties, for which it is advisable to be prepared:

• Do not expect that baking cakes at home on your own, you will earn a lot. Getting rich here will not work, especially if you do not plan a large-scale expansion in the future.
• Confectioners complain of severe fatigue. After all, this is a laborious process and often women, constantly cooking to order, feel physical exhaustion. Especially if, in addition to making cakes, you also have to do household chores and children at the same time.
• It is very important to adhere to the exact terms agreed with the client. Indeed, after the expected holiday or event, the confectionery product will no longer be needed.
• Remember that the cake is a perishable product, so you need to think carefully about how long it will take to make it so that you do not have to keep it in the refrigerator for an extra day.
• With a large influx of customers, there is a risk of not having time to fulfill all orders. Therefore, decide in advance what volumes you can afford and do not gain more than you can cook. Or consider helpers.
• Periodically attend confectionery courses, then you can spend less time on individual stages of preparation or offer something original to your customers.
• Take care in advance about the conditions for returning unsuitable products. After all, it also happens that the client eats the whole cake, and then asks for a refund, because he did not like the taste.
• Don't forget your competitors. Some of them may do nasty things, such as alerting regulatory authorities about your activities or mistakes.
• Maintain perfect cleanliness in the kitchen and in the entire apartment, bathrooms, keep your hair tied up and under a cap so that customers are not scared off by the untidy appearance of the confectioner or the dirt around. Pets are also excluded from this way of earning.
• There are risks of encountering various kinds of scammers. For example, in social groups someone can answer instead of you and take an advance payment for any order. It will ruin the chef's reputation. Therefore, initially establish communication methods so that there are no unpleasant misunderstandings.
• To avoid possible health problems for customers, always use only high-quality and fresh products for making cakes.

Financial part

In order to determine whether it is profitable to engage in this type of business, it is necessary to carry out preliminary calculations. Let's give the numbers in the table.

If you bake 20 cakes in a month and sell them for 2000 rubles (at a cost of 1000), then in two months you will be able to return the initial investment. But the exact figures will depend on your capabilities, customer base, competitors, pricing and order volumes.

Video: how to make money on cakes at home?

Do you like to bake beautifully and tasty? Temporarily unemployed? Want to try your hand at starting your own business? A cake baking business is exactly the type of activity that will bring you pleasure from work and a good income.

The maximum investment for a home business is 40,000 rubles, the payback period of the project is 4-5 months.

Homemade custom cakes are a good business idea

Do you have doubts?

Let's figure it out:

1. Not a single celebration is complete without a birthday cake, especially children's parties.
2. You can organize a pastry shop in your own kitchen without renting premises and equipment.
3. Baking is a creative process that brings income and aesthetic pleasure.
4. There are many ways to find clients - the Internet, acquaintances and friends, children's playrooms, wedding salons.
5. Business is easy to open.
6. And it's also easy to close if you lose interest in it.
7. Fast payback production, minimum investment for its launch.
8. Stable consumer demand.
9. Registration of an individual entrepreneur to start work and receive income is not required.
10. Freedom of pricing. You set the cost of the product yourself, based on its weight, complexity of design, composition.

Startup Benefits

Separately, I want to highlight the main advantages of a startup - a modest start-up investment, the ability to run a business at home, and the vacancy of a niche.

More about each item.

Small investment

If you plan to start from your own kitchen, you will only need to purchase some baking equipment. For the purchase of whisks, decorations, mats for drying mastic decorations, tools for working with mastic, plungers, molds for decorations, baking paper, a turntable and some other “needs”, it will take you a maximum of up to 30,000 rubles.

Opportunity to work from home

Own kitchen is quite enough for making masterpieces, for trying your hand, finding buyers, preparing the first advertising samples of products.

Niche unemployment

Baking homemade cakes attracts many mothers on maternity leave and those who are temporarily out of work, but not everyone manages to turn their pastry hobby into profitable business.

A hobby will bring money if you treat it with a businesslike attitude.

Take your business seriously, create an advertisement for yourself, direct your creativity in the right direction and you are guaranteed success.

What about competition - market analysis

The confectionery market has a number of features that need to be considered:

• short lead time for the product. A novice entrepreneur needs to work to order and actively establish distribution channels;
• high competition in sales of low-priced products; and low competition among high-priced cakes and other products. 80% of sales in confectionery stores are for sweets with a price of 180-240 rubles;
• a huge selection of Russian raw materials: berries, fruits, nuts.

Your main competitors are large productions and those who, like you, chose homemade cakes to earn money.

Analyze the market in your area of ​​the city, study the experience of competitors, find out where and how they receive orders. Offer interesting recipes, unusual design, tempting cost of products. In order to confidently compete with large confectioneries and the same "houses" like you, you need not only to attract attention, but also to keep it.

At first, you can only rely on friends and colleagues. Holiday at work with your spouse? Bring an original delicious cake and orders from his work colleagues are guaranteed.

How to start a cake business - step by step instructions

A clear concept is the key to the success of any enterprise. Before you start selling your first product, consider a plan of action, decide on the scale of the enterprise, make a list of equipment and materials to be purchased.

Consider each step of starting a business: where to start and what to pay close attention to.

Step 1. Finding a room

If you have a private house, there is a free room or a spacious kitchen, part of which can be used as a mini-shop for baking desserts, then you don’t need to look for anything. If the sales volume does not yet exceed one position per day, the issue of rent is irrelevant, at least until your production becomes crowded in this area.

If you are focused on a large volume of products from the start, you already have customers and have starting capital Feel free to look for a place to rent.

Rent a room in a residential area. When choosing, keep in mind that it will serve as both a pastry shop and a store, so it needs an appropriate layout, interior and location that is convenient for customers.

Step 2. We purchase materials and equipment

Surely baking is your hobby and you already have everything you need to work. But there are still some things you need to buy. In particular, tools for working with mastic, a set of pots, a syringe, a blender, a mixer and various nozzles.

And you will also need flour, sugar, coconut flakes, candied fruit, raisins, food coloring. It is better to buy these components for future use and in large quantities in order to reduce the cost of production. But perishable products - milk, cream, butter - it is better not to buy for the future.

The cost of purchasing equipment from scratch:

Equipment	Quantity	Price (rub.)
Food processor	1	10 000
Bakeware	5	6 000
Confectionery syringe with nozzles	1	1 000
Kitchen scales, measuring bowl	2	1500
Bowls of different sizes	5	3 000
pans	5	5 000
Dough rolling pin and some boards	4	1500
Set of tools for mastic	1	4 000
Knife set + string knife	1	3 000
Whisk, brushes, small tools	10	2 000
Parchment for baking, circles for drying cakes and more.		3 000
Total:		40 000

Step 3. We select personnel

The need for staff will arise when you build up a customer base and receive more than one order per day. In the first couple, you will have enough of your own hands.

If you start to expand your horizons, hire a good confectioner who will replace if necessary and help you increase production. With an increase in the number of orders, your candy store will need a courier to deliver sweets to customers.

When hiring a confectioner, ask for a medical book, give a trial paid task to make sure of the potential employee's culinary abilities.

Step 4. Launching a business and looking for clients

Business success depends on the quality and beauty of products, but more on how you present yourself.

Ways to find buyers:

1. Acquaintances, relatives, friends, work colleagues. Make the most of word of mouth. It will give you the most customers.
2. Advertising your services on forums where young mothers communicate.
3. YouTube. Shoot a video about your favorite recipes, about how another masterpiece is born in your hands, talk about the composition, the naturalness of the ingredients.
4. Ads on trading floors. Be sure to place several photos in them, indicate the price, contact information.
5. Advertising boards on the Internet.

Step 5. Registering a business

You will need to register a business when you develop a good client base. The most convenient form of activity for you is IP. You don't need a lot of paperwork to apply.

Income is taxed under a simplified system, that is, you will have to pay only 6% of total income without deducting expenses or 15% of net profit to the tax office. Having issued an IP, register with the Social Insurance Fund and Pension Fund.

OKVED code 10.71.2 - Manufacture of flour confectionery, cakes and cakes of non-durable storage.

Be prepared for the fact that the premises you rented will be visited by an inspection. It must meet sanitary and fire safety standards.

To help a novice entrepreneur, brief recommendations on the main stages of opening your own mini-confectionery:

Stage	Explanations	Guide to action
Formation and refinement of the working concept	You need not just a good idea, but an innovative idea that has an attractive feature to successfully compete in the market.	Develop custom recognizable designs, specific ingredients, and more.
Accurate calculation of the menu, analysis of the consumables and its optimization	For the basic menu, a large assortment is not needed, it is better when there are few offers, but at the same time they are of high quality at low costs.	Decide on a list of manufactured cakes, bring their recipes to perfection. Make cost calculations for each separately and all in total, think about how to reduce the cost.
Creating a recognizable brand and developing a marketing plan	Promote your products more actively than competitors, reinforcing this high quality service.	Promote products on social networks, attract specialists.
Acquisition of tools and equipment for production	Make a list of basic tools and minor accessories that will make the job easier, but their acquisition is not a priority.	With such an analysis, you will avoid unnecessary expenses at the start.
Organization of the workspace and place	In this work, hygiene and comfortable working conditions are extremely important.	Keep your clothes, hands, workplace clean.

How to advertise your products

Consider a few effective ways attracting buyers.

Through social networks

Post not only photos, but also videos of the cooking process. This will confirm your authorship of the photos and clearly demonstrate the confectionery skill.

One of the “divorce” schemes: a client leaves an order in your public. While you are offline, a scammer will answer for you, asking you to pay for the order. He will send false details to the client and, having received the money, will disappear.

With flyers or business cards

Even if you work alone in your own kitchen, you need business cards. Give them to your customers with every order. This is how you increase your customer base.

Flyers- another effective printed form advertising. Post them up and share them with your friends. Take the piece to the nearest supermarket, to the locker, to the place where the purchases are stored, and to other places you frequent.

Advertising is the engine of commerce, and this also works with cakes.

Through newspaper ads

Place ads in the top-selling classifieds newspapers as well as freebies printed publications that are handed out on the streets. Advertising in them is not expensive, but adds buyers.

With your own website

Own website is one of best practices promoting your services. Post photos, videos, descriptions of new recipes, your thoughts on the topic of cooking, confectionery.

If you yourself do not understand the creation and promotion of the site, ask your friends for help or go through a simple training. There is plenty of information on the Internet on this subject.

A useful video from the cake sales webinar on how to take product photos, how to make a portfolio, how to attract a buyer:

Useful tips for those who want to make homemade cakes to order

Here are a few useful tips from those who have been successful in this field.

The serving of even the most delicious and spectacular dessert is spoiled by a simple cardboard or plastic box in which it is packed. Choose interesting packaging options for your sweets.

Order the package, which indicates the date of manufacture, the composition of the treat, your contact phone number. Box design is an original way to stand out from competitors, as well as convey to the buyer the necessary and important information.

The biggest mistake of novice confectioners working at home is overestimating their strengths. It especially concerns mothers on maternity leave who have chosen this business as a part-time job.

Even if you are determined to turn your hobby into a profitable business and are ready to work hard alone, still find yourself an assistant who will replace you if necessary and help you quickly and efficiently complete orders when their number increases.

Don't limit yourself to baking fondant-decorated birthday cakes. Offer your customers cakes, cupcakes, muffins, macaroons, cheesecakes, rolls, pies, small cakes. Bet on low-calorie and diet recipes.

The wider your range, the larger audience you will be interested in. Advertise all kinds of baked goods that you are great at. Place a photo on your website or social media accounts, sign the name, composition of products and indicate the cost.

Business planning is the first step to success. The more clearly you present your goals, the sooner you will succeed. A business plan is insurance against unnecessary expenses and annoying mistakes. When making a plan, describe each stage of production, from the selection of baking recipes to the delivery of the finished order to the customer.

Planning also reflects the financial part of the work: the cost of purchasing materials and the necessary equipment, advertising, packaging and expected profit.

Make a production schedule. Referring to it, you will evaluate the correctness and effectiveness of your actions.

Set clear goals for yourself, for example, earn 15,000 rubles in the first month or sell 5-6 cakes a week, and systematically move towards your goal.

A video about how the pastry hobby grew into profitable business:

Many people start working for themselves, usually purposefully, but I was an exception. I started making money by making cakes by accident.

Subsequently, this resulted in a small home business, which brought me up to 30 thousand rubles a month.

My first experience was with 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 is 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 only did what they praised me, and two days later, a friend suggested that I make about the same cake.

Photo, she showed her work colleague, praised my creation and thus I received the first order.

Initially, I refused, because I was somehow uncomfortable. It's one thing - when you do it for yourself at your own peril and risk, it's another thing - when for someone else, especially when 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 demand and supply.

For my son, I prepared a cake with the characters of the cartoon "Cars", so I did not experience any difficulties, but, in my opinion, I completed the first order terribly.

But, everything worked out. The cake was successfully sold. Later, the customer admitted: the look of the LoL dolls left much to be desired (in which I completely agree with her), but the taste of the cake is amazing.

About the technology of making cakes

The cake making process is incredibly simple. It only seems to be: in order to bake such a culinary miracle, you need to be a born confectioner, have talent, patience and a lot of experience.

And before I started preparing it, I also thought so and, until the last, I doubted that I would succeed. But in fact, all you need is desire and a bit of patience.

I have no culinary education, but it took me only three hours to bake a large cake (1500 grams). Half of that time was spent decorating and making figurines.

The cake can be divided into three components:

• THE BASIS . As a basis, cakes, a regular biscuit and the famous American chocolate brownie biscuit are used. 3-4 cakes are enough, depending on their thickness. Various creams, boiled or plain condensed milk are used as fillings.
• FILLING . Usually cream or chocolate is used. If it is necessary to change the fill color, make it blue, green, then a dye is added.
• FIGURINES . In my opinion, this is the most difficult process, as I have never had the pleasure of participating 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. By its consistency, confectionery mastic resembles plasticine.

It is in this order that 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. To make the figures stand on the cakes, they are attached to toothpicks or skewers. Also, with their help, arms, legs, head and other elements are fastened.

Before giving the cake, you should warn the buyer about this so that no one gets hurt during consumption.

Demand

The image and figurines are the most important requirement of the customers. Parents give preference to the taste of the child. In fashion, popular modern toys, cartoons and animated series:

• Wheelbarrows;
• Cold heart;
• MostrHigh;
• pupae LOL;
• Ralph.

Where to buy ingredients

All products for making cakes can be bought in regular supermarkets. For cooking, eggs, flour, sugar, salt, soda, honey are needed.

Things are more complicated with confectionery mastic. This is what figurines are made of. I bought it in online confectionery stores.

Sometimes in the wholesale market. You can also buy white or dark chocolate there.

Costs associated with the preparation of 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 confectionery online stores and on wholesale markets, in small kilogram buckets. Each bucket contains mastic of a certain color. It is very rare to find buckets with multiple colors.

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.

Outcome: 475 rubles are spent on the production of one cake.

Sometimes, the costs associated with the production of one cake can be more. Also worth adding the cost. 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 for one hundred grams or kilograms. To this price is added the cost for each figurine.

Thus, the cake can pull out 3,000 rubles or more.

I set the price (or rather, my friend set the price at the first order, and I just continued to work on it) - 1500 rubles per cake and chose a weight category of 1500 grams.

Making smaller cakes is unprofitable.

It takes the same amount of time to make, but the benefit is less.

I spent 400 - 700 rubles on making one cake. Benefit - 800 - 1100 rubles.

Search for customers (clients)

The first three months of orders were few. If my memory serves me 3-5 per month. They were friends of friends, relatives. Word of mouth worked, but at some point I realized that with this approach you won’t earn much.

All three months I was at a crossroads: either go to work after sending the child to a private kindergarten, or wait until they provide a place in the state kindergarten while baking cakes.

I don’t remember who told me to create a group on the VKontakte social network. I was advised to use all possible social networks, but I managed with only 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. She asked me to repost on my pages. But even this was not enough. Then I started to climb in other subgroups of our city and spread information there.

Basically, these were communities: “mommies on maternity leave”, “my baby”, “mommies”. In general, wherever there is at least some hint of children. Invited to join the group and directly, women who have children.

Women who had children willingly joined the group. Each cake that I made and laid out in the group was vigorously discussed and praised.
The thing went.

I did not even expect that it would give a great result. Orders began to arrive almost every day. Largely due to the large population of our city.

I asked everyone who bought a cake from me to post a photo in social network and sign under the photo: “Cakes to order: 8 – –– » . I didn’t keep track of who made such a record and who didn’t, but I guess that not everyone is ready to post photos from the holiday and sign it with such text.

Soon, I was approached to make wedding cakes. Baking a masterpiece weighing 4-5 kilograms is not an easy, but profitable business.

Income that I managed to get

After more orders, I was able to earn per month 22000 - 28000 rubles.

The production record for one month was: 29 cakes.

The most difficult day was when I had to make three cakes at once. On this day, I had to send the child to his grandmother. Like it or not, having a child complicates working from home.

Work process from order to receipt of money

Usually everything happens quite simply. The customer calls (most often the customer), and makes an order for a certain date.

Choosing a cake consists of three parts:

• Base (brownie, regular biscuit or cakes).
• Filling (condensed milk, chocolate or protein cream)
• A cartoon whose characters will sit on a cake.

On the day of readiness, they come for the cake and, taking it, make payment. In the group, I indicated that it is necessary to make an order a few days before the birthday, and pick it up after lunch. But despite this, several orders were received the day before.

Difficulties and non-standard 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:

• Once I didn't complete an order because I accidentally dropped my creation off the table. Of course, the customer was dissatisfied and this case even knocked me down for a few days. I didn't take orders for two days. I just didn't pick up calls from unknown numbers.
• An unusual situation occurred when a man came for the cake and asked to see the sanitary book. Fortunately, I had it, although the last entries in it were made before maternity leave. The man leafed through it with the air of a connoisseur and, having taken his order, paid.
• Several times customers asked to bring a cake, although I always said to everyone: no delivery. I had to carry. There was nowhere to put the cake, but I didn’t want to lose money.

Making cakes at home, the work is not difficult, but you always have to get up early. After the cake is baked, it needs time to infuse.

So it will taste better. As beautiful as it is, taste matters.

Conclusion

Making cakes at home is a great income for those who are on maternity leave or simply cannot find a job.

Many people say that working from home is relaxing, but it depends on how you feel about it.

Even my capricious child did not stop me. Managed to organize myself.

Making cakes at home, not only good income– it is interesting and very entertaining. I still do this, but I take orders exclusively on weekends, since I went to my main job, after their maternity leave, I had to think about how to reduce the number of orders.

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 who is far from the confectionery business, everything is logical there. I bought the missing equipment, went to courses and started earning.

7. Treat friends and colleagues to collect feedback.

First of all, we describe the assortment in a lively, bright, appetizing language. Attached is a photo of the cuts. Specify the price of the cake. No need to hide this information and answer in direct.

We show examples of work. Never take other people's photos. You can immediately put an end to the reputation. Do not overestimate yourself, you will not be able to repeat in the same way. Maybe you can do even better, but not 1 in 1. And this is already a hoax. Let it be simple cakes with berries and smudges, but neat and yours.

Post reviews from friends and colleagues

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