The Cake Academy Podcast

Cheryl covers why the urge to buy new tools and equipment is so strong for cake makers, and why acting on it too early works against you. She shares her own experience of buying things she barely used, explains what you actually need when you are starting out, and gives you a simple way to decide whether a purchase is worth making right now. The episode also connects equipment spending back to pri...

Have you ever put real time and effort into a cake enquiry, only for the customer to go elsewhere? Or spent time designing a cake for someone who never actually booked? In this episode, Cheryl shares what used to happen in her own business before she changed her process, and why taking a booking fee before doing any work is one of the most important things you can do to protect your time and your...

In this episode, Cheryl explores one of the most underrated visibility strategies available to wedding cake makers; building genuine relationships with other wedding suppliers and venues, and explains why referrals and recommendations from trusted sources convert into bookings more effectively than almost any other form of marketing. This episode follows on from Episode 6, which introduced the ful...

You have spent years growing someone else's platform. It is time to build your own. In this episode, Cheryl takes a deeper look at email marketing for cake businesses, explaining what it is, how to set it up, what to send, and why it is one of the most valuable visibility tools a cake maker can build. Cheryl shares how she personally uses email marketing in her own business, including a Flodesk au...

In this episode, Cheryl talks honestly about one of the most common struggles cake makers face; going quiet on social media and why it happens even to experienced business owners. Cheryl opens up about the fact that she goes quiet on social media herself at times, but that her established business continues to generate enquiries in her absence because of the other visibility channels she has built...

In this episode, Cheryl challenges one of the most common assumptions in cake business marketing, that posting more on social media will automatically lead to more bookings, and explains why visibility is a much broader concept than most cake makers realise. Getting enquiries consistently requires being discoverable in multiple places, not just on Instagram. Couples planning weddings and celebrati...

In this episode, Cheryl breaks down the six key numbers every cake maker should be reviewing each month to understand how their business is really performing. Many cake makers run their business on instinct, with a general sense of whether things feel busy or quiet, but without the actual data to back it up. Without tracking the right numbers, it is impossible to make informed decisions, spot prob...

In the previous episode (episode 3), we explored enquiry to cake booking conversion rates and how understanding your numbers helps you predict how many enquiries you need to reach your booking goals. In this episode, Cheryl breaks down what happens between the cake enquiry and the booking . Many cake makers lose potential bookings not because of their skills or visibility, but because they don't h...

In this episode, Cheryl explains one of the most important numbers in a cake business: The enquiry to booking conversion rate. Many cake makers focus heavily on trying to generate more enquiries without understanding how many enquiries they actually need to achieve their booking goals. By understanding conversion rates, cake makers can work backwards from their income goals and calculate how many...

Are you struggling with cake pricing confidence? In this episode, we take a deeper look at why most cake makers don't actually have a pricing problem, they have an income goals planning problem. If you've ever said, "I want to earn £3,000 a month from my cake business," but haven't worked out what your business needs to generate after expenses, tax and National Insurance, this episode will change...

In this episode, Cheryl explains the four tools she created to help cake makers move from inconsistent income to a more structured and profitable business. Many talented cake makers struggle not because of their decorating ability, but because the business side of running a cake company often lacks systems and financial clarity. Cheryl walks through the four core tools she built after seeing the s...

Welcome to The Cake Academy Podcast for cake makers who want to get more cake bookings, improve their pricing, and build a consistently fully booked cake business without burnout. In this first episode, Cheryl Bottomley, multi award winning wedding cake designer and cake business mentor, introduces the purpose behind this podcast and explains why so many talented cake makers struggle to grow. This...