is good job your asking SamHarrison i wouldn't no what to ask.

I got a free website off google and bt, only pain thing is i don't like the way you can edit it, but i though it was a good idea at the time just need to get my head around it.

sweet, have you tried Weebly for free websites? That's what I'm using and you can create something pretty good with it. Give it a look. I'm not amazing with computers but I'm quite happy with what I've built so far. Take a look!

I have, but it doesn't let me use it on my site, still enjoyed making it tho

Hi - I've posted this as a separate topic, but was looking for replies from UK people - how much would you charge per cupcake for a 100 cake tower? Assuming the cakes are vanilla and had a bc swirl on them - a similar tower to that in my gallery.

All advice welcome.

£150 + refundable £40 deposit on the stand. That's assuming the cupcakes won't have any decoration other than the swirl.

If you are doing it the same as the one in your photos (multicoloured cases and swirls) I would consider charging extra because of the need to buy multiple sets of cases which you may not use again and because of the food colouring you would need. I would maybe up the cost to £1.60 or £1.70 per cupcake.

Thanks LisaPeps, that's kinda what I thought, but when I was telling my friend about the order, she looked horrified at the thought of £150 for the cakes! I haven't heard back from the girl since I quoted so I'll wait and see. Good idea about the deposit for the stand, I hadn't thought of that.

But they'll pay £3 - £4 at a restaurant for the frozen fudge cake with a tiny scoop of icecream

They don't realise they are buying cake for 150 people!!!

Tell her you can do it for £90 or £45.. but the numbers go down to 60 or 30...

I know - I can never understand people's logic. It took me ages to make the rainbow ones, but that is the 1st time I've done an order of that size, so next time hopefully I'll be more organised (and do it when my 3 kids are not in the house!) *lol*

Slightly different here...we're in Euro but I charge 2.00 for a plain vanilla/orange/lemon cupcake, 2.20 for carrot/caramel/chocolate and 2.50 for filled/gourmet.

I was recently asked to do a cupcake tower of 200 lemon cakes with a simple rose piped on top by a friend so gave a bit of a discount down to 1.50 each....total 300.

Does anyone in the UK use a Kitchenaid mixer bought from the US? If so, do you just use a socket adapter to convert it to a UK 3-pin or do u need a transformer to change the Voltage?

thanks

Well I'm slowly getting there with setting up but I have another query. Everyone who has the food hygiene certification, where did you get it? I've found a website that seems legitimate and says:
Matches RSPH & CIEH syllabus
Meets UK / EU Legal Requirements
CPD Accredited Level 2 Courses
Training takes around 2 hours on any PC / Mac
Instant Access - login details sent immediately
Certificate posted next working day
Audited and Approved by Environmental Health Officers
It's £25+vat. Has anyone got theirs from a site? If so, did you have any problems with it? I am happy to go to a course but they're more expensive and it would have to be at a set time that I'd have to work around my kids, school and my husbands work, doing it all online would be so much easier but I don't want to go through it all to find out that it won't be recognised by environmental health etc.

I was also wondering, once you registered with the council etc, did it take long for them to visit the property and check out the kitchen etc? And when you register with HMRC to be self employed, is that a lot of work, is it long winded or does it all go through quite quickly?

Sorry for the rambling!

Just Picking brains of those of you in home-based business in UK.

When sorting out your insurance did you go through your home insurance company and link them together or did you get seperate cover just for the business side of things from another company.

Thanks

Thanks

I have got a couple of quotes for the public liabilty ins, they are from £68 so will go with a seperate company.

I got my insurance through the BSG, its really reasonable and seems to offer a good level of cover. Its specialised too, so covers everything you should need. And I found out there is a meeting near me - so I can go along and pick peoples brains too!

Ive sorted my ins through the simply business website recommended by business link.

Got it for £67 and its for
Public Liability other than Pollution and Contamination(£2,000,000)
Pollution and Contamination (£1,000,000)
Products Liability (£2,000,000)
Legal Expenses arising from Health & Safety Legislation(£250,000)

Sounds like it covers me lol

It also gives you the html code things to be able to add a little bit on your own website to show people you are covered, they can click on it and it shows them who you are covered by and that its valid etc.

Hey UK'ers, i've been lurking and i've read through the entire thread

I wanted to ask what size cake board/circle do you use? My cakes bake to the correct size in inches but my cake boards seem to be just under or the exact size. I'd like to get a board just a bit bigger to have a little edge that i can scrape against when smoothing my buttercream. Do you think going up an inch would be reasonable? I don't want too much icing but i find getting an perfectly round cake after icing difficuilt without a guide.

I like to do the same as you too. But instead of going up an inch I just trim the crust off the cake. Leaves you with about a quarter of an inch between the cake and the board.

Hi all, having a little problem this morning - have any of you had this prob and any solutions? I've got a box of Renshaw icing white. It's normally quite soft. the date expiry is Feb 2012 but every pack is really hard work to knead and crackling round the edges like it's really dry. I so don't need this this week!! Can anyone recommend a solution or is it dump the lot and start again but won't get my new box till tomorrow thanks all