It is a great feeling when a customer is pleased with your product and asks for another order. Recently, I had my second repeat customer. Surprise! It's the same customer who requested for a meet up. Yup, second order was still through meet up. Yikes!
And the meet up saga continues. Lol.
So here's the story..
Just about an hour after the birthday cake was delivered, customer sent me a message if I have a cake available the next day for Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, the cakes are only made to order and I have to explain that the earliest date I could finish making one will be on the 25th.
It usually takes me 2 days to finish making a cake. First day for making the base and decorating on the second day, but as much as possible I require customers to make their orders 3 days before their pick up date. The extra day is for unexpected occurences like purchasing ingredients in case I ran out of it or repeating making the cake when I messed up on the design.
I thought the transaction ended there, but then on Christmas Day I received another message from her ordering a cake for New Year's Eve instead.
For her second cake, she wanted a floral cake with fishes. Someone had finally ordered a cake with fish design! I'm happy but nervous at the same time because I still haven't gotten the right technique for making designs on the fish. However, I want to take this as a challenge. My jelly cake teacher even advised as before to just accept orders and keep creating because it's the only way we would improve. So I told the customer that I'll send her some designs later that day for her to choose from.
The design she chose was the second or the design with two fishes facing each other at the center of the cake. The size of the cake she wanted was 8 inches.
I got a huge sigh of relief when the customer liked the result. I would always send photos of the cake to the customer when I finished the cake early so they would know what to expect.
I really thought this cake wouldn't end up good because the black spots on the fish peeled off while I was about to insert it into the agar. Instead of being a koi fish it ended up looking like a gold fish! I also struggled inserting the fish into the agar. My stress level at that moment shot higher when I saw the orange color of the fish slowly bleeding. It's only a good thing that the color of the base made it less noticeable.
I was contemplating whether to repeat making the base and fish but making them again takes a lot of effort and time but I proceeded making the decorations the next day. If the cake didn't look good then I will have to repeat it again from the beginning.
And the day came for another meet up. Same place as the first meet up. She said she'll have the delivery rider meet up with me at 10 in the morning. I believe it will be better this time because she was responding quick on my messages and had booked a rider ahead of time.
I arrived few minutes before the agreed time. But after a few minutes of not receiving an update from the customer nor the rider, I decided to eat so I could also place the cake on a table because it's too heavy. The cake is probably around 2 kgs.
Anyway, I also wanted to try Auntie Anne's passion fruit cream cheese pocket. I was eating it slowly while waiting for an update from the rider.
After a couple of minutes I was already finished eating. I stayed seated and pretended I still haven't finished my drink because I'm afraid they would ask me to leave when some customers come to sit. Lucky that not all seats get occupied at once and I got to stay there until the rider came.
About 30 minutes later, the rider finally called me and told he's on the way. The customer also told me that she also requested the rider to buy doughnuts aside from picking up the cake. I told her it's okay since the doughnut store is on the same mall. I then sent a message to the rider to buy the doughnuts first before picking up the cake because it's heavy.
On the second call he told that he's already inside the mall lining up to buy doughnuts. He told that it may take a while because there were many people buying doughnuts.
There were more people coming in to sit at the chairs beside me so I decided to get an update from the rider 20 minutes later. He said he's still at the line but already near the cashier.
And after almost 20 more minutes, the rider finally got the cake. He also asked me how long I was waiting and told him around an hour when it's actually 1.5 hours. Lol.
Whew! I left Auntie Anne's as soon as I had handed the cake and sent a message to the customer. Ah, the last cake transaction for 2024 is finally done!
I took a quick photo of this Christmas set up before walking to the escalator. I wanted to take a photo in front but there were people sitting so I just captured the side.
I was supposed to buy eggs at the grocery but then I saw the long lines at the cashier. Oh my, I don't want to wait another hour! I returned the tray of eggs and went home.
This is really the last meet up I am doing. I only allowed it because I didn't have any other orders that day and it's the same customer whom I agreed for a meet up few days ago. But never again.
Okay, so moving on to the cake, this is probably my favorite right now. I think I've done the design close to what I imagined it to be. The aqua colored base also complemented and made the colors of the flowers pop out. I'm really thankful all the flower designs fitted into the cake. The fishes weren't exactly at the center and I'm afraid the design on the narrow side wouldn't fit but thank goodness the space was just enough for the design.
This is actually my first cake order with fish in it. And not with just one fish! I still need a couple of practice so the black spots of the fish don't fall off next time. The customer liked it though. I'm happy.
And finally, I was also able to use the edible glitters right this time. I used the glitters on the body of the fish. If you can notice, the body of the fish is sparkling in orange color. I believe its sparkly orange color contributed to the overall dainty look of the cake.
Here's my favorite shot of the cake. ♡
Of course, it's still holiday so I added a mini cupcake freebie again. I also included a new year's day cake topper.
I actually forgot to include the portion for the freebie while cooking the base of the cake. Good thing I remembered it as soon as I finished the base. Lol.
This cake is easily one of my favorites cakes I made so far. I think I did well making the floral designs as well and having them fit into the cake. Don't the air bubbles looked cute too? The air bubbles make it look like the fishes are in the water.
And that is all for my first jelly cake order with fishes. I'm glad I got the opportunity to make one because it's also a way for me to practice at the same time. Despite the late pick up again, the customer was really appreciative. But no more meet ups from now on. It's exhausting.
Welcome, 2025! I hope it will be a better year for my business. More jelly cakes to inject!!
Thanks for reading! 💚
