In this conversation, I sit down with Alex Danielson, a cake artist, educator and content creator whose business spans custom cakes, teaching and paid content creation for well-known cake brands.

But what interested me most was the way Alex has deliberately structured her business around herself.

After years working in kitchens and being diagnosed as autistic around the time she started her business, Alex became very aware of what drains her, what excites her and what she needs in order to work sustainably. She has built boundaries around the work she takes on, how she works and how she manages her energy. Success, for Alex, ultimately comes back to whether she is happy.

We also get into how content creation became another part of her business, the relationships she has built with cake brands, and the opportunities that have come from being willing to show up, try things and work out what actually suits her.

If you’ve ever looked at another cake business and wondered whether you’re doing enough, or whether your business is supposed to look a certain way, I think you’ll get a lot from this conversation.

In this interview, we discuss:

• Why Alex doesn’t believe in glorifying overwork.

• The boundaries that help her manage her workload.

• How custom cakes, teaching and content creation fit together in her business.

• How her relationships with cake brands developed into paid content work.

• The role competitions, events and networking have played in her career.

• Her “say yes once” approach to finding what works for her.

Follow Alex:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savemesomesweets/

Website:

https://www.savemesome.com.au/

One thing Shannon said that has been stuck in my head ever since.

“Don’t sell out of your own pocket.”

She was talking about underpricing. She used to do this and it almost drove her business to the ground. Until she brought on a business partner who did what she couldn’t bring herself to do - raise their prices.

This stuck with me because at surface level, underpricing is about pricing and profit.

But, I realise it originates from something much deeper.

Confidence.

It’s the same reason we spend hours fixing flaws nobody else notices. Say yes to every cake request because we’re scared to disappoint people. Avoid posting our work online because we don’t think it’s good enough. Put off starting a business because we don’t feel “ready.” Stress over every cake before it’s collected, etc.

After 13 years, I’ve witnessed many cake makers hold themselves back because they’re scared to back themselves. I’ve also witnessed thousands of my students vouch for themselves without hesitation when they know they can trust their own knowledge, skills and experience.

Whether your goal is to start a cake business, grow an existing one, or simply create cakes you’re genuinely proud of, confidence isn’t something you fake until you make.

It’s this:

Action → Competence → Evidence → Confidence

Which got me thinking...

If confidence is built through taking action, then I don’t want price to be the thing that holds you back.

So for the next 72 hours, I’m removing that barrier so you can take your first step.

The Buttercream Confidence Weekend is now on for 72 hours, where you can join Buttercream Cake Mastery for AUD $297.

This ends at 9pm, Sunday 09 August after which, the price will be AUD $497.

If you’ve been waiting for the right time to invest in yourself, I hope this is the sign you’ve been waiting for.

​👉 Join Buttercream Cake Mastery for AUD $297 here.​

See you inside,

Thao

P.S. This is the kind of evidence your brain is looking for👇

Join Buttercream Cake Mastery

In this coaching session, I work with Saba, who has a successful career in IT but feels pulled towards building a business around his love of baking. Like many people considering a big career change, he isn’t lacking ideas—he’s struggling with the fear of making the wrong decision.

Rather than tal…

Read more

In this conversation, I sit down with Shannon Teague, owner of Cake Hope & Love, whose business has continued to grow through economic uncertainty and a rapidly changing industry. What struck me most wasn’t her success—it was how she thinks about business.

We talk about the difficult years, making payroll, hiring the right people, pricing, community, purpose, and why Shannon believes every creative business needs someone to balance the artist with the operator. This wasn’t an interview about marketing tactics. It became a conversation about building a business that’s sustainable, meaningful and genuinely enjoyable to run.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to be the baker, the marketer, the bookkeeper and the CEO all at once, I think you’ll get a lot from this one.

In this interview, we discuss:

• Why Shannon believes every creative business needs a “Jack”—someone who complements your strengths rather than duplicates them.

• The pricing mistake she says nearly ran her business into the ground.

• How she transitioned from doing everything herself to spending most of her time creating.

• Why purpose and community have become her greatest competitive advantage.

• The role generosity has played in building customer loyalty over the last 15 years.

• How she thinks about employees, leadership and creating a business people genuinely want to work for.

• The difference between building a business around money versus building one around meaning.

• Three pieces of advice she’d give every cake business owner starting out today.

Follow Cake, Love & Hope:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CakeHopeandLove/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cakehopeandlove/

Website:

https://www.cakehopeandlove.com/

I’ve observed something interesting happening with cake businesses on social media lately.

Some cake business Instagram accounts are starting to feel less like customer-facing businesses, and more like spaces for emotional processing.

⚠️ Before I go any further exploring this, I want to put a big fat disclaimer here. If this sounds like you, my goal is not to call you out or shame you. My role here is to observe, analyse and reflect on the movement of the industry as a whole. The aim is to create awareness and opportunities for collective reflection.

It feels like I’m seeing more and more public-facing posts from cake businesses about difficult customers, overwhelm, burnout, exhaustion, resentment, feeling undervalued, and honestly just being emotionally at capacity.

I completely get it.

The challenges are real. The feelings are valid. However, the audience is wrong.

Before we get into solutions, I went searching for the answer to what could possibly cause so many small business owners to publicly vent like this in the first place.

Here’s what I found.

1. The Algorithm Rewards Emotional Posts

This is a very important mechanism to understand properly. It’s not that the algorithm likes ‘negative energy’ per se. It likes human attention.

And human attention is very heavily drawn toward emotional intensity, especially negative emotional intensity. This is rooted in basic human survival psychology.

Historically, the human brain evolved to pay closer attention to threat, conflict, danger, social rejection, unfairness, outrage and emotionally charged situations. Because from an evolutionary standpoint, ignoring potential danger was more costly than ignoring neutral information.

This is often referred to as negativity bias. Our brain is naturally more alert to “this customer screamed at me” than “today was great.”

That’s also why:

→ News cycles are saturated with negative stories

→ Outrage and gossips spread fast

→ Dramatic headlines get clicks

→ Conflict-driven reality TV works

→ Comment sections explode over emotionally loaded topics

Negative or emotionally heightened content creates curiosity, emotional arousal, identification, outrage, validation and tribal bonding.

All of which increase watch time, comments, shares, saves and discussion.

Social platforms are not actually measuring “Is this healthy?”

They’re measuring “Did people stay engaged?”

When a cake business posts about their struggles and they get a flood of comments, likes and shares, naturally, they’d want to post more of the same content. Because the vanity metrics trick their brain into thinking they’re doing something right.

2. In a world that gives value to follower count and engagement rates, it’s hard to remember who your target audience is.

While emotional posts tend to command higher views and engagement, they also attract the wrong audience. The majority of people that like, comment, save and share your emotional posts are fellow cake makers. Same goes for cake making process reels. These type of messages attract people who are not your target audience.

If your business sells cakes, your target audience is people who are looking to buy cakes within your geographical area. Your branding, comms and marketing needs to speak to this target audience only. Again, I can see that it’s easy to forget this given how chaotic the online world has become.

3. The job can genuinely be lonely.

Many small cake businesses are run by one person alone in a kitchen for hours every day.

There’s no co-worker to vent to after a difficult customer interaction. No team meeting to decompress in. No colleague who fully understands the emotional pressure of balancing creativity, customer service, deadlines, rising costs and constant online visibility.

If you have even one other person in the kitchen, you can complain about a difficult customer, laugh about it together, and move on.

But when you work alone, that emotional energy has nowhere to go.

And when a frustrated post online suddenly receives hundreds of comments and messages validating your feelings, it becomes very easy to mistake emotional validation for emotional support.

4. Authenticity Became Confused With Emotional Exposure.

For years, small business owners have been told:

• Show the human behind the brand.

• Be authentic.

I do agree with that. However, I think some of us may have interpreted brand authenticity as emotional disclosure.

Real brand authenticity is usually more about values, perspective, consistency, tone, standards, what the business stands for, and how it makes people feel.

Not necessarily public emotional processing.

Customers absolutely can feel connected to a business without needing full access to the owner’s internal emotional state.

5. The Collapse Between Business Identity and Personal Identity.

This one feels deeper.

A business is still a business. A brand is still a constructed entity.

Even if your face is attached to it.

However, due to the fact that many small cake businesses start from passion and their love for the art, it can become easy to psychologically merge one’s self-worth, identity, creativity, business performance, audience response and personal emotions into one thing.

This is why customer feedback (or complaints even) can feel deeply personal.

Slow sales can feel like rejection.

Low views on posts can trigger “ I am not good enough thoughts”.

The owner and the business become emotionally fused together. And once that happens, emotional regulation becomes much harder because every business interaction starts touching identity instead of simply business.

I don’t think the problem is that cake business owners are “too emotional.”

I think the problem is that many are trying to carry the emotional weight of modern business alone, in public, on platforms that were never designed to authentically support human interaction in the first place.

I also don’t think pretending everything is fine helps either.

I recognise that there is a desperate need for a space in which cake business owners can safely vent and receive support away from their customers.

This is why I created “Therapy” for People Who Chose Cakes as a Career.

This is a free, regular live meeting on Substack where you can connect with other cake business owners, share stories and get direct business support from me.

👇 First Substack live session👇

Notice: This meeting has been postponed. Stay tuned for more info.

Much love,

Thao

In order to join the live or access the replay, please subscribe for free.

Subscribe now

Running a cake business can feel very isolating.

You spend hours alone in your kitchen, carrying the pressure of customers, money, rising costs, social media, content creation, family life and the constant feeling that you still should be doing more.

I know many cake business owners are exhausted. Hundreds of you literally told me this on Instagram.

I also noticed something interesting happening on social media.

People are desperate for support and connection, but many are turning to public venting on social media because there’s nowhere else to go.

The problem is, Instagram is not therapy. Your stories are not a private group chat. And while the frustration is real and valid, constantly posting anger, resentment and burnout publicly can slowly damage the trust people feel toward your business.

Cake business owners need a safer space to talk honestly about what this industry is really like.

Not a fake “girl boss” space.
Not toxic positivity.
Not endless complaining either.

Just honest conversations with people who actually understand.

So I’m starting a regular live meeting on Substack called:

“Therapy” for People Who Chose Cakes as a Career.

A safe space for conversations between cake business owners navigating modern business, burnout, visibility, difficult customers, money, creativity and everything in between.

A place where we can talk honestly without accidentally turning our customers into emotional support.

👇 First Substack live session👇

Wednesday June 03, 2026

10am (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

Click this link to join the live at the above date and time.

Mark your calendar and don’t forget to join us!

If the time doesn’t suit you to join live, you can also access the replay.

In order to join the live or access the replay, please subscribe for free.

Subscribe now

Thousands of cake businesses around the world are feeling the pinch right now, with many announcing closures almost daily, it seems.

Rising ingredient costs, rent increases and shrinking profit margins are colliding with slower enquiries, shorter booking windows, social media fatigue, and customers who still expect Pinterest-worthy cakes at supermarket prices.

Many are no longer burnt out from just the baking itself, but from the constant pressure to keep up with trends, create content, stay visible online, justify their pricing, and build a business around an algorithm that moves faster than humans can sustain.

Right now, the industry feels heavy. Is the cake industry dying before our eyes?

It does feel doom and gloom in certain corners of the internet. But is that really the whole picture?

The reality is we may be witnessing the end of one era. But we are also shaping the beginning of another.

In this article, I want to explore not just what’s changing within the cake industry, but what these shifts may be asking us to rethink about creativity, sustainability, success, and the way we build businesses moving forward. Because moments like this can either leave us feeling powerless against the direction the industry is heading, or push us to become more intentional about the kind of future we want.

As individuals and as a collective, we do have the power to make a choice.

The Pressure Points

When I asked cake business owners what they were struggling with most right now, five major themes kept surfacing again and again (if you want to read their actual comments, check out this post and this post)

1. Exhaustion from years of weekend work, physical labour, constant output and businesses that no longer support the life they actually want to live.

2. Rising ingredient, rent and operating costs colliding with customers who are more price sensitive than ever, making profitability feel increasingly difficult.

3. An oversaturated market where many businesses feel pressured to undercharge just to compete, while struggling to communicate the true value of their work.

4. A growing sense that creativity and originality are being replaced by fast-moving trends, Pinterest replicas, AI-generated inspiration and algorithm-driven aesthetics.

5. The overwhelming pressure to not only run a cake business, but simultaneously become a full-time content creator just to remain visible online.

It’s difficult to unpack these struggles separately because they are deeply interconnected. One might feel completely overwhelmed by the web of “problems” they have to address in order to turn their business around. The easiest way out can seem like closing down. While that can be the best decision many businesses make, many others are still not ready to let go.

The Pursuit of Freedom

After 13 years in the cake industry, having run my own custom cake business and taught thousands of cake makers around the world, I’ve observed that one of the most common reasons people start a cake business is surprisingly simple:

They want to do something they love, while hoping it pays well enough that they no longer have to work for someone else.

Of course, there is a lot of nuance within that. But if I had to distill it down to one sentence, that would be it.

It’s certainly the reason I started my business 13 years ago.

Ignoring all the noise on the surface, what I see is this.

It’s not:
“people are passionate about buttercream”
“people dream of being entrepreneurs”
“people want to build scalable companies”

Most people simply want:

• autonomy

• creative fulfilment

• flexibility

• dignity

• financial stability

• ownership over their time

And cake businesses often appear to offer that at the beginning.

Especially for:

• mothers

• creatives

• people burnt out from traditional employment

• people seeking identity after life transitions

• people wanting freedom from corporate structures

So, starting a cake business makes perfect sense.

However, many people are coming to the realisation that the business they built in pursuit of freedom has slowly become another form of captivity.

That’s the deeper emotional thread underneath all the current struggles.

It’s not:
“I hate cakes.”

But:
“I built this to create a better life, so why does my life feel smaller now?”

Redefining Success

If freedom is what we want, it’s time we get clear on what that actually looks like.

The answer right now isn’t to raise prices, become better at creating content, market more aggressively, cut costs or endlessly pivot every time the industry shifts again.

Without clarity, doing any of those things is just continuing to build businesses around survival, rather than around the life we genuinely want to live.

The real starting point is much quieter than that.

To sit down honestly with ourselves and ask:

What kind of life am I actually trying to create here?

What do I want my days to feel like?

How much time do I want to own?

What am I willing to sacrifice and what am I no longer willing to sacrifice?

What does enough look like for me?

There is no single correct answer.

For some, the most freeing decision will be to close the chapter completely. For others, it will be to adapt, simplify, restructure or continue building despite the challenges. And for many businesses, there is still opportunity, growth and success ahead.

But whatever direction we choose for ourselves, it has to begin from a place of clarity rather than fear, comparison or survival mode.

To our freedom,
Thao

Ps: The conversation has only just started. I’ll be further exploring the future of the cake industry, creativity, business and building a life that actually feels sustainable, right here on Substack.

If this sounds like the conversation you need right now, subscribe below.

Click here to read Part 1

Click here to read Part 2

While the businesses I use in the examples below are from Australia, the same ideas still apply in other countries that share similar consumer trends (as outlined in my Consumer Trends Report in Part 1).

10 Cake Biz Ideas That Work in 2025

As mentioned earlier, according to expermarketresearch.com.au, The Australian bakery products market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.10% between 2025 and 2034, reaching approximately AUD 16.51 billion by 2034. 

The fastest-growing bakery product categories are:

1. Biscuits

2. Cakes and Pastries

3. Cheesecakes

4. Packaged Cakes

Let’s get into ideas for the #1 category:

Biscuits (Fastest-Growing: 6.9% CAGR)

• Everyday classics: Tim Tams, Oreos, Digestives

• Premium/artisanal: handmade shortbread, biscotti, stuffed NYC-style cookies

• Health-conscious: gluten-free choc chip cookies, protein biscuits, low-sugar digestives

• Seasonal/gifting: iced sugar cookies, tins of Danish butter cookies

🍪 Idea #1: Chunky Cookies

Read more

So, you’ve taken on a cake order, have baked, and decorated this beautiful cake. Now what?

Cake delivery is an inevitable part of the order fulfilment process. There probably isn’t such a thing as a truly stress-free and easy delivery. No matter how much we all wish that could be true. However, there are steps that you can take to make the whole process as straightforward as possible.

When you take on a cake order, there are a lot of factors that play into how well the delivery is going to go in the end. You have to think about the cake in terms of how heavy it is, how large it is, and how sturdy it is. All of that is going to play a big part in how that cake transports – especially in the heat. So, you’ve got to think about delivery at the very beginning, not when you’re ready to take the cake out to the car and go.

There really aren’t a lot of steps to actually take when delivering a cake. You basically just take the cake from the fridge, put it on the cart, ensure that the temperature stays as cold as possible during transport, and make sure it’s stored properly upon delivery. But the key to a great cake delivery doesn’t begin when you’re ready to deliver the cake. It begins before you’ve even baked the cake.

Here are 5 great tips to think about to make sure you have a smooth and easy cake delivery.

1. Understand the Event

Especially when you’re new in the cake making business, any request is exciting. You’re probably willing and eager to take on just about any order. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It is exciting! But before you accept just any request, you want to fully understand what is required in order to ensure the best possible experience not only for your customer but yourself as well.

Before you even get to the design brief, you want to understand:

1. What kind of event is it? Eg: wedding, birthday, baby shower etc.

2. Where will it be held? Eg: at home, at a venue, at a restaurant etc.

3. Where will the cake be displayed? Eg: indoors, outdoors.

4. What’s the typical weather pattern for the time of the order? Eg: warm, super hot, cool, freezing cold, monsoon season, etc.

5. How long will the cake be on display before cutting?

The flow of events for a wedding at a venue is completely different from a birthday party at a venue to a birthday dinner at a restaurant.

Where the cake is displayed, if it can be stored refrigerated, when it’s going to be cut etc are unique to each event. Don’t assume ANYTHING just because someone wants to order a wedding/birthday/babyshower cake. Find out as much as you can about the event so that you can minimise surprises for both you and the clients later down the track should the order proceed.

2. Understand Your Requirements

Regardless of whether a cake is picked up or delivered, someone needs to transport it. Therefore, in order to ensure that the cake gets from A to B safely, a set of requirements needs to be in place. These requirements are non-negotiable (for buttercream cakes).

The cake needs to be:

1. Transported on a flat surface in an air-conditioned car. While in the car it needs to be away from direct sunlight.

2. Stored refrigerated if it was to be delivered/picked up prior to the event start time.

3. Displayed away from direct sunlight and heat, in a cool, air conditioned room.

The client is to be made aware of these requirements prior to confirming their order. If for example, they cannot provide refrigeration for the cake, then you can discuss whether a pick up/delivery just before the event start time is possible. Don’t get yourself into a situation where the event starts at 6pm but you deliver at 3pm only to find out when you get there that there is no room in the fridge for the cake.

Other requirements you should consider (especially for buttercream cakes in warm weather):

• What’s the maximum amount of time the cake can be transported in the car? For me, that threshold was 90 minutes. If someone wanted a cake delivered to somewhere further than a 90 minute drive in summer, I would decline the order. Driving further than 90 minutes with a buttercream cake in the car and the aircon on full blast isn’t exactly pleasant. Then there’s also the drive back.

• Can clients pick up multi-tiered cakes? For me, that was a no. If someone wants a tiered cake, it will have to be delivered as you don’t want to risk their inexperience.

As mentioned above, it begins before you even bake the cake. You want to have as many safeguards in place as possible and you want your clients to understand these safeguards in order to ensure that the cake gets to its destination safely. If you find yourself staring at a finished cake wondering how to deliver it, it’s too late.

3. Structure Matters

This is pretty simple: a sturdy structure has less chance of falling over. To ensure a successful delivery, build a sturdy structure.

DTC cakes have a consistency that is in between a sponge and a mud cake, not too heavily dense but not too light either. I know that DTC cakes retain the cold a lot longer than other cakes. Sponge cakes for example, have a much lighter consistency which soften at a much faster rate.

In my Buttercream Cake Mastery course, I don’t recommend using sponge cakes to build structure but if you do decide to use it, know that you’ll have a smaller window of time for a successful delivery. Similarly, if you make a cake with a curd or mousse filling in the middle, the risk of the tiers moving while in transport is higher than if you didn’t.

It is crucial that you possess fundamental knowledge about building a sturdy cake structure. You need to understand how the cake will handle the movement of being on the road and how it will behave being out of the fridge for the amount of time it takes to arrive at the venue. Pay attention to the ‘building blocks’ that make up the structure i.e cake layers, fillings, covering, decorations etc. Understand their characteristics i.e how dense or light, how they react to heat etc. Without such knowledge, you’re setting yourself up for mishaps come delivery time.

Learn More About The Course

4. Have a Delivery Schedule

A delivery schedule is essential and should be completed no later than a week before the delivery. A delivery schedule should have:

• Date and time of delivery

• Venue name (if applicable) and address

• Venue access information and map (if applicable) eg: enter via delivery gate, walk up 10 sets of stairs, use the back lift etc.

• Coordinator’s name and contact number

• A signature section

Having to fill out a schedule like this forces you to be organised. You want to have everything figured out in advance so you know exactly what to do on the day. You want to make sure you know where to go and how to get there. If this involves walking the cake up a set of stairs, it’s better to know ahead of time then to find out on the day of. If you can’t find the entrance, you know who to call for clarifications.

A delivery schedule takes away a lot of the usual cake delivery stress. And the final part – the signature section – that’s for whoever receives the cake to sign off. To go a step further, I recommend that you take a picture of the cake/cake box in the spot you’ve left it whether it be inside the fridge or on the cake table. If the cake ever gets damaged after you’ve handed it over, you have the signature and photo to absolve you from any blame.

5. Prepare for the Cake Delivery

The actual delivery itself is straightforward enough.

1. Remove the cake from the fridge and load it into the car.

2. Drive carefully to your destination.

Well, that’s the theory. The reality involves a few more things than that. Here’s my cake delivery prep list to help make the actual cake delivery as pleasant as possible:

One. Ensure that the cake has had sufficient time to chill in the fridge.

This means at least a good few hours since you last worked on it.

Two. Turn on the air conditioning in the car prior to loading the cake.

This gives the car a chance to cool down. This is especially important in summer when it gets hot. You don’t want to bring the cake into a really warm environment. If you plan to place the cake in the boot of your car, make sure you fold down the seats so it actually gets cold back there. Maximum/full blast/Antarctica is the recommended setting.

Three. Cover the passenger windows as well as the boot window.

This helps to block out any direct sunlight and keep the car cool. My car windows are tinted, but sunlight can still get through. Using a window shade gives you an extra layer of protection from the sun. Remember, the sun is your cake’s enemy.

Four. Pack a jacket and a scarf.

Yes, even in summer because the car is going to get really cold for you. You might sustain a few weird stares on the road but that’s the cost of the job. 😃

Five. Pack a hand trolley.

This is a small investment you do not want to skip. A hand trolley doesn’t have an expensive piece of equipment. All you need is for it to be able to fold up, have a handle, and roll well. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it saves you a lot of stress instead of holding a large cake box and walking without being able to see where you’re going. What I normally do as well is fold out the trolley and place a piece of nonslip mat on it to place the cake on top of. This ensures that your cake doesn’t move while you’re pushing the trolley and it makes it easier to lift the cake board up later. All you’ll have to do is pick up a corner of the mat and pull it up to lift your cake to transfer it to your car.

Six. Pack a cake emergency kit.

Luckily, I have never been in a place where I needed to use my cake emergency kit but it’s always good to bring one anyway. It’s called an emergency kit for a reason. Obviously, you can’t preempt every emergency but it’s good to be prepared. I like to bring a small piping bag pre-filled with extra buttercream, a small offset spatula, food-grade gloves, and some paper towels. These can help fix any small touch-ups that are needed after delivery.

A cake emergency kit should also have everything you might need if you’re delivering a floral cake and using the client’s florals. Almost 90% of the time, I use florals provided by the client and this requires me to come onsite with the tools necessary to fix them onto the cake. Don’t forget to bring your professional camera or phone to take a finished picture afterwards.

Seven. Don’t forget your delivery schedule.

This one is self explanatory isn’t it! Your delivery schedule has all the important information, so don’t forget it.

Cake delivery seems pretty straightforward, but it can easily become the most stressful part of the cake making process. There are many factors that play into how smooth your cake delivery will be, so don’t ignore them. Prepare for them instead.

Got your delivery process down but still can’t get your client to care for their cakes properly after pick up?

Check out our Cake Care and Cutting Guide Templates. We all know no one reads anything 😅, but that’s a huge issue when there is important information to be read. The key is to convey the information in an effective way. Our ready-made-templates do exactly this, and are customisable to fit your business in just 10 minutes.

Check Out The Templates

• You already have a running cake business (store or home-based), but things have slowed and you’re looking for ways to increase revenue.

• You don’t yet have a cake business or side hustle, but you want to make sure your idea has a higher chance of success.

Basically: if you want to make money from selling cakes or baked goods, this is for you.

I’ve taught hundreds of in-person workshops around the world, thousands more online through my Cake Smarter, Not Harder® courses, hosted my own wedding cake expo, partnered with brands, spoken on podcasts and panels, and coached hundreds of home bakers and cake business owners through the DTC community.

I say all this to let you know that I’m not going to just throw fluffy ideas at you. Everything I’ll share in this series is grounded in real-world experience. Not just mine, but also from colleagues and students all over the world who’ve been in the game for years, working in different markets and with different audiences.

My goal for you at the end of this series is simple: walk away with one clear, profitable idea and the clarity to start moving towards it - fast.

The reality check

Yes, the economy is tough right now. Prices of ingredients are exorbitant yet consumers are less willing to pay. What used to work for you before doesn’t work anymore. You are trying so hard, probably harder than ever, but nothing seems to be moving the needle. It feels like shouting into the void 😟.

While all these are true, they don’t mean there’s no money to be made.

People are STILL spending money, just differently.

If you want to make money again, or make more of it, you might want to consider making some shifts, starting with the below.

3 Crucial Factors to Remember as a Business Owner

1. Business is about people

Read more

It’s one of the most common and frustrating problems cake makers face. But it doesn’t have to send you into a panic. Let’s break down why it happens and how to handle it like a pro.

Image credit: I couldn’t find a clear pic of a sweating cake so I got ChatGPT to edit the condensation onto a cake of mine 😆.

1. What Causes Condensation?

Condensation occurs when warm air hits a cold surface.

When moisture-packed warm air comes into contact with a chilly surface, it cools down quickly and releases the moisture, which turns into liquid droplets on the cold surface.

If you ever experienced winter where you are, you most likely have seen droplets of water on your window pane when you’ve got the heater going inside.

Vice versa, if you’ve experienced summer, then you would have also seen droplets of water on your window pane when you’ve got the air conditioning going inside.

So understand that condensation is a natural occurrence, it’s unavoidable when warm air hits a cold surface.

When it comes to cake making, this usually happens in summer, especially on really humid days. When you remove a cake from the fridge, which is nice and cold and bring it into your room environment, which is humid and not as cold, the warm, moisture packed air hits the cold surface on the cake and – bam! – condensation.

Now, the more humid the air, the more condensation there’ll be.

Now that we’ve established that condensation CANNOT be stopped, let’s look at how we can cope with it.

2. How to Combat Condensation:

👉 Reduce the moisture in the air.

When we think of moisture in the air, most of us think of naturally occurring humidity. Some days, the humidity is going to be higher. So, with a quick glance at the weather, it’s easy to tell how much humidity to expect your cake to be exposed to.

However, we tend to forget that we, too, contribute to the humidity of our living/working environment. On average, a family of four will create 100 pints (56 litres) of water vapour per week just through our daily domestic activities. Everything from showering, boiling kettles, running a bath, and even using a tumble dryer will add to the moisture in the air. The easiest way we can reduce moisture is to simply open a window. Opening a window allows fresh air to cycle through your house which is not only good for your cakes, but good for your health and your home’s feng shui as well

When that’s not enough, and you have a more serious humidity problem, consider a dehumidifier. We’re familiar with humidifiers, which inject moist air into your environment. A dehumidifier does the opposite. It removes the moisture from the air in your environment. You can get different sizes depending on the size of the space you want to filter.

👉 Reduce the temperature difference.

Now that we know that condensation occurs when moisture-packed warm air hits a cold surface, we want to try and reduce that temperature difference between the two elements.

When it comes to buttercream cakes, which always need to be stored in the fridge, the cold surface element cannot be mitigated. So, we have to manipulate the temperature of the air.

In winter, even though it’s super freezing outside, if you’re working with cakes, try not to have the heater on full blast in the house.

Vice versa, in summer, if it’s super hot outside, crank up the air con. You want the temperature of the air to be as far from ‘warm’ as possible.

Of course, I’m not asking you to reduce the temperature in your home or venue to 4°C like a fridge would be set to. But, if your work environment is 30°C, that’s pretty warm for a cake. Try lowering it to 18-20°C and there will be significantly less of a temperature shock when your cake leaves the fridge.

👉 If it’s out of your control, accept it.

Now, if you’ve reduced the moisture, controlled the temperatures and condensation still happens, there’s nothing left to do but to accept it. I used to freak out over condensation too but most of the time (if not all of the time), no one else noticed but me.

No one else but you, the cake maker, examines the cake on such an intimate level to notice a few drops of condensation or even a shinier sheen than normal. Unless your cake looks like it’s just been in the steam room, in which case you may want to give it a gentle pat with a sheet of paper towel. Otherwise, the bottom line is, if it’s out of your control, accept it and move on.

Condensation is inevitable when cold meets warm but, now you’ve got the tools to minimise its impact. In the next post, we’ll tackle another buttercream nightmare: melting. Stay tuned!

Let’s Talk 💬

Is there another scenario where you’ve experienced condensation on your cake which I didn’t cover in my article? If so, let me know in the comments and I’ll give you more insights 👇🥰.

There’s nothing more disheartening than spending hours perfecting something, only for it to acquire imperfections once you’re finished with it. Before you toss your spatula in defeat, let’s look at why cracks form and what you can do to prevent them.

Causes

Cracks are caused by movement.

It’s that simple. Movement causes cracks. Remember that.

However, where the cracks occur and the direction in which they occur can tell you a lot about what caused them.

1.

Cracks at the Bottom of Your Buttercream Cake

There are two very common places where buttercream cakes tend to crack. The first is at the very bottom where the cake meets the board and it has everything to do with the strength of your cake board. If you’re using a cake board that is too thin which cannot support the weight of the cake that’s sitting on it, it is going to bend when you grab at it to lift the cake up. When the cake board bends, it pulls away from the bottom of the cake thereby, creating cracks in this area.

I always suggest using MDF cake boards but sometimes even those aren’t enough to hold the weight of your cake. If your cake is particularly heavy, stick two MDF boards together or use a really thick drum board.

2.

Horizontal Cracks

The second most common place to see cracks is in the middle zone of a cake tier, horizontally. When this occurs, you’ll find that these cracks usually correspond with the location of the cake filling in between two cake layers.

Horizontal cracks occur because cake layers have moved, usually due to fillings that are too wet or too soft.

There are a number of factors to consider when trying to combat horizontal cracks. However, the bottom line is, you have a structure issue. How can you prevent your cake layers from moving? This could be:

• Using a more sturdy dam such as chocolate ganache to keep your soft fillings from seeping out and moving.

• Using a cake that has better structure, such as buttercake or our DTC cakes instead of sponges.

• Inserting dowels to help keep the layers in place.

3.

Vertical or Random Pattern Cracks

This last type is less common than the first two, but it happens. Vertical or random pattern cracks can occur anywhere on your cake. Although they’re still caused by movement, this movement is on a molecular level. This movement has to do with the water molecules in your buttercream contracting, expanding or even evaporating.

Without getting into too much details about the chemistry of water molecules, just know that the water molecules in your buttercream move differently when they’re at room temperature, fridge temperature (4C) and freezing temperature. Allowing your cake to rapidly move in and out of these 3 temperature zones can cause the water molecules to contract, expand, and even evaporate. These are the movements that cause cracks.

👉 In plain cake making terms, if you find vertical or random pattern cracks on your cake, chances are you’ve left the cake in the freezer for too long or your fridge is too cold.

👉 If you use the freezer in the buttercream cake making process like I do, only use it in short periods of time to prevent the buttercream from actually freezing.

👉 If your fridge is too cold (especially at the back), adjust the temperature.

👉 It’s also important that you store your buttercream cakes in an airtight container or a box while they’re in the fridge, to prevent the buttercream from drying out and causing cracks.

👉 Also, avoid filling and covering a cake with frozen cake layers. Water molecules contract when frozen then expand as they become warmer. If you cover the cake while the cake layers are frozen, the expanding movement of the water molecules as the cake returns to room temp causes cracks. To avoid this, always use fridge cold cake layers instead of frozen.

Cracks may look scary, but with the right structure and handling, they’re entirely preventable. Next up in our buttercream series: dealing with the heat and why melting buttercream isn’t a failure, it’s just nature.

Let’s Talk 💬

I’m pretty sure everyone experiences the cracks at the bottom of the cake at least once. But, have you had a vertical crack before? Let me know in the comments, bonus points if you have pics 🤣.

• Ingredient prices are through the roof

• Clients are hesitant to spend

• Orders are slowing down

• You’re working harder for less — and it ain’t sustainable

Whether you’ve been in business for a while or you’re just starting out, one thing is clear:You need to generate more revenue, fast.

But, “people just aren’t spending money right now!”

❌ False.

According to Expert Market Research, the Australian bakery market is projected to grow from AUD 9.13 billion in 2024 to AUD 16.5 billion by 2034.

People are still spending, just differently.

I’ve been researching cake business models that are actually working in 2025 and you might be surprised by what made the list.

Originally, I planned this to be a live Zoom Workshop back in July 2025. Due to changes in my plans, I figured this would be better delivered as a mini series on Substack.

Welcome to the 10 Cake Biz Ideas That Work in 2025 Mini Series.

In the next few weeks, I will be dropping a series of posts to show you:

✅ Why your cake business feels harder than ever — and how to fix it.

✅ What today’s customers are actually spending on (and what they’re not) — backed by real data.

✅ 10 simple, profitable cake biz ideas that are working in 2025 - there is one perfect for you!

Hopefully, you’ll come out with one clear, profitable idea and the clarity to finally take action.

Today, I’ll leave you with this 2025 Consumer Trends & Insights Report.

I’ve put a lot of research into this.

Read more

How to Scale a Cake Recipe to Fit Any Cake Tin

In the video, I used 3" tall cake tins and marked the water line at ¾ full. That’s because I bake DTC cake recipes in 3" tins and fill the batter ¾ high.

Use the fill level that works for your base recipe. For example, if you usually fill your tin halfway, mark the water line at ½ high instead.

What you need

• Your base recipe and its original tin

• The new tin you want to use

• Kitchen scale, water, marker, calculator

Step‑by‑step

1. Mark your fill lines
   Mark the line you normally fill the batter up to on the base tin. Mark the same “usual fill height” on the new tin.

2. Weigh the base tin’s water
   Put the empty base tin on the scale, tare to 0, fill with water to the marked line, note the weight in grams.

3. Weigh the new tin’s water
   Repeat with the new tin. Note the weight in grams.

4. Calculate the scale ratio
   Scale ratio = new tin water weight ÷ base tin water weight.

5. Scale the recipe
   Multiply each ingredient in the recipe by the scale ratio. Convert eggs and liquids to grams first if you can. Round to sensible gram amounts.

Quick example

• Base tin water: 1200 g

• New tin water: 900 g

• Scale ratio: 900 ÷ 1200 = 0.75

Scale the example recipe:

Plain flour 200 × 0.75 = 150 g

Caster sugar 180 × 0.75 = 135 g

Eggs 150 × 0.75 = 113 g (≈ 2 large eggs + a small amount)

Unsalted butter 200 × 0.75 = 150 g

Milk 100 × 0.75 = 75 g

Baking powder 2 × 0.75 = 1½ tsp

Salt 0.5 × 0.75 = ¼ tsp + a pinch

How to Adjust Baking Time

Once you’ve scaled your recipe to fit the new tin, you’ll need to adjust the baking time however, this isn’t a straight multiplication like the ingredients. Baking time depends on batter depth, not just the total amount of batter.

If the batter depth is roughly the same as your base recipe, use this formula as a starting point:

New bake time = Original bake time × (0.4 + 0.6 × Scale Ratio)

Why not just multiply by the scale ratio?
Baking time doesn’t scale linearly with volume because the cake cooks from the outside in. The centre only starts cooking once the outer batter has already set and is transferring heat inward. If you increase the amount of batter by 50%, you don’t increase the distance heat travels by 50% — so the time increase is proportionally smaller.

Where the numbers come from:
The 0.4 + 0.6× model is a simplification used in food engineering and thermal processing to approximate heating times when scaling containers. It assumes:

• 40% of the original baking time is for surface setting and heat-up (which stays about the same regardless of cake size).

• The remaining 60% of the time is proportional to your scale ratio (because it relates to heating the centre).

Example in action:
If your scale ratio is 1.0 (same tin size), the formula gives:
0.4 + 0.6×1.0 = 1.0 → same bake time.
If your scale ratio is 1.5, the formula gives:
0.4 + 0.6×1.5 = 1.3 → 30% longer, not 50%.

It’s not perfect for every scenario (especially when cake depth changes a lot), but it’s a good starting point that works better than guessing or multiplying time by the full scale ratio.

Additional notes:

As a general rule of thumb, starting checking your cake for doneness around 80% of the new time.

The colour and material of your tin matter:

• Dark metal tins absorb heat faster and may bake the cake more quickly.

• Light-coloured or shiny metal tins reflect heat, often requiring slightly longer.

• Glass and ceramic hold heat longer, so they may need lower temperatures or shorter times once the cake is nearly done.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions at all regarding what’s written here, feel free to leave a comment below. Also leave me a comment if you have any other topics you’d like me to cover. Thanks!!

So before we get into white buttercream, let’s look at the most important ingredient: butter.

Legend has it that long ago around 8000 BC, a weary traveller made an accidental discovery that ended up changing the face of gastronomic history. Deep in ancient Africa’s rolling hills, a herdsman had been travelling with animals. The days were hot, and his journey was long and arduous. As he reached for his sheepskin bag filled with milk to quench his thirst, he was disappointed to find that the milk had curdled. The bumpy terrain had jostled the liquid enough to churn it into what we now know as butter. ¹

Butter is a really integral ingredient in many aspects of culinary arts and has been used in foods and cooking for thousands of years. It’s a dairy product made from churning milk or cream until the fat separates from the liquid. Most often it is the preferred fat to use in many recipes from savoury dishes to sauces to baking or just as a creamy spread. When it comes to baking, butter is an integral ingredient. This is especially true when it comes to making buttercream.

There are many factors at play when it comes to making butter. Commercially, we are made to believe that yellow butter is of a higher quality than paler butter. But what causes that signature yellow colour? And, in contrast, if premium butter is yellow, why then are we so obsessed with stark white buttercream? Let’s take a closer look at butter and all of its components.

How Butter is Made

Butter can be made from churning either milk or cream. In the churning process, the cream or milk is agitated until the fat molecules begin to clump together and separate from the liquid. The shaking leaves behind a lump of semi-solid fat that is the butter. The liquid that’s left behind is known as buttermilk although not the same kind of buttermilk you would find in supermarkets. This buttermilk is a skim milk versus the cultured buttermilk sold in stores.

Fun Fact

Regular milk contains only about 3% fat. In order to separate enough fat to make butter, you would need at least 5 litres (10 US pints) of milk to make 225 grams (0.5lbs) of butter.

Commercial butter that you buy in the supermarkets are usually made up of 80-82% milk fat, 16-17% water, and 1-2% milk solids other than fats.

Spreadable butter contains even less milk fat. Instead, it substitutes a certain percent of the milk fat with oil to make it softer and easier to spread while still preserving the taste of butter.

Subscribe now

Why Are Some Butter More Yellow Than Others?

Have you ever wondered why butter is yellow, but milk and cream is white? It’s really interesting once you dig into the science behind it and part of it has to do with the particular diet of the cows that the butter comes from.

Butter gets that yellow colour from a pigment called beta carotene. You may already be familiar with beta carotene from carrots. It’s what gives carrots and other orange or yellow fruits and vegetables their signature colour. In the human body, beta carotene is converted into Vitamin A which helps promote eye and skin health and strengthens the immune system. However, cows that graze on grass or flowers rich in beta carotene store the pigment in their fat instead of converting it. When they produce milk, the pigments then get carried over into the fat of their milk.

Now you may be asking, why isn’t milk yellow if it contains beta carotene? The main reason is because milk is 97% water. Even whole milk only contains about 3-4% milk fat and cream has at most 40% milk fat. They are predominantly liquid. Also, the fat globules containing beta carotene in milk are covered in a membrane that obscures their natural colour, making milk and cream appear white. It’s not until the churning process in which the agitation causes the membrane to burst, releasing the fat globules, and allowing the colour of the beta carotene to show in the butter that’s formed.

So essentially, butter is yellow because of cows that graze in pastures with foliage rich in beta carotene. The amount of beta carotene that cows raised on pastures consume is dependent on the time of year. During the late spring and summer when plants are in full bloom, cows will eat higher concentrations of beta carotene which will cause butter made from their milk to be richer shades of yellow.

In contrast, cows that are fed grains have considerably less or even no beta carotene stored in their fat, making their butter paler or even white.

What About Butter Made From Goats?

If you buy butter made from animals other than cows like goats, sheep, or water buffalo, you’ll notice that their butter is also white. This is because these animals – like humans – convert beta carotene into Vitamin A which is colourless. They don’t store the natural pigment which results in their butter being white.

At one point, I was under the impression that the more yellow the butter, the more premium it would be. However, this is not true. Not only can colour vary all year round but some companies even add yellow colouring to their butter to play into this belief. Therefore, colour alone is not a reliable indicator of a butter’s quality.

Share

What Can Affect the Taste of Butter?

Just like colouring, there are several factors that can affect the taste of butter. Some of it is pretty straightforward: salted, salt reduced, or unsalted; cultured or not cultured. Cultured butter has live bacteria added to it, giving it a tangier flavour than regular butter. However, other factors go deeper than just additives such as what cows eat and what time of year it is.

Cows that are allowed to graze in pastures will produce butter that tastes different to those fed solely with grains. Butter from pasture-fed cows will taste more floral due to the grass and flowers that make up their diet. This can also change with the seasons. Not only will butter produced in the late spring and summer months be richer in beta carotene (hence a richer yellow colour) it will also have a floral taste.

This is not something that we would necessarily notice if we’re used to buying commercially produced butter. However, if you’re lucky enough to be able to use local farmers’ products you will be able to taste the difference throughout the seasons.

The way you store butter will also have an impact on its flavour. Butter will oxidise when not wrapped and stored properly. So, if you have a partially unwrapped stick of butter left in your fridge, it may start to taste funky as it absorbs the moisture and odours from its environment.

Best Tips for Using Butter in Cake Making

Now that you understand how butter is made and what can affect the taste and appearance of butter, you know that not all butter is created equal. A lot more thought should be given when you’re following a recipe that calls for ‘butter’. Here are some tips to think about the next time you use butter in cake making:

Tip 1. Use butter blocks that contain at least 80% milk fat.

This means using regular, pure butter for cake making. As mentioned before, spreadable butter has some of its fat content replaced with oil to give it a spreadable consistency. Spreadable butter and margarine which has its fat content entirely replaced with oil are softer and less stable. Neither are suitable for making buttercream. When in doubt, check the ingredients on the packaging and it will tell you what percentage of milk fat it has. This will inform you whether the butter is suitable for baking or not.

Tip 2. Consider the taste profile of the butter you choose.

The taste profile of the butter you choose will affect the overall taste of the product you make. Some students have commented that DTC buttercream tastes buttery. It’s possible that could be because they’re used to American buttercream which has more sugar in it but it could also be because of the type of butter that they used. I love Lurpak butter because it has a more delicate flavour profile than other brands like Devondale or Western Star. When you’re assessing the product that you’ve made, think about the taste profile of the butter you used.

Tip 3. Don’t cheap out on butter.

This applies to any ingredient that you use but butter in particular tastes far superior than its fat-substitute counterparts like margarine or shortening. Saving a few dollars on quality ingredients can result in a much inferior taste. My mantra is always ‘Don’t cheap out on ingredients. Cheap out on time instead.’

Tip 4. If possible, buy in bulk.

Butter can be frozen for up to 12 months if it’s salted and 6 months if it’s unsalted. If your favourite brand of butter is on sale at the supermarket you can freely stock up and know that you’ll be able to properly store your butter for future use. This is particularly helpful if you don’t have access to wholesale supplies as it will help lower your costs.

Tip 5. Store it airtight.

Properly storing your butter will prevent your stock from gaining exposure to oxygen or absorbing fridge odours that will taint the flavour of your butter. Tightly wrap your butter or put it in an airtight container to store it.

What’s Our Obsession with White Buttercream?

We’ve established that the commercial world thinks that yellow butter is superior. Why then are cake makers so obsessed with achieving stark white buttercream?

I believe the reason has a lot to do with fondant cakes. Traditionally, custom cakes were covered with fondant, marzipan, whipped cream, or American buttercream all of which are white. However, in recent years, we’ve seen a rise in tasty buttercream such as Italian, Swiss, French, and DTC buttercream which are meringue based. These buttercream typically use egg whites or whole eggs and real butter. This naturally produces ivory instead of stark white buttercream.

When the modern buttercream scene was becoming established about 5 years ago, us modern buttercream cake makers felt we had something to prove to the traditional baking scene. We felt that whatever you can do with fondant, we could do with buttercream. Sharp edges with fondant? No worries, here are sharp edges with buttercream. Stark white fondant? …Yup, we can do that too. It’s like we have a point to prove.

Social media also plays a significant role in our obsession with white buttercream. We tend to forget that social media is edited. Brightness is increased, filters are sometimes used. It’s important to remember that social media is not real life. It can set unrealistic expectations for what our cakes should look like because if one baker can do it, then we should be able to do it as well, right?

Don't Compromise The Quality of Your Product

My personal stance on white buttercream is that the obsession is unhealthy. You choose real, natural ingredients for your product because they taste good and produce high quality cakes. Don’t compromise the quality of your cakes just to achieve unrealistic colours that don’t really matter in the end. I’m talking about adding copious amounts of whitening that ends up changing the consistency and taste of the buttercream.

Sure there are a number of tricks that can help you lighten the colour of your buttercream without adding copious amounts of white food colouring. We teach these tricks in Buttercream Cake Mastery (adding a tiny touch of violet colouring is one - purple and yellow neutralise each other). However, beyond the natural tricks, let go of the unrealistic expectations that buttercream can be naturally stark white.

Moreover, a stark white cake can appear ivory under dim lighting (which is a common scenario for night time events) and an ivory cake can appear white in bright, broad daylight.

Obsessing over a difference of one shade (white vs light ivory) isn’t going to do you any good. Focus your energy where it matters most, the quality of your cakes. Enjoy the cake making process and invest in upskilling and honing your skills. Take pride in the premium ingredients that you choose and how they taste. Don’t lose sleep over one single shade of white.

Educate Your Clients

At the end of the day, it comes down to educating your clients. You know that butter is naturally yellow and by using real, pure butter, your buttercream cake will taste delicious. It will also be a nice, light ivory rather than stark white. If someone comes to you with a picture of a stark white cake, you may explain that it could be one of the below scenarios:

• The cake is made with fondant which has the ability to be stark white.

• The cake most likely had copious amounts of whitening added to it which won’t taste good

• OR the picture has undergone some minor editing.

If meringue based buttercream cakes is your specialty, explain so with pride. Inform the client that your buttercream is made with eggs and butter which results in a nice, light ivory colour and a far superior taste. I’ve never had a customer argue with me over a shade difference after I’ve properly set the right expectations.

Always be upfront and educate your customers instead of compromising the taste to make something look unnaturally white. Ultimately, taste is what the customer will remember. It won’t matter if the cake was perfectly white when it tasted weird. They’ll only remember that your cake didn’t taste good and won’t come back to you for their next event.

Let’s Talk 💬

Do you care about getting pure white buttercream, or are you team “natural ivory”? Drop your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to hear where you stand 👇

If you’re new to cake making, all the colourful bottles and pots might look really enticing but with so many to choose from, it’s hard to know what type of food colouring works best.

In this post, I’m going to let you take a peek inside my colouring box. I’ll show you what I stock as a buttercream cake artist who works with buttercream, chocolate and isomalt. I’ll also give you some helpful tips when it comes to buying and using different types of food colouring.

4 Main Types of Food Colouring

There are 4 main types of colouring that I use. These are liquid, gel, oil-based, and dusts.

1. Liquid Colouring

Base: Water + synthetic colouring
Pros: Easy to find, inexpensive
Cons: Weak colour, requires a lot to create a decent shade
Uses: Cake batter, cookie dough
Favourite Brands: No preference. The ones from your local supermarket are fine.

Liquid colouring is the oldest kind of food colouring and by far the easiest to find. You can easily run to your local supermarket and grab a bottle off the shelves. However, because it has a water base, liquid food colouring is very weak. To achieve a decent colour in buttercream, you’ll have to use a lot of it. Then, by the time you’re anywhere near getting the colour that you want, you’ve completely changed the consistency of your buttercream. So liquid colouring for buttercream is a no no.

The only instance where I use liquid food colouring is in cake batter, specifically our Red Velvet Cake.

When it comes to cake batter, you need to be able to measure every ingredient to ensure consistency – this includes any food colouring you may add. The benefit of liquid colouring is you can do precise measurements. If you need 10mil or 1 tsp of colour, that’s an exact measurement that can be scaled up or down based on your needs.

Liquid colouring also works best in any kind of stiff dough like cookie dough. Because of its watery consistency, liquid colouring will disperse easily into a dough versus if you were using a gel which is more viscous and would require more kneading.

Subscribe now

2. Gel Colouring

Base: Water + corn syrup or glycerin + synthetic colouring
Pros: Widely available and easily sourced through many brands, more concentrated, won’t add extra liquid
Cons: Can’t use with chocolate, harder to use with stiff textures such as doughs, some gels don’t disperse properly leaving lumps of colouring
Uses: Buttercream or frosting, isomalt, chocolate ganache strips, fondant, candy
Favourite Brands: Americolour, Sugarflair
Least Favourite Brands: Wilton because the colour is weak

Gel colouring is fairly versatile. It can be used in buttercream, isomalt, fondant, ganache, candy, and more. Similar to liquid colouring, it has a water base. However, it also has added corn syrup or glycerin. This is what gives gel colouring its viscous texture. Gel colouring also has a much deeper concentration of colour. Compared to liquid food colouring, you’d only need to use a tiny amount of gel colouring to achieve the same, or better result.

I used to use a lot of gel colours when I first started to make cakes 10 years ago. These days, I mainly use gels for isomalt and grey (for concrete) buttercream. Isomalt is mostly sugar and some water. If you tried to use oil based colours, it wouldn’t mix because oil and water separate. Because gels are water-based, they incorporate easily into the isomalt to create vibrant colours. My favourite to use in isomalt are Americolour gels because of how easily they blend.

One of the major cons of gel colouring, however, is it can’t be used in chocolate. Chocolate seizes when it comes in contact with water. So, if you’re working with chocolate, you’ll have to stock oil colours along with your gels as well. This can get expensive.

Another downside to gel colours is some, such as Sugarflair gels, are super concentrated and thick. Sugarflair actually classifies themselves as a gel paste. Because of this, it can be hard to work the colour through without leaving any lumps behind. I use Sugarflair’s black licorice colour for all of my concrete cake designs because it is by far the most concentrated black colouring.

Tip:

To avoid flecks of gel colouring in your buttercream, start by adding the gel colour to a small amount of buttercream only. You can warm this buttercream in the microwave for a few seconds to help the gel paste colour to disperse into the buttercream. Once all the gel paste colouring is completely dispersed into this small amount of buttercream, add it to the rest of your buttercream to colour it.

3. Oil Based Colouring

Base: Oil + synthetic colouring
Pros: Extremely versatile, the most value for your money
Cons: More expensive than gel colouring, doesn’t disperse in water, can’t use in isomalt
Uses: Chocolate, cake batter, ganache, buttercream, fondant, cookie dough
Favourite Brands: Colourmill, Creative Cake Decorating
Least Favourite Brands: Americolour because it doesn’t taste good

If you really want the most value for money, oil-based colourings are the way to go. Instead of a water base, oil based colours use oil and artificial colouring. However, every brand uses a different formula. For example, Colourmill contains pigments; glycerol, which is an alcohol; and lecithin, which is a fat. Creative Cake Decorating uses glyceride, which is a combination of alcohol and fat.

Aside from the concrete buttercream, which I use gel for, I use oil-based colours for the rest of my buttercreams, chocolate, and ganache drips. Because of the fats and oils that are already in these colours, oil-based colourings will attach easily to the fats and oils in your recipes. This is what makes them suitable for a wide variety of bakes. Anything that has fat or oil already in them will blend really well with oil-based colours. This almost cancels out how expensive oil-based colours are. At almost double the price of gel colours, oil-based colours cover everything gel colours can be used for (the exception being isomalt) and more. So, while some will see the price as a con, I see it as value as I don’t have to stock as many colours

4. Decorating Dusts

Varieties: Lustre dust, petal dust, disco/crystal dust, highlighter dust, pearl dust
Common ingredients: Titanium dioxide, iron oxide, carmine, mica, iron blue, or chromium oxide.
Uses: Chocolate sails, painting ganached cakes or drip, painting edges, wafer paper, fried rice paper
Favourite Brands: Creative Cake Decorating, Sweet Sticks Edible Art

Decorating dusts are dry decorative powders used in cake decorating. They’re great for any external elements that need a touch of colour and aren’t meant to be used as a colourant the same way liquid, gel, and oil-based colours are. Don’t use dust to mix into anything to colour it and instead just apply it on the surface of things for decorations.

Although there are various types of decorating dusts available, I only stock lustre, petal, and disco dusts.

Lustre dust comes in many different colours and adds sparkle, shine, and a fair amount of colour to your decorations. Anything that is gold, champagne gold, or silver has probably been brushed with lustre dust.

Petal dusts will give you a nice, matte finish with deep, strong colours. It’s highly concentrated so the colours that are produced from petal dusts will be strong making it great for wafer paper or colouring gumpaste flowers.

You do have to be careful when purchasing decorating dusts, as not all dusts are edible. Some packaging will say “non-toxic” meaning it’s not toxic if consumed but isn’t meant to be eaten. Others will say “not for consumption” or “for decorative purposes only” meaning you should only use it on things that you know for sure will not be eaten such as gumpaste flowers. When you’re buying lustre dusts, definitely make sure they say “edible” or “food approved”!

Disco or crystal dusts are an example of decorating dusts that are not meant to be consumed. You may find disco dust that is food-approved, but most are not. Disco dusts are similar to lustre dust in imparting colour and shine, however, the grains are larger which give your decorations a glittery, disco feel.

There are two main ways to use decorating dusts. The first one is featured in the chocolate sails module of our premium program, Buttercream Cake Mastery, called dry brushing where you apply the dry dusts directly onto the surface of your decorations.

The second is for painting. You can create an edible paint by mixing petal or lustre dust with some rose spirit or vodka.

Subscribe now

3 Things to Always Remember About Using Colouring

1. Remember the Science

Always remember fats and water don’t mix.

When choosing your colours, think about whether what you’re adding colour to is water-based or oil-based.

• Fat + Fat = Yes!

• Water + Water = Yes!

While you can use gel colours in buttercream, they’re not the best option as gel colours are water based while buttercream is made predominantly of fats. The water particles in the gel can never fully incorporate into the fats of the buttercream, sometimes leaving small specks of colour big enough for the eyes to see.

2. Not All Colours are Created Equal

Whether they’re water-based or oil-based, every brand uses a different formula and ingredients. For example, Colourmill uses pigments instead of dyes in their colouring which according to them, is more resistant to fading. So while the base of the colour type may stay the same, the specific formula for creating those colours will vary from brand to brand. These different formulas, therefore, disperse and develop differently when added to baked goods. Just because one brand sells a colour, doesn’t mean that it’s the same as the next brand’s colour.

3. Too Much of Anything Will Change Consistency

Adding too much of any type of food colouring will change the consistency and subsequently, the taste of your baked goods. Food colourings are made from synthetic chemicals after all (unless stated otherwise), so just because you could achieve a particular colour by adding copious quantities, doesn’t mean you should.

Tips for Using Colours

Tip 1. Buy strong colours.

Buying strong colours saves you $$. By strong, I mean a deeper or darker shade of a particular colour i.e hot pink vs blush. You can achieve the blush colour by using a tiny amount of hot pink. So, while all the nude, blush and pastel shades are so tempting, don’t waste your money on them.

Tip 2. Stock primary colours and learn to mix.

Primary colours are red, blue, and yellow. You can make any colour just by mixing primary colours. I always keep a stock of primary colours and black. These are technically all the colours you’ll need. Sure, premade colours save you time, but they can also be a money trap. Learning to mix colours may take some time to master, but it’s a skill that is not only essential but also cost effective.

Tip 3. Warm is better for mixing.

Things emulsify (mix together) more easily when they’re warm. If your work environment is cold, it might help to warm your colours before you use them. You can drop a bottle or a tube of colour into a cup of warm water for a couple of minutes or place them in a warmed towel. This is especially helpful when it comes to gel colours.

Let’s Talk 💬

What’s your favourite trick or product for achieving vibrant, consistent colours in buttercream? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to know 👇.

Mistakes are essential. Mistakes are crucial in our evolution to learn and grow.

When I first started my cake business some years ago, I didn’t have any formal education in business management, nor cake making for that matter. I had been working towards degrees in journalism and landscape architecture, but couldn’t see myself working in those fields. So I started with the view that my business was going to be my ‘degree’, my real life training. I gave everything a go and welcomed every opportunity as a learning exercise. I made a ton of mistakes, most often eagerly so and I’ve learnt a plethora of valuable lessons in the process. Mistakes have built the sturdy foundation on which my skills, knowledge and experience stand today.

However, I did pay a price. The price was my time. Figuring things out on your own can be rewarding, but it is costly. There were certainly lots of mistakes that didn’t need to be made, mistakes that a ton of other people would have made before me and a ton after me. Mistakes that I wish someone had told me to avoid so I didn’t have to waste so much time making them.

I’m doing that for you today. Here are 5 rookie mistakes beginner cake makers should avoid.

1. Testing a New Recipe on a Client

As you may already know, I am self-taught. Thirteen years ago, I learnt to bake and make cakes the way a lot of people did at that time – through blogs and YouTube. Even now, when I want to cook a meal, I’d Google the dish. I’d sort through the different recipes that come up in the search results, and usually end up picking one with the highest review. I’d make that recipe, make a note of what to do differently next time, and then change and tweak it every subsequent attempt. Eventually, I’d arrive at a true and tried recipe that I’m happy with, and this is when I’d consider cooking such a recipe for a dinner party.

Cooking is intuitive and forgiving for me, but even so I would never cook a dish I’ve never made before for a dinner party. Granted, my dinner parties are only for friends and family so the stakes are low. But still I wouldn’t test a new recipe on them. And if I wouldn’t do this when the stakes are low, I certainly wouldn’t do it when the stakes are high – with a paying client. Cooking food may be intuitive and forgiving, but baking is not. Baking is a science, and requires a certain precision.

So, never test a new recipe on a client, especially when you only have just a week or worse, a few days before the cake is due. I’ve done this and I’ve seen many fellow bakers and students do this before. It’s a recipe for panic and disaster. And after all the stress, the result is never ideal. The client is almost guaranteed to be disappointed.

DTC recipes are a whole system in and of itself. It’s something I spent years perfecting, however, if I’m trying something new, my go-to rule is to make it at least three times before offering it to a paying client. Your first go at a recipe will almost never turn out right. Even when the stars align and you’re happy with the result the first time around, there is always room for improvement. How would the result differ if you reduce the heat in the oven? How would it differ if you increase the heat? Bake in smaller/larger tins? Used cultured butter instead of normal butter?

When you add something to your offering, it needs to be tried and true.

What if a client is persistent in insisting on a flavour that you don’t offer?

I too have had plenty of these clients when I first started, and they can make you feel bad for saying no. Or maybe it’s got nothing to do with them and everything to do with a beginner’s lack of confidence. Regardless, when someone asks you to make a cake that you have not tested before – for example, they want a white chocolate mud cake when you’ve only ever made sponge cakes – the solution is to say no. I don’t mean ‘no’ literally. You can say something like:

‘Our specialty is [style of cake] which we have tried and tested extensively to ensure the highest quality. Unfortunately, white chocolate mud cakes are not on our menu but [another flavour from your menu] would be just as delicious, if not more.’

Whatever you end up saying, don’t give in to the pressure. And always follow a ‘no’ with a solution. Never just say no and turn the customer away.

Subscribe now

2. Altering a New Recipe on the First Attempt

The second rookie mistake is also recipe-related. You should never alter a new recipe on the first attempt.

This rule applies to all things cooking-related in my life. I have a lot of experience cooking as well as baking so sometimes, my confidence and experience can get in the way. Occasionally, I’d look at a new recipe and think ‘oh, I wouldn’t make it that way..’.This is when I stop, and remind myself of my rule.

The rule is: always try to follow a new recipe to the tee on the first attempt.

Don’t change anything on purpose. Without having made it exactly how the recipe called for first, you have no basis for comparison when you start making alterations.

As I tell all my students, in the first attempt, you should:

• Take notes – on what you did and what the result was like i.e , how long you mixed the batter, how much you filled the tins, how long the cakes baked for, what temp; was the cake burnt/dry/undercooked? etc.

• Take photos and videos of what you did and of the result.

Depending on how your first attempt turns out, refer back to your notes, photos and videos to identify where things may have gone wrong and make adjustments. But remember, only make ONE adjustment at a time. If you increase the oven temp as well as change baking powder brand and there is a difference to the result compared to the first attempt, you wouldn’t know what caused this difference.

I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from altering recipes here. In fact, I encourage you all to experiment with recipes! But, you need to understand the fundamentals, how the recipe works, and what kind of result to expect before making any changes.

3. Using a Cake Board That’s Too Thin

Cake boards often get overlooked in the teaching process. When you see someone teach cake decorating, you normally just see them stick a cake layer down onto a board, fill the cake, cover the cake, and so on. No one mentions anything about the cake board itself.

Cake boards play a crucial role in assisting the making and transporting of a cake. A cake board not only has to be big enough to allow the entire cake scraper to rest on it, but also sturdy enough to support the weight of the cake without bending. A board that is too thin will bend from the weight of the cake when you pick it up, which will cause cracks to appear around the bottom edges of the cake.

Back in the day, the common gold or silver foiled cardboard cake boards may have been sufficient in holding up cakes as the majority of those cakes were small – commonly 3 inches tall with two layers. Now, most modern cakes range from four to eight layers and are a lot more heavy. The regular cardboard cake boards just won’t be able to hold up. Use MDF cake boards instead.

Tip: A 5mm+ drum cake board is ideal for tall, heavy tiered cakes. However, cake drums are not the easiest to source at times. When you don’t have access to cake drums, stick two 3mm MDF cake boards (which are easier to source) together.

You can find the right cakeboards for you from the wide range of cake boards available at Caker’s Warehouse, our cake supplies partner.

Subscribe now

4. Trying To Save A Dollar

Saving money is in my blood. Full disclosure, I’m Vietnamese and one of our standout traits – at least this was true for my family and our friends – is that we don’t waste anything. Turn off the lights when you leave a room, don’t leave the tap running, finish what’s on your plate… we don’t spend frivolously and that’s something that’s been ingrained in me all my life. So, if there’s a cheaper option, I’d naturally prefer it.

Being careful with money is a great quality to have when you’re running a business. However, sometimes, you need to step back and think: is saving a dollar here worth it? Going back to the cake boards, the cardboard cake boards are probably less than a dollar each whereas an MDF cake board could be $3 per board (or more depending on the size). That’s a 300% increase in price. However, when you look at it from the perspective of risk, by using the cheaper board, you’re risking your cake cracking or even toppling over completely. Days of your hard work are resting on that thin piece of cardboard. Would you rather spend the extra $2 or risk a disaster that’s a lot more costly?

The same applies to ingredients.

At DTC, our mantra is ‘don’t cheap out on ingredients, cheap out on your time’.

The difference in cost per kg between supermarket cocoa powder and premium cocoa powder may be $20, but that’s $2 per 100g. This means a difference of perhaps two to three dollars per cake. But the difference in taste? Paramount. Low quality cocoa powder (usually with a lower fat percentage) can make a cake taste dry. Premium cocoa powder on the other hand, gives a chocolate cake its decadent taste and moist texture. A few dollars here could be the difference between whether someone remembers your product positively or not.

I know the prices of cocoa in general have skyrocketed, but this principle still applies. Always go for quality ingredients. Period.

5. Don’t Believe Everything You See on Social Media

Social media is definitely a driving factor when it comes to our desire to make cakes. We see all of these beautiful cakes online and either go, “Wow, I want to make that too!” or sometimes even, “Wow, I can make that cake better!”. Either way, social media drives a lot of our inspiration and motivation to bake.

However, you have to remember that often, what you see on social media isn’t the full truth. For example, you might see an Instagram reel of someone mixing buttercream and notice that their buttercream is pure white. This might make you second guess yourself because your buttercream has never turned out that white! Well, chances are it looks that way because of a filter or colour grading in post production. In plain English, that pure white buttercream is really not THAT white in real life.

When I edit my cake photos, most often I have to up the brightness. I don’t do this to deceit anyone, but in most instances the picture looks crap if it’s all dull and dark. So, in order to make the picture look good enough to stop someone in their scrolling tracks, some minor editing is required such as changing the brightness.

The point I’m trying to make here is that social media is a highlight reel, it’s not ALL there is to anything. Use it to find inspiration if that’s your jam, but don’t let it skew your perspective and expectations of yourself. Instead, shift your focus into building the correct foundational knowledge and skills. This is the only way to build your confidence, when you KNOW how things work and how they’re supposed to turn out.

Making mistakes is inevitable anytime you try something new. Some mistakes are worth making for sure, the kinds of mistakes that teach you life altering lessons. However, when it comes to cake making, there are plenty of time-wasting mistakes that could be avoided such as the five I’ve listed above. If you’re interested in learning more about other mistakes to avoid, check out our Buttercream Cake Mastery course. This A-Z buttercream cake making course will teach you how to take control of your processes & master the foundational skills to create stunning, contemporary buttercream cakes that will wow not only your clients, friends and family but also YOURSELF!

Let’s Talk 💬

What’s one “rookie mistake” you made when starting out, and what did you learn from it? Share your story in the comments so others can learn from you too 👇.

1.

Stop believing that there’s a perfect buttercream recipe that solves ALL of your problems.

The reason why there are so many different recipes for buttercream to begin with, American, Swiss, Italian, French is because at some point, someone had a specific need for some specific reason and developed a buttercream recipe to suit that need.

So, instead of wasting time and ingredients making every single recipe that someone claims is perfect, first think about what specific needs you have. For example:

My specific need for making tall, modern cakes is a buttercream that’s silky smooth, stable enough for structure, and tastes amazing without being too sweet. I developed DTC buttercream around these specifics.

However, if you’re making cupcakes for kids, texture might not matter as much, but you may want a recipe that’s quick, adaptable to sugar-free versions, and easy to pipe.

When it comes to the perfect buttercream recipe, if one actually exists, it needs to be perfect FOR YOUR NEEDS. Whether someone else claims it to be perfect is irrelevant.

Subscribe now

2.

Stop using buttercream straight after you’ve made it.

The consistency of butter and therefore buttercream changes depending on its temperature.

Buttercream at 18°C is perfect for piping.

Buttercream at 24°C is perfect for achieving smooth sides when covering (trust me, it’s not too soft).

Just because you’ve made buttercream doesn’t mean it’s all-purpose. Knowing how your buttercream behaves at certain temperatures will help you manipulate it to your advantage.

So, know your purpose. If you need buttercream to fill a cake, make it 18°C. If you need buttercream for covering, warm it up to 24°C.

Whatever you do, don’t just mindlessly use the buttercream straight after you made it.

3.

Stop ignoring the room temperature of your work environment.

One very common mistake I’ve seen cake makers make, including myself in the past, is not taking into account the room temperature of your work environment.

For example, you’re trying to get smooth sides on a cake. But, it’s winter where you are and the room temp is freezing so the buttercream you just made is cold and stiff. Cold and stiff buttercream holds more air bubbles and has a lot more resistance to scraping. Using this buttercream to cover your cake means that you’ll never be able to get a smooth, flawless finish, however, you didn’t know that so you spend an hour smoothing, scraping, smooth, scraping and then throwing in the towel in the end, thinking you suck 😥.

The good news is, you don’t suck.

You’d know by now that the ideal consistency for covering a cake is at 24°C. However, if it’s winter and your work environment is freezing like in my example, even using soft and smooth buttercream at 24C might still be troublesome. Because the room is so cold, the buttercream will also start to get cold while you’re working with it. It might start out smooth but halfway through, it begins to set and you start noticing air bubbles or worse, lumps. No amount of scraping will save it at this point.

So in this example, paying attention to your room temperature means that you need to make sure it is not at either extreme. Not too hot and not too cold. If it’s too cold, you’d need to turn on the heating. If it’s too warm, you need to turn on the air conditioning.

There is no buttercream that can withstand the environment. Remember, if you feel the cold, your cake feels it too. If you feel the heat, so does your cake. Pay attention to the room temperature of your work environment and take the necessary steps to ensure you have a work environment that is not going to give you trouble, BEFORE you start working on any cake.

How to manipulate the temperatures of your buttercream.

My secret weapons: The microwave and the freezer.

Well, it’s not very secret because most of you would have these at home.

👉 The first step which is very important is to ONLY use the amount of buttercream you need. For example, I’m icing 12 regular cupcakes, so I know I’ll need 360g of buttercream. Don’t warm up the whole mixer bowl of buttercream and just use a little bit of it. It’s a waste of time.

👉 The second step is to know what temperature you need to get the buttercream to. For piping on cupcakes, I’m going to get this to 18°C.

So in the microwave you go, in increments of 5-10 seconds.

Then gently mix. And there you have it.

Let’s say it’s the other way around. Oops, the buttercream is way too soft now. It’s at 27°C. Don’t just use it anyway because you think you have magical powers and it will somehow work out. Don’t throw it out.

Just cool it in the freezer. I’d leave it there for 5 mins then gently mix it (low speed on either a hand mixer or stand mixer depending on the amount) until it comes together, and there you have it.

Remember, get to know the consistencies of your buttercream at different temps, and just use the microwave and freezer to manipulate the temps to get to the ideal consistency.

Let’s Talk 💬

Do you have your own go‑to tip for getting a super‑smooth finish? Share it in the comments below 👇.