Start a Cake Business Today

If you are curious about what the popular press has to say about the “Best” cakes in every state, check out People Magazine’s Cakes from Every State Multimedia presentation.  This is about a year old, (I don’t know how I missed it :)) but still a nice snapshot.

The cool thing about this article is the range of prices one finds in each state in the US. I think it is very enlightening to see what a premium cake goes for in Oregon versus, say… New York or even Pennsylvania. Keep in mind of course this is really comparing apples and oranges. Nevertheless, a good quick sketch of the kinds of cakes being made in the US. Anyone thinking of starting a cake business should check this out for inspiration and guidance. I hope I’ll be writing about seeing your cake someday!!!

Cakes from Every State -  People.com

Tags: weddingcake business

Say it with Cupcakes! Chef Alison McLoughlin of The Culinary Institute of America has a great suggestion: create a beautiful “bouquet” of floral cupcakes for any festive celebration.

Get the recipe

Michael’s [Store Locator] offers 50% off one item through June 14 with this Printable Coupon. Certain exclusions apply, see coupon for details.

Enter our Best of the Web Cake Celebration Contest.

We’re giving away over $1000.00 in cash* and prizes to the best cake ideas on the internet.

We’re looking for cake ideas in every possible design and theme: wedding cakes, topsy-turvy cakes, baby shower cakes, themed cakes such as video game cakes, armadillo cakes, Hello Kitty cakes, birthday cakes, etc. Anything you can dream up, we’d love to see it. More importantly, we’d love to acknowledge and reward you. You don’t have to be an expert to win — you just have to have passion and a clear explanation of how you created your cake.

Submit your cake today and be eligible for a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate. (each category will have a winner) Category winners will go on to compete for a $500 Grand Prize selected by all the visitors to this website.

Submissions will be reviewed by our editorial staff and if selected will be featured on our website. Please provide a photograph or photographs and instructions on how to make your cake. Also if you have a website, let us know and we’ll feature your site.

Here’s the form for signing up. Good Luck!!!

Some categories will fill up faster than others, so we will award gift certificates based on a rolling cycle. Check back as we begin filling in the categories with your submissions.

(*amazon.com gift certificates)

Tips on documenting your cake:

When photographing, make sure to capture the entire cake in the frame and upload the clearest image. Ideally, there should be no other objects in the picture, but we understand that sometimes, it can’t be helped. If you have a sequence of images that help illustrate the construction, please submit them. If there are special details that a close-up can reveal, please include it.

In as much detail as you wish to provide, tell us how to make this cake. Sometimes a video works well to do this, so feel free to provide a link to a video you’ve already posted on YouTube.

If you have any questions, please post a question below in the comments section.

If you are in the early stages of planning a wedding cake decorating business or even if you’ve been in business for a while, it is important that you ask yourself the following questions:

• Who are my competitors?
• What customer needs and preferences am I competing to meet?
• What are the similarities and differences between their products/services and mine?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of their products and services?
• How do their prices compare to mine?
• How are they doing overall?
• How can I compete? Offer better quality services? Lower prices?
• How am I uniquely suited to compete with them?

These questions are all part of a competitive analysis. Often we think about these questions, but perhaps only in general or vague terms. We know a little bit about our competition or we think ” I don’t need to know what my competitors are doing because it won’t change my business…” or some such argument.  Unless you sit down and take the time to answer these questions (on paper), you are sticking your head in the sand and wasting a valuable opportunity to improve your business and ultimately make more wedding cake sales….

I often take a look at WeddingWire.com to provide a simple list of vendors in the US. Check out what  the cake vendors are doing in cities near you. What are cake decorators doing in other cities that you find interesting?

Go out and do that competitive analysis you may learn something about your own business by looking at the competition.

WeddingWire Vendors - Wedding Cakes - Find the perfect Wedding Cakes in your area!

Swiss Meringue Buttercream is a favorite of so many people but is a challenging recipe for the uninitiated. A couple great bloggers show us how to make this classic, yummy recipe and do a wonderful job of reassuring us that we’re doing it right.

First Dyan provides a video post and recipe on her blog Dyanbakes.com (I was so sorry to see she has stopped blogging.)

Dyann Bakes She also provides the recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream as a downloadable .pdf. for easy printing.

Then head over to howtoeatacupcake target = “_blank” for further video instruction and a couple of unique adjustments to the recipe.

Here’s one for a little girls birthday or maybe a themed shower… As one of the comments asked: How could anyone cut this cake, it’s too cute! Take note, that this is a buttercream cake, so tasty and smooth.

Originally uploaded by: chocmocakes

Here’s an article from The Daily Gleaner, Brunswick News that examines in a high level overview, the scientific principles of cake baking.

Of interest to beginner cake bakers is the notion that it is very important to understand the terminology in a recipe. 

For example, Hofner says, no matter how hard you beat a butter cake,
you can’t hurt the batter. But with a sponge cake, if you stir the
other ingredients into the egg whites instead of “folding” them gently,
you’ll stir all the air out of the eggs and the cake will fall.

This is a great little article to remind us that its not all magic and art in the kitchen! There is a great deal of study and know-how required to make the best cakes….
dailygleaner.com - Let them eat cake