#202 Bec Severs – Baking and Business

Baking and Business: Finding the Balance with Bec Severs Today's episode is an unusual one with an extra guest, Graham's employee Ellie. Together, we chat to Bec Severs about baking and business. Bec is cornering the market in all things sweet and delicious in the Keighley area and the rest of the UK. She owns the beautiful business Three Little Birds Bakery. The highlight of being a podcast host... Bec made this podcast very special by sending Ellie and Graham some treats to sample on The Next 100 Days Podcast. Big THANK YOU to Bec for that! They'll be tasted a little later on. Three Littler Birds Bakery Bec's bakery has just celebrated its' fourth birthday on November the 5th. They provide a luxury experience in wedding cakes, celebration cakes, macarons and cake decorating classes. When you go to the Three Little Birds Bakery, you get treated like royalty and experience luxury in service and product. Bec's business came about because she heard too many stories of cakes looking beautiful on the outside and tasting dry and crumbly and disappointing. Cake shouldn't just look amazing; it should taste fantastic and, as the consumer, you should feel special when buying a special product. Now, macarons are difficult. Actually, macaron classes are Bec's most popular for that very reason. However, there is an important question here: "Is it macaron or macaroon?" It's MACARON. Macaroons are the traditional British dessert that tend to be baked on rice paper with the almond on the top. The macaron is what Bec sells - they are called French macarons. Bec has actually baked three for Ellie and Graham...one is strawberries and cream flavoured and the other two are salter caramel. My oh my, they tasted delicious! She really delivers on the taste as well as the delicate appearance. Where to find Bec Bec works from home and she had the kitchen done so she has a lot more space! Macarons are sold for weddings, as lots of people are following the trend of a macaron tower rather than a traditional wedding cake. Also, she does seasonal macaron packages as well as the wedding and celebration cakes. Speaking of weddings, Kevin tells us the story of his daughter's disaster  on the night before the wedding. Kevin's daughter is also a baker and she created her own wedding cake but there was a slight disaster in the back of the car. They had to rebuild the wedding cake - nightmare! As for Bec, she's happy she got married before she started the business! Cake artistry: baking and business On Bec's business cards she calls herself the 'cake artist'. Cakes for celebrations are becoming more and more fantastic. Bec likes edible art and that's one reason why she loves her job. She has always loved craft, drawing and painting - essentially, creativity - and being able to combine that with cake and business has been great! There are still trends for naked and see-naked cakes which offer a rustic look. But, Bec loves the trends of illusion cakes and artistic cakes. What's a naked/semi-naked cake Graham wants to know - well, it's a simple and natural cake with buttercream that is spread on the edges but still shows the cake underneath. Very good for barn weddings apparently! The difference with Three Little Birds Bakery cakes is that each consumer gets a completely tailored design.  Her process is: You'll go to her and fill in details about what you're looking for. Bec will sketch 2 or 3 designs for the cake. You get to choose Bec will bring the design to life by making it and decorating with sugar, or icing, depending what the design is. This way, her baking is art but just with a different, yummy media. Pricing Given that the service is luxurious, Graham thinks Bec's pricing is fairly modest. Where the cost comes in is the decoration, so her pricing list is a guideline. The issue with the baking industry is that pricing can be a real challenge.