The great wall of ugly-ness

My third market stall at Parap Markets was Easter Saturday and boy, were there lots of people at the markets. I had gone to great lengths to make Easter nest cupcakes and Cookies n Cream cupcakes for the occasion.

However, being a casual market stall holder (I trade when I please'm) meant that I was put in a new spot in the alleyway of crafts and clothes stalls. Normally this spot would be fantastic for cakes because its well shaded and is a main thoroughfare for people. However, on Easter Saturday, it seemed more like a non stop highway which meant people completely overlooked Maeli's Homemade. It was extremely disappointing watching people glance down at my cakes and continue walking in the throng of people. 

I took some photos for future reference and decided that I need to work on my display and presentation. I got feedback from other stall holders and they suggested I create more colour and drawcards like signage. 

But most of all, when I showed my best mate Josh the photos, he said it was the disgusting boring wall behind me. Notice the difference between the two photos and the backgrounds behind my stall and the jewelery stall across the path from me..

Note Ugly wall behind Maeli's Homemade

So I am working on my signage and Background!

I'm certainly getting a lesson in marketing and store design/display !!

Anyone for Birthday Cake?

This weekend I didn't hold my market stall because I was busy making a custom birthday cake! I was given the theme of red, white and gold and also Lime green. It was so much fun to make.. especially using edible gold glitter for the first time. I displayed them on my Robert Gordon tiered cake stand. And was pretty impressed with myself! 

Raspberry and Cream Cupcakes

Lime and Pistachio Mini Cakes

I also made a bouquet of sweet treats. My first attempt at cake pops was initially hard because the mud cake balls kept falling apart when I dipped them in the chocolate. So after I froze the cake balls, I was able to dip them more easily. I also chocolate dipped strawberries for the bouquet of treats.

Bouquet of Sweet Treats

New Improvements

Passionfruit Melting Moments for sale at work

Last week I missed the markets because I couldn't get on to the market manager to see if I could have my stall again. Instead, I baked passionfruit melting moments and sold them in the tea room of my office at work. What an easy $32! It was the first time that I piped melting moments so I was pretty impressed.. and so were my work colleagues.

Lemon Merigue Cupcakes for Market Day 2

Blueberry and Walnut Cakes - Not exciting enough for paying customers!

The markets this week consisted of Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, Blueberry and Walnut Cakes, and Hazlenut Chocolate Marble Cakes. Somehow I ended up with way more Blueberry Walnut cakes at the end and these were the most unattractive cakes so they didn't seem to attract attention like a cupcake with buttercream might.
So I have learnt that I must have equal variety of non good-looking and good-looking cakes to attract customers and make sure that I have some left towards the end. The most embarrassing thing is sitting at my stall at the end of the day with 5 dismal cakes on a plate waiting for them to sell. I'm not allowed to pack up before 1:30pm so its hard to sit there with only a few things left that won't sell anyway because it looks so pathetic.!!