I'm running into some problems now that I'm legal

1. The kitchen is for a restaurant/candy kitchen/catering company. They are only open (for the restaurant) from noon to 2 PM. They also do most of the prep for the catering in the AM. So, I normally come in after they close and work my little tail off. However, I am finding it hard to work around their timetable without being at the kitchen til 3 and 4 AM.

So, I am trying to alter how I bake and decorate so that I am more efficient. Any tips on how you plan and carry out your cakes for each week?

2. Daycare. My husband has a (crappy) schedule. During the summer he works form 8 AM to 2 or 3 AM - 5 days a week. His days off are Tuesday & Wednesday and are my only days of guaranteed daycare. I need to get as much of my work done as possible on those 2 days. We need this to become an income producing business, or at least cover my cake habit til it does.

How do you that have kids do both?

3. Pricing -

I use CakeBoss & love it but I'm struggling to price my recipes as they all have such different measurements. I know hate all the recips I have that are built on cups and teaspoons! I WANT WEIGHT PEOPLE! I way under priced myself this past week and ended up losing money - which I just can't do as this is meant to be a business not a charity.

Is it a bad thing for me to SEVERELY limit what I offer until I feel better about the prices I have? Any tips on how to better price my recipes? How about maintaining an inventory?

Rachel

what kind of mixer/oven are you using up there?

it shouldn't take that many hours.

i can usually get my weeks baking done in about 6-8 hours, and that's with answering the phone and waiting on customers too.

i clean and answer the phone, do a few orders on wednesday, bake a few hours...

thursday i bake and answer the phone...do a few orders..(i put the baked cakes in the freezer to draw from later)

friday the orders are heavy so i do those, answer the phone and ice the saturday orders and put them in the cooler.

saturday i decorate and give the people thier cakes all day.

sunday i sleep on the couch all day and drool and groan....ha ha

you'll find out what works for you....i had litle kids in the 80's and had an art biz back then, it can be challenging.

ps. i limit what i offer because of time constrants, only so many hours in the day.

Are you permitted storage space in their freezer? If so, I would bake all of the cakes on one day, wrap and freeze. Then set up an assembly line for icing/decorating them, like ice all cakes, then add all borders, then attach the flowers you made while the cakes were baking, etc.

Sometimes efficiency is the little things. How you set things up. If you are assembly line icing or stopping and starting different processes every few minutes. Do you get all of your ingredients and materials out ahead of time? Do you pre-measure some things (kinda like on the tv shows where everything is in a pretty little cup) and have it ready to pour into the mixing bowl? Do you buy/store your ingredients in those pesky little containers you buy at the grocery, or have you transferred them to wide-mouth containers that make it easy to dip your measuring spoon/cup into to get what you need? (I washed a number of the BIG coffee containers and have my baking soda, baking powder, choc chips, etc in those. the measuring spoon/cup fits right down in them. I have rubbermaid tubs holding my sugar and flour and I keep a measuring cup in each container .... reduces the time needed to "hunt" the measuring tool!)

Along the years, I came to the conclusion that everyone would LUV cooking if they had access to the equipment and supplies that I, as a caterer/baker, have. What is a pain is getting out all of those teeny bottles of flavorings, b. soda/powder, etc. When everything is easy access, cooking/baking is fun!

I live in Indpls so there is lots of news coverage (especially this time of year) about racing and the track and the pit crews. Look at how much time they spend thinking about how they set up the pits so they can get that car in and out in seconds! The difference between having the tool on the left or the right of the pit mechanic may only save 2 or 3 seconds but it can mean the difference between winning or losing the race.

Quick and easy access.

Right now, I'm still struggling getting organized in the space. I haven't been given the storage space I've been promised and so things are a tad scattered.

I have 3 types of ovens available to me. A convection, which I'm struggling to use - the cracks and the drying out of the outside of the cake has caused me issues. There is a regular gas oven. There are 3 pizza ovens, which I have never used. I read that all I have to do is get the cakes off the bottom of the oven and I can use them, but I haven't tried. I'm short, and I'm not sure how I'd go about getting them in and out without having to stand on a stool. LOL

I have 4 mixers available to me - a 4.5, 6 (mine) a 10 but it only has a whisk attachment, no paddle beater - and a 20 which only has a paddle, no whisk or dough hook.

Most of my ingredients are in big wide mouthed containers. The flour, sugar, brown sugar, caster sugar, cake flour, etc are all in clearly labeled rubbermaid containers. My baking soda/powder & cornstarch are still in their original containers.

I do need to do more mis en place (prep) and get out all my ingredients. The thing that was taking me the longest was running around the huge kitchen trying to figure it all out. The other thing that took me so long was working around the two women that work in the candy kitchen with me.

So, if I can find someone to do daycare Thursday and Friday and possibly Saturday, I'll be good there and than it's a matter of just getting more organized and preping ahead.

I think I need to make a batch of my buttercream and measure out exactly how many cups it makes just so I am not questioning that. One thing I'm still struggling with is how much of a recipe I need to fulfill my order.

Rachel

You mentioned that you are having trouble figuring out how much of the recipe you need for your order. Mmy suggestion is to print the list from Wilton. This chart gives the batter and icing amounts:
http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/party_2inch.cfm

My other suggestion is to do some of your prep work at home if you can. By that, I mean, figuring out how much batter and icing you need per project, covering cake boards, and other stuff like that.

I'm with indydebi, if you have access to a freezer, bake and freeze ahead. Maybe you could do something like this: one day, bake and freeze cakes, make icing while cake is baking. Another day, decorate.

As for the pricing issue, I'm sure there is a converter online.


Good luck! We are all pulling for you!

you're gonna be alright, you got everything ya need....you're just learning how to work with it.

i make icing, 30 pounds at a time, i usally have to make it 2-4 times on a busy day...i just keep it going.

it just takes a little while to get acclimated ....i was talking to the girl i used to decorate with when i worked at albertsons 7 years ago, i asked her if she remembered how many orders we had on saturday...(we always were swamped)....

much to my surprise i do as many on my own now, as we did as a team at albertsons....plus i bake em too.

i love indy debi's analogy about the pit crew!...makes me wanna tighten my belt even more!

I need a reciepe for 30lbs. of white butter cream icing. Please send it to [email protected]

Welcome to cake central. There is a lot of information here, cut I don't think a 30- pound recipe is likely under this question.

I suggest you post a new topic: need 30-lbs of white buttercream in the recipe requests forum. Maybe someone can help.

You might also search on the internet for high-yield icing recipes.

good luck.

30 pounds of buttercream.........

(well really a little more)

6 pounds shortening
6 pounds butter
20 pounds of powdered sugar
4 oz vanilla.

water to the consistancy you like.

i know this sounds very simple, i got it off another message board from a pastry chef.

she added lemon juice and almond too if i remember right.....but i really like it without ...it tastes really buttery and vanilla....it's yummy...it does have an ivory color because of all the butter....but my customers love it.

I would also suggest that you make up your icing ahead and store in 5 gal pails. Most restaurant supply stores have them. Unless you icing requires refrigeration but if it only has water, sugar, and shortening you should be fine for at least a week.