Tips: Starting an online cake business

If you have a love for baking, the thought of starting an online cake business might probably have ran through your mind, before you dismiss it for being too daunting. We feel you! And we have been there before, which is why today we wanted to share some of our tips that have helped us over the years to navigate through this journey. 

Yes, starting an online cake business or any form of business in Singapore, for that matter, is a journey which is why first and foremost, it is vital to 

Minimalistic Baby Breath Rustic Cake

1. Know what your business is about 

Sounds like a cliche you’ve probably heard countless times, but that’s because it holds true. Knowing what your business is about and why you do what you do will be the driving force for you especially for those days when things get tough. For Zee & Elle, our cake creations are always centred around the principles of minimalism and taking inspiration from nature - focusing on natural-looking cakes, nothing forced. Along with the creation of every celebration cake, what we ultimately want to do is to inspire others to wander more and dream a little bigger. 

This might be a little difficult to in the beginning so here are some guiding questions you might want to ask yourself: 

1. What inspires you? 
2. Why do you want to start your own business? 
3. How do you want your customers to know and feel when they receive your bakes? 

2. Practice & Experiment!

Perfecting your craft will eventually translate into bakes that people would come back for! Take time in this process to figure out what can be improved and keep working on it. Failure is inevitable, and that’s okay because we promise that it will be worth it in the end! Here at Zee & Elle, we’re always doing R&D - testing out new ingredients and going down to the details like making sure to use the minimum amount of sugar yet not compromising on the flavour of the cake so that you would enjoy a healthy and tasty cake! Besides the flavour of the cakes, don’t be afraid to try out new design ideas and customise the cake to what you/your clients dream it to be. You can start by getting inspiration from Pinterest or even in your everyday life and incorporate it into your cakes. Our team has gathered inspiration on our Pinterest board and you can find some inspiration here.

Roasted Black Sesame Hojicha Cake

3. Get Critiques

In addition to practicing and experimenting, be open and reach out to your friends, family and even your customers to give you feedback on what can be improved! It is best to get people with different preferences in taste to gather different perspectives and adjust your recipe accordingly to get the optimal results! This has been especially helpful for us when we were experimenting with flavour combinations for our monthly flavour affair. We always involve the team here at Zee & Elle to get individual opinions on what is good and what can be improved before we launch the final cake. 

4. Set up a website 

Setting up a website was one of the things we find beneficial for us and our customers. A website would mean the customer would be able to view your cakes and navigate through the filters to find the cakes best fitted for their celebration. A tip from what we've learnt is to have easy navigation, simple checkout process and short load time for the best user experience for your customers! In addition to that, make sure to never neglect the design of your website. You can use templates or hire a web designer to set up and customise the site uniquely to your business. 

ZE Community

5. Hop on to social media 

This probably goes without saying, but sharing your bakes online on social media is one of the best ways for people to get to know about your business. Not only that, you can connect with your customers on a personal level. What we love most about being on social media is to be able to connect with our customers, as well as being able to see pictures of different celebrations - birthdays, weddings, baby showers and much more that the ZE community has shared with us!

This might look like addition of tasks to your to-do list before you start your own business, but fret not! Our biggest advice is to start somewhere and that it’s okay to start small. We started as home bakers before we eventually grew our team to where it is today. Take one step at a time and never be afraid to take a leap of faith.

You’ll never know where it’ll take you. 

If you have any more questions regarding starting an online cake business or anything else you’re interested in knowing, don’t be shy to ask us over on our Instagram, we are always open to answering them!

Until next time, 

Team ZE