A whole new year … !
Christmas came and went in a flurry of orders, baking and Christmas fairs. It was my first Christmas as A Piece Of Cake and the long hours of baking and making, the setting up with other stallholders, the delivery of orders and the constant aroma of Christmas baking in my kitchen made the festive season a busy but rewarding one.
The new year has had me glued to my iPad, trying to grasp the paperwork side of cake making at the same time as thinking about what to bake in the year ahead. All sorts of questions: what type of advertising do I go for? Have I booked into as many food fairs as I can? Is my website up to date? Have I got enough stock? Do I buy another oven? I am loving what I do but who would have guessed that there would be so much paperwork!
Back to cakes. Every month in 2017 I will be offering a ‘cake of the month’ in addition to my standard range of bakes. January’s cake was a dark chocolate and espresso bake, and as we move into February and head towards Valentine’s Day, the focus is on a passion fruit and white chocolate sponge. Light and moist, with ripples of white chocolate and passion fruit syrup running through it and topped with white chocolate ganache and fresh passion fruit. Available throughout the whole of February via phone order (call me on 07392 335443!), the cost of this special is £14.95 + £2.99 postage. Watch this space for details of the March cake.
Father Christmas delivered some rather nice cookery books for me to read and to try out some of the interesting new bakes … inspiration for expanding my repertoire. With all this extra baking and needing someone to test it all, I’m not sure that my husband’s waistline is going to remain the same!
I walk our two dogs on Salisbury Plain every day, and this has inspired me to register for Macmillan Cancer Support’s Jurassic Coast Mighty Hike in early July. A walk of 22 miles in one day needs a bit of training so extra walking has already started. My legs are a bit tired but the dogs don’t seem to mind at all! With this in mind, I will donate 10% of every cake sale made online between now and July. I would love to raise lots of money for them so I’m ready to take your orders now!
The coming months are exciting with new projects and ideas and I’m looking forward to reporting back through my blog. Belated Happy New Year to all, and if the dark, damp days are getting you down, how about a piece of cake?!