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[Hazzy]

I made my first ever cupcakes yesterday, and they seemed to go down well. How much would you pay for a cupcake?

Since Jewellery isn't working out I thought it was an idea to sell cupcakes at the shop instead. Unless the jewellery really takes off, which seems unlikely, then I think the concensus is we keep the shop but find something else to sell or do with it. And in Whitstable where I'm from, there was a cupcake shop that always seemed popular. There was one in Canterbury too. I'm not sure of their prices or anything but there was always people in there or stopping to admire.

I'm thinking I could start out quite cheaply by just doing 3 flavours: Carrot Cupcake, Flake Swirl Ice Cream Cupcake (a Vanilla cupcake that looks like a Mr Whippy, with a flake chocolate bar sticking in the top and sprinkles) and Cookie Dough Cupcake (chocolate cupcake with soft cookie dough in the center, topped with chocolate icing and chocolate chips). My initial thinking with pricing is that they would sell for £2 each for the first two, and £3 or maybe even £3.50 for the cookie dough one since it's more expensive to make and more effort goes into it.

They seem reasonable to me, and I would pay them if I was looking to buy a cupcake and went past a cupcake shop that had delicious looking cupcakes. And not to brag, but after eating the ones I made yesterday (for the first time remember), I'd walk away happy and probably go back. What do you think?

They would be sold individually in boxes like this:

[Illusion]

"Since jewellery isn't working out", it's been 3-4 days and some have been better than others.  You've already been told you can try this along with it but we're not switching, at least for a while.

[Illusion]

That was for the benefit of those about to reply to him.  I've already been over this with him the last 2 days offline.  He has selective hearing.

[The Headliner]

It depends how big they are (not sure if that's answered by the picture, I'm on my phone so it won't load at the moment).

What the business would live or die on is your reputation for choice and novelty. Get good at decorating these cupcakes so that people will stop by just to see the different weird and wonderful designs, and will mention them to friends so it becomes a bit of a destination and a point of local interest. If they taste beyond acceptable then that's a bonus.

[Hazzy]

Yeah I think it would all be in the appearance of the cakes. Yesterday was the first time I'd used a piper (to apply the icing) and it came out quite well, some better than others, but I got the hang of it quickly. The taste is probably what will hopefully bring people back for more, but the look is what will get people to pass by and think "..I could go for a cupcake right now, here's £2".

Also I don't have selective hearing Illy, I know we're not gunna switch right away. We'll be doing Jewellery for at least a month. We have two months rent free anyway so we could go two months and not make a loss unless we bought loads more stuff, which isn't likely. And maybe this week has been slow because of the County Show and everyone is there, but by the looks of the other traders in there, they seemed to think it was quite normal. Some days are good, some bad. But the fact is, if it carries on like this, even our 'good' days aren't good enough to keep this going, and everybody is saying if Jewellery doesn't work then we try something else. This COULD be that something else. I'm just thinking and planning ahead.

The Whitstable Cupcake shop (Whats Up Cupcake) btw, has a website, and apparently the cakes are £1.95 each, and they're only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and close early on Sundays. A cake review website too said the prices were "very reasonable" so £2-3 must be the standard. I know if we were in London I could probably charge £4 each.

I wonder if 1.95 sounds better than £2, and 2.95 better than £3. My only concern with this working is the location - the market is far quieter than the main town (at least it has been this week) so whether I could sell 36 cupcakes I don't know. That would give us a profit of £60 a day, which isn't bad. Definitely more than 36 people come through the market, obviously, but whether 36 of those would turn into sales... Being ignored by pretty much all passers-by with the jewellery shop has scared me. But the ones that ignore us, all seem to go on and look at all the other shops, so it's not that they're passing through reluctant to buy at all. Maybe a cupcake would brighten their day. There's quite a few young families going through too.

[Illusion]

It's not just the county show, the whole side that we're on sucks but they seem to be trying to rejuvenate it.  Plus it's our fault too because we're not rude enough.

[Fan]

Cupcakes are hard. If you did as good a job on your first try as you claim, then it might be the right direction to go down. Post some pictures.

Also, did you use your own recipe or a box recipe? Did you use your own frosting or a can? Customers will be able to tell, and it will save you money to use your own creations. There's also a lot of safety issues with food. Over here you need licenses and inspections before you can open a food related business. Also, putting raw cookie dough inside a baked cupcake can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing and keep it at a wrong temperature. How much does a flaky bar cost? If you're going for the ice cream theme why not a cherry instead? Probably cheaper.

How much research have you done? The food business is, well, serious business.

Also, lose the boxes. Nobody gives a shit what they come in. You're going to be spending a good chunk of money on packages your customers are going to throw away ten seconds later. Have big boxes for when people want to buy a dozen or two, because at that point you're selling enough to justify the cost. Sell individual cupcakes with a napkin and nothing else. Also, have beverages. Something you can make cheap like iced tea or lemonade and sell a glass for half a pound or whatever.

[gungrave17]

or you could sell meth, i know how to make one

[The Headliner]

All good points by Fan there. And you can do gungrave's idea under the counter.

[Illusion]

Yeah we've looked into the license thing already, but the whole cookie dough dangerous part concerns me since it'llbe his first try.  The recipes are ones he read online.

[Hazzy]

I already replied to this and posted pictures. It even said "last reply by Hazzy" in the NHB forum, so I was worried about double posting. But I come in here and it's disappeared. Did I dream it all and not actually post?

Well anyway, I took 8 cupcakes down to try and sell and they didn't. One kid asked how much they were and I told him £1.50 or 2 for £2, and he was like "oh" and walked off. I lowered to 70p each or £1 for 2, but still nothing. People looked but kept walking. Dunno if I can blame them though, 8 random cupcakes in a circle on a table at the corner of a cheap jewellery shop in an indoor market opposite a second hand crap charity shop. I doubt I'd buy them either. But there was a farmer's market on in the middle of town today too and me and Illy went in there and someone was selling cupcakes for £1.50 and only had one left.

It might just be my computer or account that's stopping me seeing my post, but if not and you wanna see pictures of the cakes say if they're not there for you and I'll post them again.

[Fan]

Not here.

[Hazzy]

Well I basically said your post was good. The cupcakes would cost around 20-30p per cake to produce (the flour, sugar etc. is all cheap because I can make 10 batches of 12-16 from one bag that's under £1). The expensive stuff is the butter, 1 stick for 50p which I use one of per batch (including frosting). And then extras like the flake or sprinkles or cookie dough etc. So I could sell for 50p each and make a profit, just not much. Especially for the amount I'd probably be selling.

Anyway, like I said, I didn't sell any today. I think it was the location and the people walking past. I think we could try and sell anything at this shop we have and it wouldn't sell enough to pay our rent. I still really like the idea of a cupcake shop, but I think to work it would have to either be the whole shop we have now dedicated to cupcakes or rent another shop in the center of town which is obviously out of the question right now. If we were making enough money to afford that then we wouldn't need to open a cupcake shop. I just had another one and they are delicious, maybe I should have offered free samples. :/

[Advocate]

I think one major issue with the business though is the product is aimed at girls and you both are afraid to talk to girls. 

[Illusion]

Then how come I'm talking to you.