Recipes for baking cakes at home for sale. How to bake cakes to order

♦ Capital investments – 40,000 rubles
♦ Payback – 4 months

Today, any store has a large selection of confectionery products.

But, firstly, the quality of the products used by serial manufacturers leaves much to be desired, and, secondly, many people want to purchase an exclusive cake that would correspond to such an important event as a birthday, anniversary, wedding, etc.

There are women (and sometimes men) who manage to bake real sweet masterpieces, but for some reason they don’t think about the fact that they can be sold.

Cake business– a profitable idea that requires minimal start-up investment and pays off fairly quickly.

What is the idea behind a cake business?

Imagine that your husband is a photographer, and he is celebrating 20 years of professional activity. On this occasion, he decided to treat visitors to his personal exhibition with a cake.

Banal pastries will look uninteresting, but cakes in the shape of a camera or other special equipment are an original idea.

You won't be able to buy this dessert in a store.

But there are people who bake cakes at home and by placing an order, you can please your husband.

It is believed that the idea of ​​making original cakes came to us from the USA.

It was the spoiled Americans who were the first to decide that standard baked goods were not very interesting and began ordering confectionery products of unusual shapes.

And since consumers were in demand, there were those who decided to turn their passion for confectionery into a profitable business.

Pros and cons of the cake business

Interesting fact:
Sponge cake is a traditional cake layer used for baking cakes and was originally called “sea breadcrumbs.” The first mentions of it were found in the log books of English sailors. The biscuit gained its popularity due to its long shelf life - it did not spoil or become moldy, even despite the humidity during sea voyages.

Baking at home can turn from an opportunity to have additional income into your main income and become a profitable business.

The main advantages of this startup are:

• Minimum capital investment.
  In fact, you only need to spend money on kitchen equipment and utilities.
  Products for baking cakes will be included in the price of each order.
• The opportunity to work right at home, which is suitable for mothers with small children, people with disabilities and other categories who cannot be in the office full time.
• There are many free niches, because this business has not yet become too popular, and confectionery shops and factories are not your competitors, because they produce standard products.
• You don’t have to bother with the registration procedure at first and bake at home illegally.
  You need to start setting up your business only after you have formed a client base.
• A cake business is an opportunity to show your creativity.

This type of business has practically no disadvantages.

Perhaps the earnings at the initial stage may seem modest to some.

You also need to remember that you are feeding people, which means you must comply with sanitary standards and safety precautions.

Advertising and calendar plan for cake business

If your first client likes your baked goods, he will not only contact you again, but will also recommend it to all his friends and acquaintances.

• newspaper advertisements;
• social media;
• business cards;
• specialized sites.

You can also make several free cakes, for example, for the anniversary of a large organization.

If his employees like your baked goods, they will become regular customers and help promote the business.

A calendar plan for launching this startup is not really needed, since you can purchase all the necessary tools and products for the first order in 1 day, after which you can begin to complete it.

Competitive advantages of a cake business

If there are several confectioners working in your locality, then it is worth creating competitive advantages in order to stand out from them:

1. Reasonable pricing policy.
2. Original decoration for baked goods.
3. Discounts for regular customers.
4. Various promotions. For example, cookies as a gift when ordering a cake over 5 kilograms.
5. Production of themed products for holidays, etc.

Cake business: step-by-step startup launch

One of the main advantages of a cake business that you do from your home is that you are not dependent on anyone.

Only you yourself can slow down the launch of a startup, and not external unfavorable circumstances.

Many people ask: “Where to start?”

And you need to start this type of entrepreneurial activity by baking the first cakes, selling them and receiving feedback from customers about your products.

And only when you are sure that your customers are happy with your baked goods and that they are ready to contact you again, you can start baking custom cakes on a large scale and start purchasing special equipment.

Registration

You should switch to the status of an official entrepreneur after you have formed a wide client base and you are thinking about opening your own confectionery or bakery.

Even if you don’t really want to work illegally, don’t rush to register. The sanitation station is unlikely to give you permission to work at home and this will destroy your business in the bud.

For now, make baked goods to order at home without thinking about your official status.

Room

This business involves working right from your home kitchen, which means you won’t spend money on office rent every month, which increases the profitability of your business.

If your living conditions do not allow you to make custom cakes in your kitchen, then there are two options:

• rent an apartment for cooking;
• do something else.

If you have formed a fairly wide customer base and you at least bake a cake every day, then create the most comfortable conditions in your kitchen.

Arrange your ingredients, tools, and baking utensils so that you can work comfortably.

Equipment

You shouldn’t buy professional equipment immediately after you have the idea of ​​making money on cakes.

You need to purchase tools for professional confectioners after the business is firmly on its feet and begins to bring you good money.

Those who bake cakes to order need to have the following equipment, tools and utensils:

Expense item	Amount (in rub.)
Total:	38,000 rub.
A food processor that can be used to knead dough and whip cream	10 000
Round and square molds of different diameters for creating multi-tiered cakes, pans	6 000
Pastry syringe with different attachments	1 000
Kitchen scales and measuring cup	1 500
Bowls of different sizes	2 000
Pots	5 000
Dough rolling pin and some wooden boards	1 500
Tools for working with mastic: silicone mat, set of stacks, iron, etc.	3 000
Knives, including a string knife, to cut the cakes evenly	3 000
Whisks, brushes, spatulas, sieve and other small equipment	2 000
Other	3 000

You can buy bags and bags of sugar, as well as wholesale things that do not spoil: coconut flakes, raisins, candied fruits, dyes, etc.

This way you can reduce the cost of the cake.

But you shouldn’t buy perishable products for future use; buy only as much as you need to complete a specific order.

Staff

When you have a wide customer base and there are many orders every day, you should think about expanding your business, for example, hiring assistants or opening a full-fledged confectionery shop.

How to get rich by baking cakes and build a successful business,

watch in the video:

Profitability of a cake business

To prove the high profitability of this business, let's calculate the cost of the Medovik cake with sour cream and butter cream, decorated with mastic, weighing 2 - 2.5 kg.

Expense item	Quantity	Amount (in rub.)
Total:		225 rub.
Eggs	5 pcs.	45
Honey	3 tbsp. spoons	50
Soda	2 teaspoons	4
Sugar	1.5 cups	26
Butter	200 grams	60
Flour	5 glasses	40

Sour cream for impregnation:

Expense item	Qty	Amount (in rub.)
Total:		130 rub.
Sour cream	2 glasses	95
Sugar	2 glasses	35

Butter cream for leveling cakes.

* The calculations use average data for Russia

30,000₽

Starting investments

200 - 300%

Markup on goods

1 month

Payback period

From 10,000 rub.

A home-based cake business is a great business idea for mothers on maternity leave, as well as anyone who loves to cook beautifully and deliciously. In this article, we decided to answer the basic questions of beginning cake makers and give them an incentive to action.

In other words, for those people who really want to learn something, there is no shortage of information. All bakers “from God” were once mere mortals. You can master all the intricacies of baking cakes for free and on your own only if you have the desire and ability to self-organize. It’s best if you conduct your first experiments on your own family, taking your time and honing your skills step by step. Don’t rush to sell right away without really learning anything. So that later you don’t blush in front of people and discourage yourself from moving on. Break a lot of wood, but let no one except the closest people know about it. Oh yes, don't forget to take pictures of successful attempts. They will be useful for your portfolio.

Cost price. How to calculate the price of a cake

To bake cakes to order, you do not have to draw up a business plan according to generally accepted canons and standards. It will be enough to learn how to calculate the cost of cakes and set a markup that will allow you to make the desired profit. In simple terms, the cost of a cake is the cost of all its ingredients + the price of packaging and other consumables. To calculate the cost, you will need to know the quantity of ingredients. The inconvenience is that you will need to convert many ingredients from teaspoons, tablespoons and faceted glasses to grams and kilograms. To make calculations easier, keep conversion tables like this one nearby:

There are a lot of similar tables on the Internet; translation into weight measures can be found for any product. An easier option is to purchase a kitchen scale. The only thing is, if you are weighing something that cannot be weighed without a utensil, do not forget to subtract the weight of the utensil itself from the resulting figure. Please also note that the weight of the finished cake will always differ from the weight of its ingredients, as shrinkage occurs during baking.

What markup should you put on your cakes? Experienced cake makers advise you to safely multiply the cost by 2-3 times (200-300% markup). That is, if the cost of a conventional cake is 1000 rubles, then the price of 2000-3000 rubles is normal. Remember that the cake includes not only the ingredients, but also the light, gas, water spent on its preparation, and most importantly, your time and your labor, which should also be rewarded. The second criterion when setting the price is the price list of competitors. The price should not be higher than that of other cake makers.

Ready ideas for your business

How to calculate profit? Which one do you want? 30 thousand rubles a month? Then you need to sell 15 conditional cakes with a cost of 1000 rubles at a price of 3000 rubles. 50 thousand rubles? Then you need to sell exactly the same 25 cakes. This is elementary mathematics, elementary school. Of course, all cakes will be of different sizes, weights, and costs, but sketching out a rough plan is not difficult. As a rule, cakes weighing over 2 kg are most often ordered from private traders. You can’t earn much by producing cakes and mini-cakes.

Competition. What cake to surprise the sophisticated

“The Brownies.” They “sit at home in their kitchen and try to bake to order.”... “They don’t have a health certificate, they don’t have special equipment.” This is “the absence of any control over the production process”... Some seasoned confectioners, whose interviews can be found on the Internet, can demotivate you with their words. But try to react less to them. Despite the huge competition, anyone can stand out with their confectionery products and make money from it. Even someone who is not very knowledgeable about public catering, does not know SanPiN standards and does not have a chain of confectionery shops behind him. To figure out how to stand out, you need to do two things. The first thing is to see what offers are available in your city. Secondly, see what offers are not yet available in your city. It’s worth paying attention not to the assortment of large confectionery shops (although knowing their cakes and prices won’t hurt either), but to what private traders offer. The best way to search is through social networks. A simple search with the word “cakes” and the name of your city will give a lot of food for thought. For example, the request “Moscow cakes” on the social network “Vkontakte” produces 1838 responses, “Krasnodar cakes” - 414 responses, and even “Pyatigorsk cakes” - 34.

But do not rush to despair of such beating! Surely half of these groups are dead. Their number is well illustrated by the number of failed attempts to start a business. Look at the quality offered by the largest and most active groups: this is what you should strive for. Here you can also look at techniques for doing business on social networks, but more on that later. Please note that no one offers regular Napoleons and sour cream to order anymore. Most often these are all kinds of children's and wedding cakes: romantic and funny, bright and stylish. A huge number of stories. Someone makes chocolate portraits, someone sculpts confectionery trees, someone produces edible Disney cartoons...

No matter how sad it is for you, all the cake ideas have already been invented. On the one hand, this is good - there are many examples for inspiration. A good selection with 300 ideas for decorating cakes from the portal “1000 ideas”. On the other hand, you won’t be able to invent anything radically new. If you don't believe me, try this experiment. Go to any Internet search engine in the pictures section. Type the phrase “cake in the form of...” and then substitute any words that come to your mind: “piano”, “iron”, “elephant” and so on. Whatever request you make, someone has already come up with all the cakes. Moreover, the peculiarities of the cake business are such that the main creative inventor is sometimes the client himself, sending you a photo of some cake in the form of a cap or a pink laptop with a request to bake exactly the same and no other. Here we are gradually approaching the fact that the idea itself does not in any way guarantee you 100% success without a lack of skill, a willingness to take on any order and, of course, without the right approach to promotion.

Promotion. How to advertise yourself for free

After you get your hands on making cakes for your family, start switching to acquaintances and friends. Surely by this time your portfolio will have recipes and photographs that you are not ashamed to show. Be sure to create a group or page on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Instagram and try to fill them out regularly, keep active, invite friends. You can publish not only your own photo reports, but also photos of cakes from other masters and inspiring ideas. Try to keep your communities not too banal - people like a lively approach, live emotions, and observation of the process. Remember that the main thing is your customers, so set telephone notifications for incoming messages, try to respond to orders as quickly as possible. Over time, you will realize that social media can be your launching pad for much more. Many cake makers, through social networks, are starting to gather an audience for their own master classes, holding promotions with free tastings, posting educational videos, and holding competitions with reposts. Remember that in the name of your accounts you must use the word “cakes”, “custom cakes” and so on so that you are sure to be found during searches.

Pay increased attention to your Instagram page. Up to 80% of your customers will likely come from there. Food photography is one of the most common types of blogging on this social network. Learn the basic principles of food photography. Consider examples of the best Instagram accounts about confectionery art. As a rule, food photos with a natural light source are successful. In the light of lamps, any food looks plastic and unattractive. The composition of the frame, angle, and background are also very important. Here's a good article on how to properly sell food on Instagram, from which you can pick up some useful ideas. Also, take a good look at tips for designing Instagram profiles - a lot of articles have been written on this topic.

Many people decide that the most important thing when starting a home-based cake business is to create your own website. And it is desirable that the site design looks richer and more expensive. But you need to take this step only after carefully considering the consequences. Otherwise, there is a risk of getting what the majority gets - a lot of wasted money, a crooked page that is bypassed by Yandex and Google (and therefore not seen by your clients), periodic blocking and a whole set of technical problems hitherto unfamiliar to you. that distract you from your main activity.

Secondly, in human psychology, a website is more than just a set of pictures. This is your official representation, a kind of administration, from which the demand is increased. As a rule, a website is launched by those stores that have already found their own identity and somehow stand out among competitors, and have well-functioning mechanisms for interaction with the client. Now imagine that instead of the image of a pastry shop with hundreds of exquisite cakes and a designer interior style, the customer will come to your home to pick up an order and see stained old wallpaper and you pulling a cake from the balcony in slippers. It is unlikely that his expectations will be met.

If you already have something to brag about, then it’s a different matter. Then you have to create a website, which must contain a catalog of your products, current prices, an individual order form, and contacts. When you have something to be proud of, you can add elements of status,

publish the faces of satisfied clients, their wonderful reviews of their work, and so on. In the meantime, gain experience, collect photos of your creations, reviews of those who tried them, develop, but it’s better not to start a website.

Pitfalls. You are hard, cake maker's fate

Baking cakes is not without a fly in the ointment. The most common complaint of those who started working to order is physical fatigue. Many women admit that they overestimated their strength. Fulfilling orders while simultaneously raising a child becomes a burden for them. You have to spend the whole day on your feet near the oven and stove, while taking your son or daughter to kindergarten or to classes and clubs. My legs begin to ache, my nerves begin to fray, my patience breaks down.

It also happens that demand has gone out, orders have come in, but not only is there no time to fulfill them, but it turns out that there is somehow not enough knowledge. Orders are rushed through the night, and the person suddenly finds himself spending several hours leveling a cake that he could handle much faster if he just knew how. The cake maker suddenly discovers that there is no time to study, and there is not much time. The cakes come out lopsided, and the client is dissatisfied with the result. Time is generally a headache for everyone who produces cakes. For example, large cakes from 3-6 kg give more revenue, but it is better to accept orders for them in advance, because there is a risk of not meeting the deadline. And the deadline here is strict: after the holiday, no one needs the cake anymore.

Many mistakes are made when communicating with clients. For example, many cake makers forget to discuss the terms of return with the client, when the customer, having already eaten the cake, says that he did not like the cake and wants to return the money. Even if your business is not registered, you should not forget about basic hygiene: cleaning your nails, hands, teeth, and so on. Work with gloves, greet the customer with a cap or tied up hair, maintain cleanliness in the kitchen, apartment and bathrooms where the customer can enter while accepting a finished order from you. Avoid situations where pets roam freely near orders. This may scare the client away.

Another pitfall is scammers. Unfortunately, your activity on social networks will most likely not go unnoticed. One of the ways of divorce is this. A client comes into your group and leaves an order on your wall. While you are not online, the scammer immediately responds on your behalf in private messages to the customer - he names the price of the cake and “negotiates” the price. Details are sent to the client, he pays an advance payment, and the scammer immediately disappears. Then a dissatisfied client writes in all public pages that your community scammed him out of money, and you are a fraudster. Warn potential customers about such cases and clearly indicate who exactly they need to contact to place an order. Also, never forget to put a watermark on your photos to prevent them from being stolen.

Opening an individual entrepreneur. A little about the fears of “cake makers”

One of the controversial questions among beginning cake makers is whether or not it is worth opening your own individual entrepreneur, officially registering the business and paying taxes to the state? From a legal point of view, of course, this is necessary. But in practice, starting a home-based cake business, most home bakers turn a blind eye to formalities. Until a decent customer base has been developed and there is no stable sales volume, no one usually bothers with registration. For such a business in the form of a part-time job, this is unprofitable: you need to pay taxes and pay mandatory insurance contributions for yourself (in 2019 this is a one-time payment per year in the amount of 29,354 rubles). Of course, you can easily succumb to fears when reading legal advice. To the point that, for example, you can be imprisoned for five years, or, for example, fined 500 thousand rubles. But this is not entirely true.

Why? Firstly, serious liability comes for tax evasion on a particularly large scale, and it is quite difficult to prove this. Here you need a law enforcement officer to make a test purchase for a large amount or prove that you have received large amounts of income. And secondly, excuse me for being so direct, no one needs you and your cakes. You can verify this if you open any news aggregator and see exactly who is being fined for illegal business activities under Article 171. As a rule, these are alcohol sellers, spontaneous street hawkers, or sellers of counterfeit anti-freeze from a garage. Sometimes raids are organized on embankments and parks, from where they drive away any unsightly illegal trade, flea markets, or, for example, hookah vendors who sell hookahs from the floor. In a word, trouble awaits those who either sell “opium for the people” or are simply an eyesore for the authorities.

Here .

You should think about a more serious business if you, at a minimum, have bought an additional refrigerator, hired “extra hands” and are experiencing severe cramped space, which clearly does not correspond to the level of your ambitions and income. Then you can open an individual entrepreneur, look for premises for your own retail outlet or mini-workshop, purchase new equipment, and expand the sales market. The ideal option is to combine flow production with custom production. Products can also be sold to coffee shops, cafes and supermarkets. But remember that even a tiny production will require investments of 500 thousand rubles.

This business is more likely not a business, but “self-employment”. When considering it, I would pay attention to 5 main aspects:

1. Quality problems. You need to be very careful with the raw materials! If the recipe says “animal oil”, then it must be good quality oil. After all, “animal oil” is not always “animal”. At dairy plants, other products, mainly of plant origin (coconut and palm oil at best), are added to it to reduce costs. And so in everything! At the same time, you need to understand that a strict approach to the quality of raw materials also has the other side of the coin - an increase in the cost of the finished product. It is almost impossible to balance this. From low-quality raw materials, it is difficult to make a product that will be bought a second time.

2. With home equipment, it is impossible to reach... conditionally “industrial volumes” of production, in other words, to generate decent revenue. This is what industrial equipment is for.

3. Sales is always a delicate and complex matter, and the number of “orders” will be of an “abrupt” nature, and a permanent customer base will be created over the years. Therefore... maybe it makes sense to add something else with meat elements to the sweet? Scientifically, this is called “diversifying the range.”

4. When designing this business, special attention should be paid to the problems of “transportation” of finished products. Sometimes it's costly, sometimes it's not.

5. And lastly, the so-called “illegal entrepreneurship”. In general, it is advisable to do everything to avoid falling under the “radar of the state,” but, alas, this is impossible. It must be borne in mind that such activities are of little interest to the fiscal authorities and are difficult to prove, but... one must always be on the alert. It is necessary to consult with a lawyer in advance on exactly how to answer questions if the situation turns out to be unfavorable. If our state were a little smarter, in its legislative part and not only, such a problem would not have arisen. In the meantime, we have... Everything for friends, for the rest - the law!

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Calculator for calculating the profitability of this business

Any family or corporate celebration without a cake is considered incomplete. This is a tradition, there is no escape from it. But this is also an idea for an excellent business if “your hands grow from where they need to be.” Let's figure it out. Let's start with who this business is for - custom cakes.

Don't think that you need to understand cooking. This is a desirable quality, but not at all mandatory. The fact is that to start any business you need “start-up capital”. One will have talent, another may invest money and organizational skills in the production of cakes. But both need to understand where to start.

How to start baking custom cakes

The first step, as any marketer will tell you, is choosing a team. Let's say you yourself are excellent at baking and decorating your products. This means that your small team will for now consist of one person - yourself. To let the world know about your talents, you need to prepare promotional materials. You will have to work hard for this. You need to prepare a whole catalog of photos of your own products.

The “custom cakes” business will have to start with a “charity event”. Where else will you put the dozens of products that you will need for the first photos? It is recommended to turn this preparation into a kind of advertising. The prepared masterpieces can be presented to potential buyers, whom you can easily find at school, kindergarten, at your husband’s work, and so on. People will see your talent and at the same time have a tasting. You will be guaranteed your first clients.

Advertising

Next you will need to develop. Attracting customers can be expanded by searching for advertisements on the Internet or publishing your own. Be sure to use photos, dividing them into “topics”. That is, make separate texts for children’s cakes, holiday, anniversary and other products. This will expand the audience of interested parties. In addition, you will demonstrate the versatility of your skills.

Feel free to choose epithets to describe your masterpieces. The “custom cakes” business is a very delicate area. Firstly, the product can be sold in a specific, well-defined territory (it is not profitable to transport it to another city). Secondly, you may have competitors. Most likely, you will also find their advertisements online. Therefore, colorful photographs need to be accompanied by colorful descriptions. If you do not have literary talent, then you can order “tasty advertising” from an experienced copywriter.

Organization of the first production

Naturally, at first there will be few orders. The space of your own kitchen is enough to carry them out. Of course, it makes sense to find a convenient room in advance. Just renting one until you understand whether the custom cake business is right for you is not recommended. You will spend money, but there will be little profit.

If you initially appointed yourself to the role of manager, then the first orders can be made in the kitchen of your “chef”. You will have to do the delivery yourself for now. Although this issue is resolved individually with each client. Someone can come pick up the order themselves. Don't be shy and ask what's more convenient.

Procurement of products

Baking cakes is a rather expensive and material-intensive process. In order to master a wide “menu”, you need a lot of different products and decorations.

Do not forget that some products will have to be sent to the buyer in their own container. You will need to purchase many different products and materials.

Naturally, you will have to think about special equipment. Nobody whips creams or biscuits by hand anymore. For this purpose, specialized devices have been invented.

You need to make sure that your equipment is reliable, powerful, and does not fail at the most crucial moment. Products can be stored on your home premises for now. Moreover, for the most part, fresh ones are used in confectionery production. Therefore, they will have to be replenished daily.

Business plan for cake production

When you have roughly imagined how and what you will do, proceed to boring calculations. This must be done before the first sale. The point is that you need to know exactly how much a certain product costs. For this purpose, a calculation is prepared. Enterprises strictly calculate how much one kilogram of a particular product costs.

Don’t forget that you need to include other costs in addition to products. These include electricity, water, and most importantly, labor, that is, wages. You may not receive it at first, but it must be included in the price of the product. In addition, you need to calculate the cost of boxes, stickers and other decorations. You can order them at the nearest topography.

Naturally, the total figure will greatly depend on the region. But we can assume on average that you will need about one hundred and eighty thousand rubles for products, six thousand for advertising and decoration. It should be taken into account that the calculations include a profit of at least twenty-five percent. Otherwise, the “company” will burn out.

How to win the competition

In order to overtake your business colleagues from the start, it is recommended to immediately think through the “highlights” of your products. To do this, you should wander around the confectionery shops and study the assortment. The client can be attracted by originality and specificity. So, every time before official holidays, offer people new ideas for cakes.

For men, it’s worth coming up with something grandiose. Please note that the stronger sex loves scope and volume. This woman will be tempted by miniature cakes with small details (she protects her figure). An ordinary man will look at a three-tiered masterpiece,
decorated with large appliqués. This is, so to speak, a “classic of the genre.”

It makes sense to work on children's themes. You understand that parents buy sweets with great pleasure for their offspring. Therefore, it is advisable to come up with cartoon, fairy-tale and other decor for your products.

What should a business be like for housewives? How can you earn money at home when going to work is not possible for one reason or another? An excellent idea for monetizing your hobby was baking cakes at home.

I will conduct today's blog in the format of an interview. My sister Valentina will tell us about her hobby, which over time grew into a business of custom cakes. The business, which began as a hobby, is already generating income no less than what she received as an employee.

Valentina is not just a pastry chef, she is an artist who puts her soul into her works. It was the uniqueness of the cakes and their incomparable taste that allowed the home business to fully develop and generate income. Welcome to Valentina Markova's original cake studio!

Valentina, how did you come up with the business idea of ​​custom cakes and how long have you been doing this?

To be honest, I am not a real pastry chef. I am a designer by education, with a second education as an engineer. Art education played a role in choosing your favorite hobby, because the only thing that limits the art of confectionery is your imagination.

Where did you learn to bake such beautiful and delicious cakes?

I worked in an office, in my free time from work and family, and studied confectionery art, fortunately, in our age there is a lot of information on the Internet on all confectionery issues. I watched videos, read articles. I converted the information I received into my style. I didn’t want to do what others did and was looking for alternative solutions. Probably, thanks to my numerous experiments, I began to create something of my own, something unusual. Fortunately, my family has a husband and a son, because someone needs to try the flow of my endless fantasies (Laughs).

The cake will be a table decoration for any occasion. Sometimes you want to surprise your guests with unusual baked goods, not bought in a store. In this article we will tell you how to learn how to bake cakes at home. Let's consider all the subtleties of preparation. But first we’ll tell you where a beginner can start.

Sometimes a person has different desires. For example, one fine day the thought may come to mind: I want to learn how to bake cakes. Before you start learning the basics, you need to be aware that the process is long and requires skill, patience and imagination. And you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment. But this is when you will already get classic cakes with a solid A+.

Room

How to learn to bake cakes? What do you need for baking? Of course, every master will need a room to work. The kitchen should be spacious (preferably), fully equipped with high-quality appliances. When there are problems with the oven, it will take much more time to learn how to bake good cakes. After all, it is important that the base is baked and not burnt. You can also use a slow cooker.

Tools

You will also need tools:

• Be sure to have a mixer with different attachments; a whisk won’t hurt either. At first, he will be a lifesaver. If you don’t have a mixer and need to buy one, then it’s better to take a stationary one. Beating egg whites sometimes takes time. And while the mixer is doing this, at this time you can prepare other ingredients.
• Bowls of different sizes made of plastic, stainless steel and enameled.
• Different sizes of spoons, forks and spatulas.
• cakes. It is advisable to purchase detachable metal and silicone ones in different sizes. The shape can be varied; it is not necessary to buy only round ones.
• Be sure to have a kitchen scale that is accurate in grams. Sometimes just 1 extra gram can ruin a masterpiece.
• Measuring cups and spoons will come in handy.
• Pastry bag with nozzles. It is much more convenient and easier to use than a syringe.
• Stencils for applying patterns.
• Brushes for smudging and painting on a cream base.
• Equipment for rolling out dough. For example, a rolling pin.
• Food film.
• Apron and headscarf/cap.

Ingredients

It is important to check the recipe more than once to ensure that all the necessary products are available. Before you start cooking, be sure to have everything at hand or within close reach. There is a basic list of products that is used for almost every baked product. It is advisable to have them in the house all the time. In the process of work, each cook develops his own list of necessary products.

Books are needed!

To learn how to bake cakes professionally, you need to buy more than one cookbook about baking cakes and short layers for them. After all, the recipe for one pastry varies from book to book. You can take into account all the nuances, choose the most useful chips, then the cake will turn out incredibly tasty.

Think about the design of future products

You need to work on decorating the cake in advance.

• It is recommended for a beginner to start with mastic. This is a fairly elastic mass, reminiscent of unleavened dough for chebureks, and tastes sweet. You can simply cover the entire cake with it. And put an inscription or a kind of design on it. You can cut out decorative elements from it.
• You can buy a spray (confectionery) and cover the cakes with it, either separately or on top of the mastic.
• Or buy ready-made figures to decorate the cake. They are all edible. They can be in the form of flowers or with inscriptions.
• There is also simply colored sprinkles that will decorate any baked goods, not just a cake.

Sometimes it is recommended to start making cakes from store-bought cake layers in order to thoroughly master the process of assembling and soaking the base with creams. Moreover, the purchased cake is always smooth and perfectly round. Initially, the simplest cake designs are selected.

How to learn to bake cakes from scratch

Before you start practicing, it is recommended to watch several videos on making simple cakes. Then start learning how to make cakes. A perfectly smooth and well-baked and fluffy (sometimes not fluffy) cake layer is the basis of a beautiful cake.

Description of making a cake from scratch:

1. Buy special confectionery flour. It contains less gluten, so the dough is not as fluffy as in buns. It is sold in any grocery store. If it happens that it is not on the shelves, then you can cook it yourself.
2. To do this, take 1 empty glass with a volume of 250 ml. You need to pour 60 g of corn starch into it and fill the glass to the top with wheat flour (highest grade). Pour the mixture from the glass into a bowl of the required size and mix thoroughly. After this, the resulting flour must be sifted. To make the dough more fluffy, it is recommended to sift it 2-3 times.
3. Before you start kneading the dough, you need to prepare all the necessary ingredients. You need to start by mixing all the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly so that you can use it immediately later.
4. Recipes often call for the use of milk and even specify its fat content. It is not recommended to deviate from the recipe at first. But you need to know that whole milk can be replaced with its analogues.
5. Be sure to keep track of what kind of oil is required in the recipe: butter or vegetable. If it is creamy, then it must first be melted in a water bath. Sometimes it also needs to be whipped. If the oil is mixed up, the taste of the cake will not be the same, and this will also affect the appearance.
6. Use the mixer only to beat egg whites. In other cases, use a whisk or spatula.

Step-by-step preparation of sponge cake

The ingredients are for one large cake or two medium ones. You will need:

• 4 chicken eggs (elite);
• 450 g pastry flour;
• up to 7 g salt;
• 17 g baking powder;
• 350 g granulated sugar;
• 250 ml milk (whole milk or its analogues);
• 25 g vanilla sugar;
• 180 g butter (pre-melt).

You should start preparing the dough by mixing: flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Be sure to mix everything very thoroughly.

Add milk, melted and cooled butter, eggs and vanillin to the dry mixture. Stir until the mixture becomes homogeneous. It is better to use a spatula to mix the dough.

While the dough is preparing, you need to preheat the oven. The temperature should be 180 degrees. It is better to cover the mold with baking paper, do not grease it with oil. If one cake is baked, then the baking time is 45 minutes. And if there are two cake layers, then bake for 30 minutes. Until the baking time is up, it is better not to open the oven. Otherwise the cake will lose its fluffiness. When it's ready, it will have a brown crust on top.

The cakes should remain in the pan for about 15 minutes after they are removed from the oven. This will make it easier for them to come away from the paper. And they don’t deform too much when transferred to a plate. The advantage of the prepared cake is that you do not need to beat the egg whites separately; the dough is prepared without any difficulties. Plus, the finished product can be consumed immediately. Or you can lubricate it with: boiled condensed milk with butter (200 g of butter per can of condensed milk); You can soak it in regular yogurt and so on.

An additional advantage of the cake is that it can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 days; before serving, it must be warmed to room temperature, this will take up to 4 hours.

It’s better to start mastering the culinary art of making cakes with recipes like these. You can also experiment with decorations on them. Then you can complicate the recipe for the cakes and diversify them with creams.

Honey cake is also considered one of the simplest. Although there are nuances in preparing the dough. You can try making cakes based on dry biscuits.

Now let’s figure out how to learn how to bake cakes according to the advice of experienced chefs. You should always follow the recipe exactly, taking the exact quantities of all ingredients. They are calculated by trial and error. Be sure to use scales. The components must be placed in strict sequence. Any, even minor, deviation from the recipe can result in failure. Experiment and add other components only when experience has already arrived. There it will be possible to determine by eye the required number of components.

Be sure to observe the temperature regime. If you set it a little less (for fear that the cakes will burn), then there is a high chance that they will not bake and will settle when they are taken out of the oven. If you rush and increase the temperature, the cake will most likely burn, but the dough inside will remain raw.

For cooking, use only clean and dry dishes and tools. Even a small drop of water can ruin everything. This is one of the important rules on how to learn how to bake cakes.

When mixing ingredients with a mixer, sometimes you should turn it off and mix with a spoon. It is good to scrape the contents from the walls. There may be lumps left there.

If the cakes were baked in advance, they should only be stored in the freezer. In the refrigerator they lose moisture and become stale. To make a cake from a frozen crust, take it out in advance so that it comes to room temperature.

You can decorate only completely cooled cakes. Otherwise, the butter decoration may melt or heavily saturate the cake. And this can cause it to become dry and begin to crumble. Don't overdo it with sugar. Of course, it will sweeten the product, but because of it the cake may burn, and the dough will not have the desired consistency.

If the recipe does not specify what the product used in the recipe should be (warm or cold), then all ingredients should be taken out of the refrigerator in advance so that they come to room temperature. This is especially true for eggs. Otherwise they will not beat well.

The dough should fill the pan only halfway, since during baking it rises almost 2 times. And as a result, the edges will be uneven, plus the escaped dough will fill the entire apartment with a burnt aroma.

If the cake is made from several cake layers, you should not simplify your work and bake one and then cut it. It's better to bake several. Then the chance that they will bake will be 100%. Give the cakes time to cool in the mold, and only then remove them from it. This way they will keep their shape better. The cream is applied in two stages. At the beginning to soak the cakes. Then for decoration. You need to wait at least 15 minutes between them.

The taste and shape of the product are important!

Those who are interested in learning how to bake cakes to order should definitely monitor the taste of the product. Its beautiful shape is a secondary thing to strive for. Even the most beautiful cake, if tasteless and dry, will not be in demand.

At first, you need to experiment only with one recipe until it tastes and looks the way it should, without any flaws.

Where can you learn to bake beautiful cakes?

When you manage to cook cakes without mistakes, you want to know where you can learn how to bake products. There are several options here:

1. Attend one-day courses. They often talk about all the new things in cooking, without knowledge of which you can begin to lose even regular customers. These courses are important for those who want to learn how to bake custom-made cakes at home.
2. You can just watch online video lessons on the Internet, but there is a minus. Mostly simple recipes are considered and the most important features are not revealed, without which masterpieces will not be created.
3. A good option to learn how to bake custom-made cakes at home would be to attend paid courses. The so-called from A to Z. All the intricacies of cooking will be explained there. There will be feedback from the pastry chef and you can figure out why the dough has settled after baking, or why the cake crumbles so much, and so on.

Conclusion

Nowadays, homemade cakes are gaining great popularity. Learning to bake cakes at home is not difficult. The main thing in this matter is patience and the desire to achieve results. Then what you love will also bring financial stability. Here you need not only to know how to learn how to bake cakes, but also to be able to look for clients, and even advertise for yourself.