Hey guys.. So I do cakes for friends, family and people at work. I will eventually start a business once I'm out of college and have a house. I do a lot of cookies during the winter also. Well lately people have been telling others about me, and some are wanting pies, candies, and pastries. Do y'all do those too? I mean is that something that I should add to my reservoir? I mean I tell people I'm a "baker and cake decorator" -- is that misleading? I dont know, I guess I just wonder if other cake decorators do more than just cakes for people?

I am by no means a business. I only bake for work, family and friends. I make EVERYTHING. My sister and I kid that we will open a B&B one day. I'll be the chef and she'll manage. My passion is sugar though.(But I do love food in general. I work out as a means to eat, MORE) I like doing cakes because you can get more creative and you can bring lots more imagination to them easier. Its more normal to make a cake look like a flower pot than making meatloaf look like a flower pot. Or maybe thats just me. LOL!

People always request a whole slew of bakery/pastry items from me. Fruit pizza, choc. eclairs, pies, tarts, bars, etc. The list could on and on I think. I think making more than cakes certainly would not hurt your future business. As for telling people your a "baker and decorator" its not misleading because you do bake your cakes.

I am "The Dessert Diva" because I like to do it all! Anything sweet . . . pies, cakes, cookies, you name and I enjoy baking it. Also, for a business the more diversified you are, at least in the beginning, the more money you stand to make. I know for my business, I'm concentrating on desserts for restaurants and caterers to get the business jump-started and along with that, I plan on making myself available to do specialty cakes.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Leslie

I do it all too and it has been great for business. I even made 3" lollipops for a corporate client. Do anything you are comfortable with and enjoy. I have recently added Pastry Chef to my "title" but the term baker covers a lot of ground.

I only do cakes, petitfours and occasional cookies. I like to keep it simple and am not really interested in cooking. If you enjoy doing all those other things...try it.

However, if you do a lot of small orders in wide variety, your profit will be very low compared to the time it takes you to make them. I think you would need large orders of pastries to make it worth it.

Don't forget how valuable your time is and add it to your cost (not to mention all those extra trips to the store).

When I first started decorating cakes, I started to have coworkers ask me if I did pies, brownies, muffins, cookies, etc etc. I added all of these things to my "menu", but I don't get too many orders for them. Most people just consider me the "cake lady". Jenn123 is right, if you diversify too much, the profit margin is lower, but I still like to be able to offer these things to customers.