07/04/2021
A must read...
STOP COMPARING CUSTOM CAKES TO STORE-BOUGHT CAKES
One of the most common questions every baker is asked is “Bakit mas mura sa ### (names a popular bakery chain.” Many of us take personal offence to this, and rightfully so. This post aims to help you understand why there is a difference in pricing between store-bought vs. custom cakes.
Store-bought:
1. Easily accessible and available anytime. The cakes are always there for you to pick up when you want.
2. But do you know what goes into these mass-produced cakes? Because these cakes are mass-produced, they are not made fresh, flash-frozen and have a shelf life of weeks or even months. Some chains transport their cakes from their commissary to the different branches in the provinces. This can take days from production to packaging to delivery to the stores.
3. Because of production to delivery factors, they need to add chemicals and preservatives to prolong the shelf-life of these cakes.
4. These large chains order their materials in bulk. Some have special orders for their own cake pre-mixes and icings. The ingredients used are sourced as cheaply as possible to sell to the public for a cheaper price, which makes you question what these ingredients are and are they healthy to consume?
5. Production costs are cheap because they are mass-produced. They have teams of people who make at least 50-80 cakes per shift.
6. The icing used is pre-made and comes in buckets or tetrapaks and you probably won’t see butter as part of the ingredients list.
7. Designs are generic and simple. You don’t get much of an option to choose a special design you want.
Custom cakes:
1. Everything is made from scratch from cake to icing to your requested decorations. We make cakes to order so you are sure to get fresh quality products every time, with no added preservatives or chemicals.
2. The ingredients we use are the best-quality to give you a good product. You don’t want to know the cost of couverture chocolate, hazelnut paste or a bottle of pure vanilla extract, believe me.
3. You have complete control. You get your own unique cake and design from colors, toppers, edible flowers, painting, edible images, etc.
4. You can choose your cake size based on diameter and height.
5. You can ask for custom flavors. Want M&M’s in the filling? Sure! Want 2 different cake flavors in one tier? You can.
6. We can cater to special dietary and health requirements—allergies, dairy-free, gluten-free, cinnamon-haters, etc.
7. Custom cakes cost more because most of us are one-person teams or two. We do not have a massive production kitchen that can magically whip up 100 cakes in a day. We are the boss, the employee, the grocer, the dishwasher, delivery crew all-in-one. Custom cakes take time to make, decorating alone can take somewhere between 8-48 hrs depending on the details you asked. Some even a week, in the case of flowers and toppers. You are paying for our time doing all of that for you.
8. You’re buying a piece of edible art designed and handmade just for YOU.
We are in the middle of a global pandemic. Prices have increased and there is a risk on our health every time we go out to get materials required for your cake, not to mention losing sleep and the fatigue, stress and time away from our loved ones that comes as a cost of the jobs we chose.
I hope this gives you a new perspective on custom vs store-bought cakes. The next time you complain how expensive custom cakes are, try to look beyond the price and consider the amount of time and talent that is required to make your special cake. If you want a one-of-a-kind piece, you must be willing to pay the price. A custom cake is a luxury, it’s a WANT not a NEED. Your child’s birthday won’t be any less special if you don’t have a specially-made themed cake. If it’s something you can squeeze into your budget, go for it. If you can only afford a store-bought cake, no one should judge you. The only thing we ask is not to compare us and respect our time and small business, they are not the same and will never be. P500 is not worth our health and sanity. We would be more than happy to send you to the nearest Goldilocks or Red Ribbon if you’re fine with any cake.
You can’t buy a Ferrari for the price of a Toyota Corolla.
Cheers,
J
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