The age old question. What do I do with all my cakes?? I can’t begin to tell you how many emails, comments, DMs, and messages I get asking about this. It is by far the question I get asked the most.
So I’m here to help clear up exactly what I do with all my cakes 🙂
In every video I share (whether it’s on Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook), I cut a massive slice from each cake I make.
This leads most people through the following thought process:
- If you cut your cakes, you must not be selling them.
- But you make so many cakes a week!
- These cakes are way too big for you and your husband to eat by yourself…
- Do you throw them away?
- What do you do with them?
- Who eats them?
- Why don’t you sell the slices?
Each of these questions doesn’t have a short answer, and my response to each one can be found below.
How Many Cakes Do You Make a Week?
A common misconception people have is that I bake every day.
As much as I’d love to do that, I simply can’t. It takes just as much time to bake a cake as it does to edit videos, photos, and share the recipe in my blog.
I have to balance content creation with my time in the kitchen.
The only time I bake more than a few cakes a week is when I’m recipe testing. Sometimes I have to make a cake over and over again until I get the texture and taste just right.
In these situations, I do bake quite a few cakes in a week.
I experiment with new cake recipes about once a month, so this isn’t a normal week for me. On average, I make and decorate about 2 cakes a week.
Do You Throw Your Cakes Away??
Most people are polite enough to simply ask what happens to the cakes.
Others get angry and tell me I’m wasting cake and accuse me of literally throwing them away.
I was raised to never waste food. I’m pretty sure my mom would disown me if I ever threw away a cake!!
I do my very best to make sure that every cake I make is eaten and enjoyed. And I even repurpose leftover/unused frosting!
Frosting keeps for months in the fridge and I have an entire drawer in my fridge dedicated to leftover buttercream.
Then Who Eats All Your Cakes?
This question used to be a lot easier to answer before I quit my day job to pursue Chelsweets full-time.
Before I took Chelsweets full-time I used to cut them up and literally shove them in a massive Tupperware container.
I’d schlep this “Tupperware cake” (as my office affectionately called it) to work and my coworkers would enjoy it!
I worked on a big floor and the Tupperware cake always seemed to vanish in about 30 minutes.
I loved walking by after setting it out and seeing groups of people waiting to dive in and try the new cake flavor.
Sometimes the presentation was actually kind of pretty, with the slices neatly aligned.
Other times (especially with curved or sculpted cakes), the slices would be totally mashed into the Tupperware.
Either way, my coworkers never seemed to mind! The first question I’d get as soon as they saw the Tupperware was, “what flavor is it this time?!”
My Favorite Taste Testers – My Family & Friends
Nowadays, I don’t have any coworkers. One of the saddest parts about working from home and being self-employed is the isolation.
When I started working from home, I realized in a panic that I had no one to eat my cakes!!
Luckily, I live close to my family and a lot of my friends, and it never seems to be too hard to find someone who wants a few slices of cake.
I use smaller containers now and place a few slices in each one. This way I can share each cake with lots of different people and no one feels overloaded with sweets.
I also give a lot of my treats to the staff in our building. Between our concierges and the leasing team, it seems to get eaten pretty quickly.
Giving My Cakes to Other Places
When I share that I give most of my cakes to my family and friends, I usually get some criticism… which at first surprised me!
People think I should give my cakes to homeless shelters, nursing homes, or even hospitals.
I would love to share my cakes with a wider array of organizations, but they usually have strict rules around the types of outside donations they can accept.
My home kitchen isn’t certified because I don’t sell my cakes and I literally cut into every cake. A lot of places get weirded out at the thought of receiving 3/4 of a cake, rather than an uncut cake.
I’ve reached out to other organizations in my neighborhood (churches, schools, etc.) and haven’t really been able to establish a relationship with them.
My job is pretty strange, and I don’t think many people really understand why I’m trying to give away cut up cakes in the first place.
Why Don’t You Sell Your Leftover Cakes?
A lot of people also wonder why I don’t try to sell my leftover cakes or slices of them. There are two main reasons.
The first is that my kitchen isn’t certified, like I mentioned above.
The second reason is that it’s a logistical nightmare. I used to sell cakes WAY back in the day and organizing pick-ups and deliveries takes a ton of time. It’s stressful too and is more complicated than you’d think.
I wouldn’t feel comfortable having people show up to my apartment, and I don’t have the bandwidth (or desire, for that matter) to deliver them myself.
I’d rather put my energy into creating great cakes and content.
What Would You Do with Them??
With that in mind, I’d love to hear any additional ideas you may have! Or if you love to bake, who eats all your cakes??
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like:
- Why I Quit My Job to Bake Full-Time
- Things To Consider Before You Quit Your Job
- How My Business Model Works (Not Selling My Cakes)
- My Year End Review
