Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi all,

As I’m a fairly new ‘at home cake decorator,’ I’m wondering if I’m doing ok with the amount of cake orders I’m able to fulfil each week.. So I’m wondering if you all could give me a rough indication of how many orders you are able to achieve each week.. whether it be one or two big cakes or five or six small ones, or 20 cakes? I have no idea how many i should aim to get through each week with some planning in advance..
your responses would be a great way for me to set some goals for myself..
thanks in advance..

HI, I am probably not the best person to answer your question as I am a small scale home cake decorator, but I would think you need to look at how you will be able to operate your home business. Will you be doing it full time or as a side line and working elsewhere. How quickly do you work, how much refrigeration and storage do you have available to keep your cakes fresh etc. Also if you need to make models or flowers these will need to be made in advance to allow drying time. They can also be quite time consuming.
I think the main thing is to not over extend yourself to start with. Better to deliver a consistent quality product than be rushed and not be happy with what you deliver and damage your reputation with your customers.
Good luck with your business.

It’s hard to answer without knowing the types of cakes and decorations you’ll need to know. I’ve been fortunate to take courses with some of the people who have won the tv cake challenges (Food Network, in US) and several have told me that decorators, especially newer ones, tend to underestimate the hours they need per cake by HALF. This might help you if you can think about the styles you’ll likely be doing and how many hours/week you have to devote to cakes. Good luck!