Five hours...

Today's #marchmeetthemaker (day 3) is about time. A very precious commodity. Since starting my business - and it is a business, I no longer do it just for fun (although it brings me pleasure), I have to micro-manage my days like crazy.

I'm a mum. A wife (well I will be on 14th March 2020 - assuming he turns up!). A full time project manager. A daughter. A granddaughter. An only child. A friend. So trying to weave time for my business in amongst all this takes a lot of planning and compromise.

It takes all of this to make a cake

Sometimes I'm up til 1am finishing models and covering, embossing, painting and trimming boards. And back up at 6am the next morning making fillings to refrigerate before Mini Me arrives for breakfast and we head off to school and work. Back home, I feed her, whip up some cake batter and pop it in the oven. She goes to bed. Out they come to cool, rest and be wrapped up at about 11am to settle for the next day.

5.30am and I'm torting, filling and ganaching so the ganache can set before I cover in fondant 24 hours later. Finally decorations, photography and boxing for delivery. And that's just one cake.

A five hour cake...

I've not included quoting, shopping, washing up, stock control, sweeping up, hunting for a specific tool I use once in a blue moon, washing up, wiping down, washing up, invoicing - and oh did I mention washing up again? Thankfully Him Indoors is a good washer-upper, which helps out so much. But still for a basic cake, like the one opposite, it takes me around five hours in total to do. This excludes elapsed time waiting for the bake (another hour), cooling and settling (min 12 hours), ganache setting (min 12 hours). So around three days from start to finish.

But the satisfaction a bespoke cake brings is totally worth it. Especially when you see the joy on a customer's face - the best moment of all.

Rebecca xo