ADVICE | ORDERS | BUSINESS SUGGESTIONS
Christmas is a busy time of year as it is let alone preparing your orders to get out before Christmas Eve 😱
I’m hoping to make this a bit easier for you by giving you a breakdown of how to prepare for big events. I made so many mistakes at the beginning of my cake career which put me under so much pressure that I fell ill… so each year I have learned new ways and have now perfected it.
This breakdown applies to all big events not just Christmas. I use this for Mother’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Father’s Day and for those overseas, Thanksgiving 🙌🏻
You will always want to yes to everyone but you have to learn to say no. Customers won’t be put off and never return they will just be more organised and place their orders more in advance next time (Not your problem) You will learn your capacity from previous busy days and how you coped etc.
• Have a cut off date for all other orders. I stop all other bouquet orders from the middle of December. Otherwise you will be piping Christmas bouquets and other birthday bouquets and it can get very messy and very stressful. When you’re piping all the same flowers in multiples is sooooo much more efficient.
• Only offer 2 different designs for Christmas 🎄
• Make sure your customer pays in full upon ordering to secure their booking. You will find that if you don’t customers get closer to Christmas and realise they’ve spent too much and will just cancel.
• Make sure all of your orders are gone on the 23rd December. It’s you and your families Christmas too so don’t over do it and be stressed.
• Have strict collection times and make sure your terms and conditions are up to date to send to the customer ie they have a 15 minute window to collect.
• Once all of your orders are in. Order relevant stock ie cups, bows, cellophane, tissue paper, Progels, PME sprays and relevant nozzles.
• The week before the mayhem, bake all your cupcakes and once they are stone cold put them in freezer bags in a single layer then pop them in the freezer so they are all ready for you. You can pipe straight onto a frozen cupcake 🧁
• Make all of your buttercream, I usually make 10-12 double batches. The buttercream will last in the fridge for as a long as the date on the packet of butter expires.
• Make all your cup moulds.
• Set all the boxes up for transport.
• Make all of the bows.
• Pre cut all of your cellophane.
• Pre cut all of your tissue paper.
• If you did only offer 2 designs it will be very easy to write down all of the flowers you are piping and how many of each flower you will need. Eg. If 10 people ordered one of your designs and they all ordered a 12 bouquet. You’d have to pipe eg. 30 poinsettias, 30 pine cones, 30 gold roses and 30 white chrysanthemums. Make it so much easier. Also you can tick off as you go, it’s very satisfying trust me 🤣
• Again only take on what you can physically handle. Think of your wrists and your stress levels.
I hope this helps, and again this applies to any big event.
I have compiled a ‘Complete Christmas Bouquet’ for you if you wanted to buy it as a set rather than individually🎄 there are 4 different flowers and how to wrap into a cupcake bouquet 💐 I hope you like it 🙌🏻
Happy Christmas piping 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Jane x
PS. I read all of your comments, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below!
Great advice Jane. Thank you x
Thank you Alison! x
thank you Jane this is really helpful, i have been set up since July and feel i have take too many orders for 23/24th Dec, so starting to worry a bit.
i actually dont know how many i can do in a day but i think to date i have done 7 orders of bouquets and some mix of colours , so hoping this will be easier with just my two designs ,
can i ask , i have heard / read you can pipe your flowers and pop into cupcake boxes and freeze them , then all i would have to do on the 23/24 is build into bouquets , do you have any experience of doing this and if it affects them in anyway ? thank you , i love following you , Nikki @ hey up cupcake
Hi Nikki,
Thank you so much that is so lovely of you! I would love to see your work. You can freeze them yes, and no it does not effect them x
Wouldn’t piping on frozen cupcakes cause moisture in the cupcakes when they thaw? And how many cupcakes do freezer bags hold? Here in the states, the largest freezer back I’ve seen in food stores would hold maybe 9. That is a lot of freezer bags! These tips you’ve listed are great and thank you for your generosity in sharing them and thoughtfulness in making others lives easier, especially in an already hectic time of year!
Hi there, No there is no additional moisture as they thaw. And I have bags that hold 24. I am so pleased you enjoyed my blog. Jane x
Thank you so much Jane x
Jane you have me itching to play! I decorated some cupcakes . First attempt and a vegan cake and royal iced flowers abs decorated for a friends birthday . I keep reading and watching you and would love a bundle . Going to ask hubby for one as an anniversary pressie instead of flowers .
My health is t great and unpredictable but in the kitchen is my happy place when I cannot work . Thank you so much. You are an inspiration and I love your honesty and sharing 😊
Hi Kelly, that is amazing! I would love to see your work, please email me. Thanks so much! Jane x
This is my first Christmas and I’m so excited you created a blog for this! This is so helpful and I love learning from you! I appreciate the breakdown of what works best for you so I can help make my Christmas stress free! xx
Hi Melissa,
How lovely of you thank you so much! Good luck, Jane x