According to The Federation of Bakers, the British baking industry is worth £3.6 billion, and has seen substantial growth since the television launch of the Great British Bake Off back in 2010. BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) has shown approximately 12 million viewers per episode in the latest 2015 series with the final being declared the most watched TV programme of the year peaking at 14.5 million viewers.
<p style="text-align:center;"> <img title="Cake Making & Decorating Business Statistics in UK Infographic" src="https://www.ashburnham-insurance.co.uk/wordpress/media/cake-making-decorating-business-statistics.png" alt="Cake Making & Decorating Business Statistics in UK Infographic" /> Infographic by <a title="Ashburnham Insurance Services" href="https://www.ashburnham-insurance.co.uk">Ashburnham Insurance</a></p>
The sudden surge of interest in baking, cake making and decorating in recent years can only be attributed to the Great British Bake Off which coincided with the end of Britain’s great recession. Cake entrepreneurs are actually quitting their jobs in order to bake caves for a living! And the show has inspired thousands of baking enthusiasts to start-up their own home businesses or set up a cake shop in their town.
In just four years (between 2010 and 2014) the number of registered bakers in the UK nearly doubled from 21,000 to 40,000 since the Great British Bake Off first began! That figure doesn’t even include the number of bakers operating as sole traders – which you would assume is the majority of bakers. And between 2011 and 2012, there was a 5% increase in the number of independent bakeries.
Of course not all British dessert fans are going to give up their day jobs just because they enjoy watching the Great British Bake Off. Not all fans of the show are even going to be inspired enough to pick up a whisk in the kitchen. But the show’s popularity has grown steadily with the demand of professionally decorated cakes. It seems we’re no longer happy with any old victoria sponge for our birthday, we expect our loved ones to splash out on an elaborately frosted masterpiece worthy of Pinterest or Instagram. The Great British Bake Off has opened our eyes to how amazing cakes can be with a little dash of design and a sprinkle of creativity.
There’s never been a better time to start baking, as demand for uniquely decorated cakes and baked goods continues to rise year-on-year. And people are always going to celebrate weddings and birthdays… The cake is one of the most iconic aspects of both weddings and birthdays. A traditional three-tier wedding cake can cost somewhere in the hundreds, depending on the skill of the cake decorator and how bespoke you would like the cake to be.
How To Start Your Own Cake Business At Home
If you’re inspired to start your own cake business at home, here’s a few tips to get you started!
- Contact the environmental health department at your local council. You will need them to inspect and approve your cooking premises to get a hygiene certificate. You may also want to get any other food safety certificates available to you from other providers.
- You will need to be issued the correct tax codes from HMRC so you can register yourself as a business.
- Get your business banking in order!
- Talk to your mortgage provider and home insurer to inform them that you plan to be working from home. Sort out your product and public liability insurance for cake makers and decorators.
- Start promoting yourself through word of mouth, social media, maybe even your own website! Your first customers are likely to be people you already know, but it’s a great start to build your professional cake portfolio.
- You’re going to want to work out your pricing, and this can get a little tricky. Using a spreadsheet system to input costs of ingredients and the time it takes to bake and decorate each style of cake, you can work out the best way to mark up your cakes.
- Keep up the good work on your social media, website and word-of-mouth marketing, to steadily grow your home business!