Monday, April 16, 2012

Another Fail

You can add Baby Shower Block cake to my list of failures. A friends who I got into culinary school asked me months ago for a baby shower cake in pink, yellow, and white with baby blocks on top for his girl's upcoming baby shower.

I had more than adequate time to plan and work on the cake.

I had a lot of time to deliver. In fact, the place was only 15 minute away.

Unfortunately, my poor time management got in the way again. It was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. The three square 6x6 blocks were imperfect and took a lot of time to cover and decorate. The large cake was also a pain the ass. All in all, I did not allot enough time to get this all done. And I have no one to blame but myself.

I was lucky enough to get a ride from a friend who patiently waited as I pushed my deliver time from 2:30 all the way towards 5:30 with texts every half an hour as I told him I wasn't ready yet.

My poor culinary friend remained calm and understanding as I lied and fabricated cake damage as the reason I was running late. By the time I got there, the party was just waiting on the cake. I was embarrassed and near tears. The blocks were NOT cute. The colors were completely off. Everything was heavy and all three blocks did not even fit on the sheet cake Like I said, I was embarrassed. Despite the money I dropped on supplies, I could not charge him. In my heart of hearts, I knew I really needed the money but I didn't feel like I earned it.

Oh, and I didn't have time to finish decorating an 8" birthday cake he also ordered- a cake I had already baked and filled and dirty iced. I just ran out of time.

So, all in all I'm $125 in the hole after my supply run. I didn't earn back any of that money on this cake and ended up losing about $50 in supplies just to make it.

I'm really in the shitter when it comes to money. As hard as I'm working it just doesn't feel like I'm doing enough. What else should I be doing to make the money train move a little faster?

3 comments:

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  2. Maybe work smarter, not harder? I know you were off on Friday, why did you start getting your stuff done then? I know this isn't what you need to hear when you're already down, but you have this curse of procrastination tattooed into you and I think you just need to be a lot more disciplined to shake it off. This isn't the first friend cake that you've bombed on, and getting worked up more because the cake is for a friend isn't doing your psyche any good. You need to treat every customer the same; the one's who pay and the one's who don't. You put a lot of work and time into freebies you dish out just for the hell of it. You need to put that much attention into your paying work.

    I know you're talented. You know you're talented. I've seen you do really great things. I think you need to not underestimate the "easy" jobs and stop giving away the bakery for free when you go to your drink nights with your buddies.

    That's my money train advice. Deep breath- you have a wedding to do this weekend! Start baking tonight!!!

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  3. You're a million percent right. I just need to get my priorities straight. I have a 3g bill looming over my head that I need to pay before July 1st. If I keep giving the goodies away, I won't make any money. And I just need to better prepare. I'm starting my wedding cake prep tonight. It's 3 tiers so I can do 1 tier a night and do the filling and decorating on Friday. I want to sleep in on Saturday and still have enough time to drive to New Hyde Park at 5 miles an hour if I have to.

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