Start! Cakes: nice to watch and taste

“I have always loved baking cakes, but never treated it as a business opportunity”, she says. She started baking cakes for family, friends and friends of friends while on maternity leave. Later, she wanted to resume working as an accountant, as she had done before, but her company had gone bankrupt in the meantime. Today she is happy: “The work was boring; I prefer contact with people.”

 

She opened her business called Lukrowe Torty Ani (Ania’s Iced Cakes) in August 2014 using a subsidy from the Employment Office. She was granted PLN 20,000 but needed further PLN 10,000 to properly equip the shop at Ledóchowskiego Street in Gumieńce District, so she invested her own savings.

 

She only bakes to order, and clients personally collect the cakes. She specializes in designer cakes, covered with plastic icing and topped with icing decorations, such as figurines or flowers. The inside is made of sponge cake, whipped cream and home-made jam. She learned everything herself, using some help of a friend, hints from YouTube movies or information found in blogs.

 

Most frequently Anna produces cakes for kids, “fairy-tale cakes” as she calls them. “Parents are often crazier than kids, they want lots of decorations. Kids can be happy with just one figurine”, she points out. Sometimes she gets orders for wedding cakes. On average, she produces 30 cakes per month, at the average price of PLN 50 per kilogram. Thus, the smallest cake (19 cm diameter, ten helpings) costs approx. PLN 150.

 

For some time, she has cooperated with Eko Spiżarnia, an eco-shop at Jagiellońska Street. “Among others, I bake a nut cake for them and they like it very much”, she says. Some orders include lactose-free cakes or products for allergic kids.  

 

Weekends are the busiest time for Anna Rogalska. And each holiday season is ever busier. Christmas time means baking gingerbread houses and cookies. Easter is marked by special Polish Easter cakes (mazurek) and paskha, with home-made cottage cheese as the key ingredient. “If I want to bake anything for my family, I write it down as an additional order under “Ania X”, otherwise I would find no time”, she laughs.

 

Anna has a large group of satisfied clients who regularly place orders. “They come back for the taste. As they say, this is how cakes made by their grannies used to taste", she says and adds, “To me, taste is the key. My clients often say: I thought cakes only looked nice.” Good cakes are the best form of advertisement, they attract new clients. Today she only has a fan page at Facebook and over 2,600 naturally obtained fans.

 

How is she doing? “Sometimes it is good, sometimes not so good, and my husband says: “This hobby of yours is quite expensive.” Sometimes I think I would rather work on a regular employment contract”, she admits. Keeping her own business accounts seems the most demanding. “This involves permanent fear whether the number of orders in a given month suffices to cover all fees, rent, purchases of ingredients”, she says.

 

Anna plans to extend her offer with “sweet tables” containing a variety of baked products. The proposal will include corporate events and weddings. She also wants to apply for subsidies to start baking workshops for kids. Her long-term plans include opening a café, but opening her own cake shop is her first success, a dream that has come true. 

 

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