Hi I'm Maggie
I often have a big smile on my face after cakes are done! 😁🎂
However, let me tell you about the DARK SIDE of baking cakes for people (and I’m not talking about chocolate)
When I first started cake decorating in 2018, I used to pay myself by the pennies. And the burnout and self-doubt monsters👺 grew bigger and bigger…….
while my joy in the creative process shrank smaller and smaller……. 😔
Whether you’re a hobbyist home baker making cakes for friends and family, or an aspiring professional cake decorator (or maybe you’re gettin’ paid already!), burnout and self-doubt, and not really clearly understanding the value of your work can steal your joy.
One month after I started cake decorating in late 2018, friends and family were asking if I could make cakes for them.
However…… I knew zero things about running a cake business from home, let alone paying myself.
I got $36 from my first official order and spent twice of that for expenses 😂
I truly love what I do, but I let my own insecurities of:
- charging people money,
- my constant remarks “I JUST make cakes from home”
- and feeling like it’s normal to overwork and be underpaid as an artist
dragged me down to feeling hopeless and sobbing on my kitchen floor (and scaring my two toddlers). I started to think that I wasn’t cut out to do this cake business thing.
My husband emphatically said: “we don’t need the money” (ie. you can quit now and stop driving yourself crazy!). I was super angry with him at the time for not understanding that this ‘small’ cake business is important to me, but in my head I thought: “maybe he’s right. I should just quit. This isn’t worth it at all! Argh!!!”
Fast Forward to 2023
My cakes have been published in BRIDES – a luxury wedding magazine, and I’m charging $1000 for wedding cakes without batting an eye.
Most importantly, I feel JOY again in making cakes again. It feels nice not to be burnt-out all the time and finally pay myself a salary! Wedding clients rave about their dream cakes AND I have work/life/FAMILY balance.
Here’s what I want aspiring biz owners to know:
If you’re at the point of constant doubts, exhaustion, and desperation in your home cake business, I SEE you. I FEEL you! I was there too! I don’t know about you.. I was good at making cakes, but I was a pro at beating myself up!
I spent 42K in online courses and coaching and took away one important thing:
“Be gentle with yourself.”
“Talk to yourself like how you’d talk to your friend and daughter.”
Of course there are a few other concrete strategies that’ll help home cake businesses prosper, but successful businesses start from the inside out.
Give yourself A LOT OF grace for:
- making pricing mistakes,
- not knowing what to charge or tracking profits, or
- how to market to get that clients that want to pay our price (we ALL DO make that beginner mistakes in our cake journey).
It doesn’t mean that we’re not meant to do this cake biz journey. You have a gift of creating memorable and delicious cakes. You’re worth it!
You can build a home cake biz that works for you
I Believe in You!
And for the home bakers out there, making gorgeous cakes for the sheer joy of it:
“Don’t underestimate the value of what you’re doing for people, whether or not you’re getting paid. “
I’ve been there. It’s easy for friends and family or even charity organizations to keep wanting cakes from you and expecting you to show up with cakes when they invite you because they don’t know even a ‘simple cake’ takes 4-5 hours. Well… it has been free overall!” At some point, you may find yourself thinking— and for you to eventually realize be like “Oh no, what the heck should I do now?! I can’t keep giving people free cakes.”
When you hit that crossroad of NOT wanting to give away free cakes anymore, my hope is that you can give yourself permission to do that.
It’s 10000% okay to not do it for free.
Your joy is your greatest gift
Here’s a script to help you out:
Hi [friend/organization/church/book club], just to let you know, I’m transitioning my home baking hobby into a business and am now charging for cakes (if you know anyone who’d be interested in a custom cake, my rates are here [insert link to rates page]. I’m happy to bring [other easier thing] to the next event though!
Don’t worry!
In my experience, people still love you for who you are as a person,
and not just as a cake lady/ guy!
“Kindness shines a spotlight on others, without diminishing our own brightness.”
– Adrienne Bankert
Xoxo,
Maggie
Fun Facts about Me
I’m obsessed with cakes.
Both activities – decorating and eating them 😂.
Vanilla, lemon raspberry, chocolate, and most of all that silky smooth BUTTERCREAM that just melts in my mouth.
Yup, my love of eating leads to crumbs on my side of the bed… That was before kids of course!
Now, we eat our cake on the sofa like responsible adults. Gotta be a role model for my two young kids these days. Haha.
Recipe, You Asked?
Join 1,886 other people who made this super easy smooth buttercream (NO GRIT or flying powder sugar everywhere!)
