I have a hard limit of one cake order a week – sometimes I’ll let a second sneak in if I find both are smaller cakes. Some of you out there may be wondering, why only one? And there is only one way to truly explain this – and that is a weekly diary of all that I do. This is an overview of a week in my shoes (which includes 2 cake orders and a side order for unicorn decorations).
Monday
Morning: 7am wake up, get son ready and off to school. I go to work for the day.
Lunchtime: Go to shops to get some groceries – some are perishable items needed for this week’s cake orders (thankfully there’s enough room in the work fridges to store 2 bags worth).
Afternoon: Pick up son from school, spend time with him before I cook dinner then clean up. Empty the rubbish bins (it’s bin night).
Evening: Bake 8″ hemisphere cake and 8″ round cake. Both fail miserably and are tossed. I’m tired and frustrated, so go to bed “early” (9pm).
Tuesday
Morning: 7am wake up, get son ready and off to school. I go to work for the day.
Lunchtime: Figure out my recipes so I can try again tonight.
Afternoon: Pick up son from school, spend time with him before I pull in wheely bins, cook dinner then clean up.
Evening: Re-bake 8″ hemisphere cake and 8″ round cake – both work this time (woohoo!) While they are baking, I clean up the kitchen, and then make a fondant unicorn horn, eyes and ears (for a side customer order), and I blow up water balloons. While the cakes cool, I make 20 gelatin bubbles in 2 different colours. By the time I have those completed and kitchen cleaned up, cakes wrapped and fridged, and get the dishwasher doing its thing, it is 2am. Time for bed.
Wednesday
Morning: 7am wake up, get son ready and off to school while I go to work. Today is a coffee day.
Lunchtime: Contact customers to confirm pickup times to organise my schedule for the weekend.
Afternoon: Pick up son from school, get the gelatin bubbles trimmed and boxed, ready for use. Get son ready and take him to swimming class. I’m already feeling tired and know I still need to cook more cakes tonight – so opt to get takeaway for dinner tonight. Bonus: no cleanup. But I do need to empty the dishwasher…
Evening: Bake 2x 7″ round cakes. While cooking, cleanup the kitchen and get all boxes, dowels and boards ready for this weekend’s orders. Allow cakes to cool before wrapping and fridging. “Early” bedtime, 9pm
Thursday
Morning: 7am wake up, realise I should have made my ganache last night so quickly make a pot of ganache while getting son ready and off to school before I go to work.
Lunchtime: Organise a custom topper order for one of next week’s cake orders.
Afternoon: Pick up son from school, spend time with him before warming up leftovers for dinner. Cleanup.
Evening: Make a big batch of buttercream for this weekend’s orders. cleanup the kitchen and paint the unicorn decorations gold. Level and torte the cakes, before filling and assembling them. One of them takes a bit longer than usual as it is a carved cake. Once all is done, clean the kitchen and off to bed. It’s 1am.
Friday
Morning: 7am wake up, get son ready and off to school while I go to work for the day.
Afternoon: Stay back at work later today to make up for losses of flex during the week.
Evening: Box up the unicorn decorations. Commence covering the Cauldron cake with fondant and decorate. It’s 9pm and I think up a way to improve the design a bit by adding isomalt flames and fairy lights so it looks like the fire is real. It is midnight when the cake is completed. I box it up ready for pickup the next day and clean up the kitchen. Dishwasher is full and set to run – I go to bed.
Saturday
Morning: 7am wake up early. Put on Rage while I have breaky. Get to work fondanting my second cake order. Prepare all the stuff needed for airbrushing. I airbrush the cake, and get fondant panels ready to make the buildings.
Afternoon: Cake is airbrushed and buildings are stuck on. I clean up the kitchen and workspace area – only thing left to do is handpainting and a few fondant details. I take my son to his school’s fete – even with bad weather, we stick it out and enjoy it for the full 4 hours. Bonus is we have dinner there – no cooking and cleanup at home required, w00t!
Evening: Come home, I spend more time with him as I get 2 loads of laundry done, reading through his newly acquired books and stick on his fairy tattoo (he’s so excited lol). I take him to bed and end up falling asleep too – oops. I wake up at 4am and complete the cake and have it boxed, ready for pickup at 10am.
Sunday
Morning: 9am wake up, take pictures of the cake before commencing our household tradition of cooked Sunday breaky, pancakes. 10am the cake is collected, and I make a start on picture editing while getting the third load of laundry going.
Afternoon: I fix lunch, and cleanup the kitchen. Time to start baking this weekend’s cakes – 4x 7″ marble mudcakes. I can only prep and cook 2 at a time. So I do the first lot, and while they’re baking, spend time with my son and also ring home to have a quick chat with the folks (I try to fit this in weekly). The cakes are done after 2 hours of baking. I proceed to prep the second lot while suffering through a massive headache. While they’re cooking, I pop a couple Panadol and take a nap on the couch. I’ve set the oven alarm and my phone alarm, but ask my son to wake me up if I don’t hear any of it. What a trooper, he’s content with playing with his Lego while I nap.
Evening: The second batch of cakes are done and pulled out at 6pm. I’m still not feeling well.. so we go and get takeout for dinner tonight as I didn’t feel up to more cooking/cleaning. 9pm early bedtime tonight – I’m knackered.
Monday
Morning: 7am wake up, get son ready and off to school. I go to work for the day and quickly organise a click n collect grocery shop on my mobile while I have a cuppa.
Lunchtime: Start mapping out what needs doing for my orders this week (yeah, I have 2 again this week – glutton for punishment).
Afternoon: Pick up son from school, empty the rubbish bins (bin night), go to pick up the grocery order, put away groceries and vacuum the house while dinner is cooking.
Evening: Clean up after dinner – start the dishwasher and mop the kitchen. Another small load of washing for the mop attachment. Do some math work with my son before it’s bed time for the both of us. I decide I will cook the second order’s cakes and make the fondant elephant topper tomorrow… I’m tired.
Summary
As you can see.. it’s a lot of work. I’m basically constantly on the go, between my day job, being a mum and running my cake biz (I didn’t even include spending time answering enquiries, doing up invoices and organising my social media posts). I will have some down time now and then to put my feet up, 10min here, 20min there. I typically use this time to stream a cake show, or jump on Facebook and help others with cake questions (or seek help myself with my own cake questions lol). I have no doubt there are other cake/cookie artists out there with similar looking weeks, and to you guys I say – keep up the awesome work! ^_^ <3