I always knew I would get my mojo back at some point but it took far too long for my liking.

I feel that it is mostly down to having a quieter home and less pressure.  Don’t get me wrong getting to see my granddaughter every day and wake up with her was truly a blessing but it was tough.  

Both of my girls moved out pretty much at the same time which meant we went from a home of 8 to a home of 4.  

It was eerily quiet but gave me time to gather my thoughts and throw myself back into work.  I don’t know if any of you are into this and please do skip this part if you don’t wish to read about spirituality!

I spoke to my medium who I have known for 20 years + to seek his help in trying to work out what my block was?  He kept saying they are telling you to go back to the beginning?  WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?? I then spoke to my brother who is very spiritual and he said you need to reset and go back to the beginning! Arghhhh….

It twigged after some weeks exactly what they were all saying.  As you know I gave up piping for customers because it was just too much dealing with the hundreds of messages on a daily basis and the admin, content blah blah blah and something had to go.  So I stopped piping.  Boom creativity went right out the window.  Yes it meant I was more attentive to my students but most certainly blocked me coming up with new designs and to be honest completely lost my passion for piping.  My passion was more driven to driving my students to set up new businesses and being their cheerleader.

It was heaven not having to deal with irritating customers, like right now I’m typing this blog and I have been waiting for my customer to turn up who was meant to be here at 4pm its now 5.10 and I’m very aggitated. I just want to go and put my comfies on and eat the curry I’ve had cooking in the slow cooker all day and it smells AMAZING…. But there you go, some people believe their time is more precious than ours… or so they think, she will find out when she gets the sarcastic wrath of me when she finally arrives.  Anyway you get my gist.

What I discovered was, I needed to go right back as in way way back.  Literally at the beginning, when I first started piping buttercream flowers. I put the word out that I was taking a few orders here and there but would only be offering bespoke cupcake bouquets.  Which meant I had free reign on design and the customer just got to choose the colours.  BOOM BOOM BOOM, the bitch is back.

It was so liberating, I was getting excited again about piping, waking up in the morning and cheerfully stepping into my cake room (when I say cake room, its a converted garage, lets not get too carried away) sounds far more extravagant than it actually is but, its my space.  I was scrolling through Google to find new ideas… I look at real bouquets and flower arrangements to get my designs.  I take snippets of lots of bouquets and try and combine them.  Or completely copy them into buttercream flower cupcakes.  Because I didn’t have the pressure of tons of orders I could take my time and put a lot more thought into each cupcake bouquet.  Its all the little extra details that make cupcake bouquets look more realistic.  IF, that’s what you are aiming for.  That always has and always will be my main focus.  Fooling recipients is my favourite part of this job.  

Other than taking more time I don’t quite know what’s changed but my cupcake bouquets and my individual floral cupcakes do look very different.  I am still evolving as you will the longer you do this.

I’m about to hit my 8 year anniversary of my cake business and 7 years of piping buttercream flowers.  I hope this puts your mind at ease when it comes to progression.  I am still learning, I am still evolving it’s what breeds success,  don’t rest on your laurels.  Push yourself out of your comfort zone, challenge yourself.  Yes, sometimes you may fail but to be a success you need to fail. Success comes from failure. That’s what drives us to be better.  Mindset plays a massive part too.  If you spend your whole time saying to yourself, I can’t do this, I’ll never be good at this! Then you won’t be I’m afraid.  Think positive, be proud of what you’re achieving.  Because I most certainly am so proud of you all for what you’ve achieved.

I guess the purpose of writing this is because so many people have messaged me saying “wow, what’s changed, your cupcake bouquets are even more beautiful?” Thank you number 1 (another little side note) when people say to you how beautiful your work is, say thank you.. NOT well I know it needs improvement.  Don’t do that.  Say thank you with pride and accept the compliment without adding a negative spin on it.

I can only assume its time that’s allowed me to produce different work.  So, when you have free time,  make sure you come up with new designs.  Take your time doing them, there’s no rush (unless its an order of course) once you’ve done this you’ll find the new ideas just keep flowing.  

I know from the messages I receive that many of you struggle with colour.  Asking me how I achieve my colours.  I two tone all of my flowers now unless it’s a Classic design in which case I don’t.  The way I two tone is so simple, I simply add gel food colouring to my empty piping bag and rub the bag between your hands making sure you’ve covered the whole of the inside.  Then add either your coloured buttercream or just uncoloured buttercream.  That is it.  I’m not keeping secrets from any of you this is how I do it every single day.  Even two toning my buddleias!  Because it’s so quick it is no stress but elevates your cupcake bouquets to whole new level which = more money.   

I also stick to the 4 elements always, unless of course I am doing a whole bunch of say my delicate petal mini roses then I’m just adding intricate flowers.  Just as a quick reminder here are the four elements. For example;

• Statement flowers – roses, peonies, sunflowers
• Intricate flowers – mini roses, mini peonies, mini sunflowers
• Textured flowers – dahlias, chrysanthemums
• Height flowers – Buddleia, fern, eucalyptus, stocks 

This makes your cupcake bouquets look more realistic.  I have been told by a good source that this is how real florists work too.  Who’d of thunk it ay!

Be experimental, look at real flowers and work out the shape of the petals, which nozzle would you use? And just play, remember play is fun.  Don’t get stressed.  So what if it doesn’t turn out the customer doesn’t know that.  Hand it over proudly,  practice makes perfect.  This is a FACT.

Happy piping everyone and thank you again for all of the lovely messages you have sent me.  It means the world.

PS, its now 6pm and she’s still not here………

Love Jane x