For the last quarter of the year, once again I'm blessed with a comfortable number of cake orders. Most of the orders were from referrals and existing customers who have ordered my cakes before, as well as a couple of new customers. And once again, they are all rainbow and ombre cakes, considered my niche now? LOL!
Really appreciate their trust in me, an amateur homebaker :) Apologies to a number of customers whom I had to turn away because of my travels :p
While I enjoy baking cakes, making sure each and every order turns out nicely, there are times when I doubt myself whether I should continue doing it, especially when the cakes didn't turn out well, accidents occurred or I'm dissatisfied in general and I simply had to re-work the cake or part of the cake.
Then again, all these are part of a learning experience and even though I have baked so many of these cakes, every time I still learn something new. Every cake still excites me. I'm always more relieved than happy when customers tell me they enjoyed my cakes. So I guess the stress during baking, decorating and delivery is worth it? Oh well, we shall see how things go next year, perhaps rainbow/ombre cakes will go out of fashion, probably I will get sick of it?
Anyways, here's a summary of my orders for the 4th Q :)
This was an order by a lady celebrating her friend's Bachelorette Party. She specifically requested for green ombre colours for the cake layers as well as buttercream rosette decoration. Same design as a previous order that was in pink and very well-received. I think green shades turned out just as lovely as pink!
Ordered by a friend for her daughter's 2th birthday, and last year I did the 1st birthday cake too! Really appreciate her continual support.
This must be my craziest and largest cake ever! Customer had specifically requested for bright rainbow cake, 2 tiers of 7 layers each, that's 14 layers in total, as well as rosette buttercream piping! Thinking back, couldn't imagine how I did it. It was really challenging, glad that the cake didn't topple and turned out decent enough, visually appealing albeit the cake layers didn't taste as nice (because this was white cake, not sponge cake). Not sure if I will ever do it again, though it was a good learning experience.
Repeat order from a customer. Her family preferred cakes that are less sweet with less cream, and enjoyed the cake done previously. So this time, we went for minimal rosette buttercream (less sweet) decoration.
This is a small size cake suitable for small family of 4-6. Smallest cake available is 4.5", good for 3-5 pax. I love petite size cakes, but actually the effort to bake and decorate is not much difference from larger cakes. Haha.
These
2 cakes were ordered by a mum with twin girls (she was referred by my friend who ordered 2 cakes before) and she requested for 2
different designs and flavours. Good thing that the Korean strawberries
are finally in season and readily available. The punnets I bought looked
plump and fresh and of good uniform size.
Rainbow/ombre
cakes that are "exposed" showing the layers is quite popular, but they
do require much more effort than the regular frosted ones. First of all,
the cakes must be baked larger size and after frosting has set, the
sides are then trimmed off to expose the visually appealing cake layers.
Therefore, there is actually some "wastage" of cake (well, they were
not wasted per se, they went into my family's tummy :p). To protect the
sides of cake from drying/damage, a thin transparent film is used to
cover the cakes.
More customers are requesting for this design/look and I may considering increasing the price due to additional ingredients and effort involved.
Last but not least, this cake was ordered by a friend's sister who had tried my cake previously and enjoyed it. She requested for this marshmallow decoration as her son liked the texture of the marshmallow. I like this marshmallow too, it's sold at Phoon Huat :)
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Goodbye 2015!
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy 2016!
P.S. I will be busy/travelling a lot in the 1st quarter of 2016, please note the closure dates and send enquiry to megtan@singnet.com.sg as soon as possible!
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