Cake Tasting and Open House

I held a cake tasting for potential Brides and anyone else interested in specialty cakes. I had a few people come by. A couple of my brides, some people from the Chamber of Commerce, plus some of the neighboring businesses. We held it at Gigi’s Linens and Weddings Only. They have a nice shop on the corner of FM 1008 and Main. I wish more people had come by, and I expected more of my clients to drop in. I had sent out emails and mailed event notices. The Chamber had also sent out notices. We did get our picture in the news again, so that was nice. (Link)This was just a small step, but a good one. Many many many THANKS to Pam Goulder of Gigi’s Linens and Jaime Smith of Weddings Only for allowing me the use their shops. They generously used their time and resources to decorate for the event. Jaime had beautiful flower arrangements, and Pam let us use her gorgeous linens. We put out snacks since I called it an Open house, but I think that was overkill. The few that did show up were really only interested in the cakes and frostings. Next time, I will stick to the simple. Thanks also to my sister Teresa and my niece Amanda for giving up their day to assist with this event.

Taste of Dayton

Now this was a fun event! Each year in Dayton, the Chamber of Commerce holds several events to promote businesses in the community. The “Taste of Dayton” is a business expo. Each business has an opportunity to promote and inform the people attending all about their particular business. It is great marketing and gives us a chance to meet a lot of potential clients. Each company provides marketing materials; several have pens and koozies to give away. We all had a Door prize to donate, and we had a “taste” to give out also. KK’s Best Cakes gave out samples of Cake and Pie! I made Lemon cake pops, strawberry cake pops, and two flavors of Whoopie Pies- Chocolate with marshmallow filling, and Red velvet with cream cheese filling. Several people had never heard of Whoopie Pies, so I called them cupcake sandwiches. I also served mini pecan and cherry pies. Yum! We were very popular! We did not have any leftovers. I already have cake orders to fill that stemmed from this event. Our Door Prize was a cake carrier, with a German Chocolate cake. Our ticket bowl filled up fast with people wanting that cake. I will definitely do this event again next year. This was a giant leap forward on the path to success!

Step By Step

I am in the process of organizing a Cake tasting event, along with Gigi’s Linens and Weddings Only Florist. Since I don’t have a store front, they are generously letting me use their space. I have invited my contacts from Weddingwire, and placed an Event notice there. I also created an Event page for it on Facebook. I sent out email blasts for all my bridal contacts from the Lake Houston Bridal Show, and will have follow up reminders in a couple of weeks. The Cake tasting is open to everyone, not just Brides, because everybody needs an extra special cake occasionally. We are holding the Tasting on June 3, from 4:00 to 8:00 PM. I am saying a prayer that I can get people to come! We are having complimentary food and beverages, so that may be enough of a draw. Surely people will come out for free food!

(The following is the information I used in my Email blasts).....

Cake Tasting and Open House
Join Kay Edenfield, owner of KK’s Best Cakes, and some of her colleagues
as she presents items for her 2011 Cake Tastes with a variety of springtime flavors.

We will have a panel of experts ready to answer questions about your upcoming events
Complimentary food & beverages.

Enjoy an afternoon with us and discover something sweet!

WHEN:
Friday, June 3
4:00 to 8:00 PM

WHERE:
Gigi’s Linens
501 N. Main St.
Dayton TX 77535

Weddings Only
Gigis Linens
KK’s Best Cakes
Design Solutions
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Next step….Taste of Dayton!

Follow My Steps!

First thing…
I Joined the Chamber of Commerce

I joined our local Chamber of Commerce -The Dayton Chamber of Commerce. They are an organization that helps the local business community. We had a ribbon cutting on March 11th. I had family and friends, Chamber members and Ambassadors who all came to the event. Woo Hoo! There were a whole slew of people who came out to wish me luck. There was a reporter/photographer who interviewed me and took my picture and he wrote a really cool article about me in the Dayton newspaper (link). The next day I delivered a cake for a Babies First birthday party, and one of the guys there asked how my ribbon cutting went. He heard about it on the radio. How cool is that? I have had several phone calls asking about cakes that stemmed directly from this event, and even have a few cake and cupcake orders. Pam of “Gigi’s Linens” is the person who encouraged me to join, so Thanks Pam! This step has already proven to be a great start on my path to a successful bakery.


My next “Big Event”
The Lake Houston Bridal Show

I found out about this event from Weddingwire. I decided the investment was worth it if I could get some Brides interested. My niece Aimee suggested I go with bright colors, so we used Pink and Orange. She crafted some fantastic decorations; I baked some umm umm good mini cupcakes. My sister Glenda came along to help out and smooze with us. We had a great time, talked to a bunch of interested Brides and Grooms and their Mamas. I also met other vendors there. I’m giving a shout out to “Memories in the Spotlight” who took our picture just for fun! This was a good day! I just answered and email from a Bride I met at the show. This was a really good stepping stone to help pave the way for my successful bakery.

Connecting with my Community
Participation and Networking

Obviously, people need to know who I am if I want them to order cakes from me, so, again obviously, I need to be seen, I need to talk to people, and I need to participate in community events.
The Dayton Chamber of Commerce host Dayton Ole Tyme Days Festival each year, and have asked for volunteers to be judges in the cooking contests. I have volunteered to be a judge in the baking cook off.
We had to judge on appearance and taste. Oh My! I have to say it was very interesting, and some people can be very creative. There were some really great entries, they tasted good and looked good too. But…my one word of advice for future entries…you might want to rethink the chocolate pudding and coolwhip concoctions…I’m just sayin…

Oh Oh OH! Side track…
I just had my Health Inspection! I was scared to death, but I don’t know why. It went great. I met with Kathleen, who is my new best buddy! She came in and asked a bunch of questions, took some temperatures, looked at everything. But, best of all, she gave me some great advice. She came in with the intention to help and educate me, which I really appreciated. She explained what she was doing and the reasons why. It was a good experience. The public can be sure they are safe from me-No germs in my shop!
What’s Next?

I think I will plan a Cake Tasting Event next, and Invite all the Brides and Grooms I met, plus some new ones. I’ll get back to you with more details soon!

My name is Kay Edenfield. I bake and decorate cakes. I recently “officially” opened my cake shop. I do not have a storefront location, but I am a fully licensed bakery in the state of Texas. I call my shop KK’s Best Cakes because my nieces and nephews always tell me “Aunt KK, you make the best cakes!”
Experienced Helps
I took a few culinary classes in college, but did not get my degree. I have taken several decorating classes over the years, and recently completed the three courses for the PME Masters Certificate. I call these courses “cake boot camp”. I learned a lot, and it was a lot of hard work to complete. I still have to take my “final”, though, and will be doing that soon. I started decorating cakes in Jr. college, and made cakes for friends and family. I quit back then because it got to be that baking and decorating was all that I was doing. My week nights and weekends were taking up with cake making and it burned me out. I still made the occasional cake, but mostly just for fun.
A couple of years ago, I decided to take a refresher course and a fondant course, because there was so much new stuff going on in the cake world. I got hooked all over again, but this time I wanted to do it as a legitimate business, so KKs Best Cakes was born. I had my brother build me a kitchen next to my house and a few more dollars invested in equipment and I was in business. Only one thing was missing.
Cake Orders
Baking cakes, decorating cakes, and the business side of cake is all hard work. I think people who don’t do cake, don’t realize how much work and effort you have to put into the whole process. I get people who think my cakes cost too much, but I think I don’t charge nearly enough. I keep my prices on the low side anyway, so I know they are already getting a deal. I am still making cakes for friends and family, but I need to make cakes for the Public if I want to stay in business. So…this blog is my take on the journey to getting my business to be successful. I hope you follow along with me.
Where to Find KKs Best Cakes online
My niece Aimee is setting me up with this blog. My nephew James has made me a web page www.kksbestcakes.com, and I am on Weddingwire, Wedspace.com, Bride.com-all sites for brides looking for Wedding cakes, and on other social networks like Facebook and Cakeswebake.

Last year
I have made a lot of cake this past year, but no profit. I have spent a lot of time and money, but I consider that to be practice and an investment. I can see how much my cakes have improved in taste and technique. So far, my reward is gaining more experience with the cakes I make and while, the more experience I gain is valuable in itself, I need to pay some bills. My business needs to be more lucrative, and I hope you will follow along with me as I discover the ways I hope to make a profit this year doing something fun for me and deliciously tasty for you.