Hobby to home business: Beauty and the Bakes

Rachael’s cakes are so obviously the products of passion that including her in this series of articles to celebrate people who have turned a hobby into a home business was an easy decision. She takes business ownership seriously yet is adamant that her motivation does not lie in financial reward.

“One hundred per cent, it’s not about the money for me. It’s never been about that. I think for the majority of people, it’s about that extra purpose in life: doing something for yourself but also for other people and maybe making someone else smile,” she says.

“Personally, I enjoy baking, but also the joy a cake can bring to someone’s occasion, whether it be a wedding, a birthday, or a christening. So many people say to me, ‘Oh, the cake was such a highlight of the day,’ and that gives me so much happiness. At the end of the day, that’s why I do it. I love what I do, and as long as I continue to love it, I’ll continue to do it.”

Customers choose from certain sizes and flavours, yet each of Rachael’s culinary creations is bespoke, a personal approach that accommodates wonderful and sometimes weird requests, including one simply to decorate a plain sponge, avoiding jam, buttercream, chocolate and other delectables. The customer was delighted by their cake with no filling.

Patience = perfection

Rachael has worked hard since lockdown provided the final impetus to turn weekend baking sprees, much enjoyed by family and friends, into a business. Baking is a question of procedure, she maintains, and perfecting each of the small steps from preparation to delivery is essential to producing the perfect cake.

The clever designs showcased on her social media pages are only part of the story. Taste is crucial too of course, and Rachael has pursued the perfect consistency with equal rigour. The sponge must be moist and fluffy but firm enough to stack and cut. Crumbly cakes are a no-no.

“Patience is a big one. I’d say that’s where a lot of people go wrong. They don’t realise how long it takes. You need to prep, then bake, then cool, then decorate. With wedding cakes and things like that, you then need to stack the cake. There are lots and lots of steps,” she says.

“For a standard-sized birthday cake, it usually takes me four hours, and that’s literally from baking the cake in the oven, letting it cool, stacking it and decorating it, and then, at the end, you’ve got collection or delivery, so it can take four or five hours.”

Rachael admits to early phases of trial and error, both with technique and ingredients, but has now achieved such consistency that she can be confident almost every creation will reach her exacting standards. She even monitors the consistency of her ingredients, an essential requirement for any food business, she says.

Strong foundations

Rachael took baking classes during her sixth year at high school. She describes herself as “more arty than academic” and achieved an ‘A’ in photography in her Higher studies. Despite the artistic approach evident in her baking, she is adamant that a cake’s foundations are more important than its design.

Hers are four layers tall, and structural integrity is another quality she must consider alongside taste and visual appeal. Top-quality ingredients are a further requirement. Rachael prefers branded products but does not confuse cost with value. She uses a wholesaler rather than supermarkets and buys eggs in bulk for their competitive price.

“I’ve said from day one that the cake needs to taste good as well as look good. I’ve basically nailed my ingredients now. I know every quantity. I know how long to mix it for. I even weigh out the mixture onto my tins so they’re all evenly baked and don’t come out misshapen,” she says.

“It’s really important to have the core ingredients chosen and nailed, otherwise you don’t get that consistency, and people won’t come back. They could have an amazing cake from you one week and come back and it’s a bit dry, or whatever. I don’t want that, so I’ve got the same ingredients for every cake.”

Beauty and the Bakes specialise in birthday and celebration cakes. Occasionally, Rachael makes wedding cakes, too – she’d taken three orders in the week before our conversation – but does not consider herself part of the wedding industry and does not enjoy the extra pressure of catering for somebody’s big day.

Family Affair

Rachael hopes to introduce a readymade offering but concedes this will only be possible when she achieves her goal of opening a shop. She runs her business from a summerhouse located in the garden of the family home in Wishaw, converted with a five-figure investment into a modern, fully-equipped kitchen.

She readily admits that without the continuing support of her parents, Beauty and the Bakes might never have flourished, especially in its earliest days. Lockdown was extremely demanding, but memories of weekends in which the family kitchen resembled a commercial bakery are fading, and Rachael affords herself a rueful chuckle.

“I sometimes tell my mum, I don’t know how we did it. I was absolutely stacked with orders at the weekend. My mum works shifts. She was going out and coming home at crazy hours. It was chaos, but she always says she wouldn’t have done it any other way,” she recalls.

“If they hadn’t offered me that kitchen, I wouldn’t have been able to grow the business as I did, so I’m just really, really grateful to my mum and dad for helping me with the business in that way, and they still help out. It’s not over yet! I want my own house, and then I can get out of their hair completely.”

The strength of Rachael’s determination can be measured against the force of the social and economic headwinds that might otherwise have slowed her business. Beauty and the Bakes was born amidst the global pandemic and has grown during a national cost of living crisis. Her entrepreneurial spirit is surely beyond question.

Ts and Cs

Every business requires terms and conditions, and Rachael’s is no different. Her Ts and Cs cover everything from allergens and dietary requirements to alterations and cancellations. Beauty and the Bakes is registered with HMRC and her local authority. She has public liability insurance and certificates for food hygiene and safety.

She offers extensive aftercare guidance too, including for the safe transport and storage of her exquisite confections. In certain cases, such as wedding cakes, she takes charge of delivery. She has undertaken missions of mercy to those who failed to follow her instructions but admits this makes little business sense.

“I offer a collection service, but if the customer doesn’t drive, or, for example, it’s a tiered cake or wedding cake, then I have to deliver so it arrives safely. These cakes are heavy. They’re not flimsy wee cakes. Anything could go wrong, and I don’t want that,” she says.

“There have been disasters in the past, where people have phoned and said, ‘I’ve not followed your aftercare. The cake’s a mess.’ I’ve fixed it out of goodwill, but it doesn’t really make sense for me. That’s why I attach an extensive cake care leaflet to everything I send out.”

She even supplies instructions to help customers slice their cake evenly and enjoy the maximum number of portions. From necessary utensils to the preferred technique (“Slice down the side of the cake. Let the cake fall onto the board, and then cut the cake slice vertically”), she considers every detail.

Fear factor

Rachael admits that business ownership represented unknown territory when she embarked on her journey to self-employment. She describes herself as “shellshocked” by the number of hours she spends on Beauty and the Bakes and jokes that doing what you love means working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Time spent in the kitchen represents only one part of her working day. Sourcing supplies, updating social media accounts and responding to enquiries all require the same attention she lavishes on her cakes. Being a business owner is all-consuming, she says: a matter of accepting responsibilities, as well as rewards.

Rachael’s advice to others considering a similar step? Go for it. Confidence is key to confronting the significant challenge of launching your own company, especially when it involves sacrificing full-time employment, but the rewards for those who turn their hobby into a business are worth the risk, in her experience.

“It can be scary and daunting, but I decided to feel the fear and do it anyway. Trust me, I’ve been there, and I’ve felt it. What will you gain if you don’t do it? You’ve got nothing to lose. You may as well just go for it,” she says.

“All the other stuff that comes with it, the legal stuff, the supplies, all falls into place. Yes, it takes time and effort and research, but it will come. Don’t try and do everything at once. It will fall into place, and one day, you’ll find yourself taking the leap.”