You may have noticed an enourmous gap a short hiatus in posts – life and business somewhat overtook me recently but I’m back now with a proper blogging schedule! I thought I’d kick things off by taking a look at one of the questions I get asked most frequently, ‘How much should I charge for my cakes?’ This is a questions which many new businesses struggle with, particularly in creative industries...

Wedding fairs are a key marketing opportunity for any baker involved in the wedding end of the business, whether that’s creating the wedding cake, catering afternoon teas or supplying edible wedding favours. They can, however, be a rather expensive affair so it’s important that we make the most of the opportunity. Hopefully this two part blog series will help you to get the most bang for your buck! And even if you’re not...

Wedding fairs are a key marketing opportunity for any baker involved in the wedding end of the business, whether that’s creating the wedding cake, catering afternoon teas or supplying edible wedding favours. They can, however, be a rather expensive affair so it’s important that we make the most of the opportunity. Hopefully this two part blog series will help you to get the most bang for your buck! And even if you’re no...

Over the years of professional cake makery I have accumulated some unusual tools which I would never have anticipated needing. Here are my top 5 ‘strange but essential’ baking tools: A Junior Hacksaw: No – it’s not for cutting through my cakes thank you! If you stack cakes then you are going to need one of these to neatly cut cake dowels to height. Whether you prefer wooden or hollow plastic dowels, a junior hacksaw wi...

  Today we have another fantastically helpful post from Ruth addressing a question that is pertinent to all home workers whether you’re an indpendent baker or not. I’m going to work my way through the ‘difficult answer’ and I’ll let you all know how much of a difference it makes to my tax bill   Over to Ruth: Hello again!  BEWARE – This could be the most complicated blog post you’ll e...

We all know the importance of having great images of our products but if you are anything like me then you will be endlessly frustrated by the vagaries of the auto-settings on your digital camera and the every varying results you can get from it. Here, to give us all some tips on how to photograph our beautiful creations as well as explain the benefits of having your products professionally photographed, is our first feat...

It can be rather difficult to know where to start when you first consider taking what is often a hobby and making it in to a business so here are my top three jobs to get the ball rolling! Get Registered with Environmental Health In order to run a food business from home you must be registered with your district council who will send out an Enviornmental Health Officer (EHO) to inspect your facilities. Your local council will...

We are really pleased to introduce Ruth from Business Help and Support Ltd as our first expert. Ruth will be a regular contributor on the blog, demystifying the scary world of book-keeping and tax for us! You can rest assured that Ruth understands all the ups and downs of the baking world as she is also a talented cake decorator. Ok, so hello *waves*….my name’s Ruth and I’m an accountant….no, no, don’t run of...

Hello and welcome to Cake Office! My name is Julie and I run a cake decorating business www.icemaidencakes.com  Although I have been decorating cakes for the best part of a decade now I have only been running things as a business for just over a year. It frequently struck me in the very early days of being a small business owner that, amongst the plethora of ametuer targetted baking blogs and forums, there is a distinct lack...