Monday, February 22, 2010

Buried on the other side of frustration is success

A beautiful Hydrangea cupcake tower setup by Shirin from www.dddash.com.au for a 40th birthday using our cupcakes and featuring a custom request for a three tier flower cupcake. A close up of a three tier flower cupcake is below in a different colour scheme.


It has been an insanely busy few weeks with all the Valentine's Day celebrations and Chinese New Year celebrations.. it's been great though and I'm so thankful for all the orders I've received of late. But running a business on your own is not easy...with the influx of orders I've had to juggle my time, rush a few orders and lose hours of sleep. I've felt frustrated, fearful, overwhelmed and disappointed quite a bit over the last few weeks.

I always pride myself in making sure that my customers are 100% satisfied with their orders and as of lately I think I've been letting them down because I've just taken on too much work for myself and have not been able to give 100%. I've made mistakes, silly mistakes. I feel frustrated because I know I could be doing so much more but I'm tired. I know I need to make progress but I'm scared to fail.

But today I realised that even when things go wrong, which they will, there are ways to make amends. To turn a negative into a positive.

Firstly, you have to take ownership of what has happened. Don't blame others, don't make up excuses. If you've stuffed up, then admit it and do it quickly.

Turn frustration into fascination. Frustration is what pushes us to succeed. Why? Because without it, it means we couldn't care less about what is happening and therefore it doesn't compel us to take further action. But frustration can be crippling as well. If you let frustration overcome you, you can feel as though you can't break through it and give up instead. So when I get frustrated, I am now going to turn it into fascination. If someone else is doing better than I am, instead of being frustrated I will ask myself in wonder "How did they get to where they are and succeed? What am I doing differently? How can I achieve what I am failing at now?". As Mr.Robbins says, "Very few people understand that buried on the other side of frustration is success".

Now onto more exciting news on what Cupcake Central has been up to.

On 13th and 14th February we held our most successful Cupcake Stall we've ever experienced. If it weren't from the high I was experiencing from all our amazing customers buying cupcakes, passing on wonderful compliments, coming back for more cupcakes and then selling out ALL our cupcakes halfway through the day...I would've probably passed out from the hours of baking I did (on my own!) and lack of sleep.

Busy working away, I didn't even get time to take a good look at the display till we were almost sold out so I didn't get to see how nice it really looked from the customers perspective.


We also got a custom made babycake display and they all looked so adorable lined up like that. We had some special Valentine's Day babycakes with conversation heart candies on top. The girls loved them and picked out their favourite quotes that ranged from "Email Me" to "You are cute"

I also felt that my cupcakes were being paparazzied as so many people took photos and I'm not over exaggerating when I say I witnessed over 100 individual people took photos or video taped them. And yes, I understand there are businesses out there that forbid people to take photos of your shop/stall/product due to copy issues and people stealing your ideas but really the majority of people taking photos is not because they want to steal your idea but it's because they admire the work you've put in and find it nice to look at...I didn't invent "the cupcake" and I am more than happy to share my creations with the world. That's the whole point of why I bake.

And I always hate it when I'm not allowed to take photos of food inside a shop when I want to go home and show my mum or friends, it's even worse when they tell you off and make you embarrassed for taking out your camera. I'm going to vow never to be one of those business owners that are so pretentious to think that people take photos to steal your idea or are trying to imitate your business. They should all get over themselves. If they believe in what they do, they shouldn't worry about others about imitating them because they'll be busy thinking about the next step to keep themselves in front of the game.

Okay, it's been a while since I've blogged and have tried to cram it all into one post. My apologies!

One last thing I want to announce...or two.

We'll be at Glen Waverley (Kingsway) Chinese New Year Festival this Sunday 28th February with another Cupcake Stall! I'm going to try to bake as many as I physically can as well as fulfill all my other orders so I don't have disappointed customers. But just in case try to come early in the arvo. It starts at 11am and ends at 8pm.

I'm also sooooo very excited to announce that we'll be part of the Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival
which is an exciting event where renowned designers and labels take part in a fashion festival that everyone can participate in by attending workshops, shows and campaigns run by the different labels. We have an opportunity with HUSSY to be able to have our designer babycakes in their GPO store for customers and VIP's to enjoy. The details so far is that it will be held on March 18th but I'll update all you guys closer to the day. Just make sure if you're working that you pop by HUSSY at lunch or after work to check it out!

Lots of love xoxo

Friday, February 5, 2010

1 Year Blogiversary

It's my one year Blogiversary. It's hard to believe that only a short year ago I started on my journey to figure out how to bake cupcakes for a living. This is going to be a pretty short post as I'm up at 1am and I need to get up in about 6 hours to bake again. Even though it can be tiring sometimes, I enjoy every moment of baking. Of course there are stressful moments where I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing and staying motivated is especially hard on your own. It's not all rainbows and butterflies.

I've been fortunate to know someone who has been willing to mentor and share their knowledge, experience and wisdom with me. When you meet someone who is successful and has achieved what you want to do, it makes you want to aim higher. It makes you want to reach for the stars & beyond. It makes you feel that it IS possible. I'm starting to feel that things are starting to go somewhere, I'm building the momentum to create this dream.

On another note, Cupcake Central is going to be holding a few stalls over the next couple of weeks. You can also check up on our website where we'll be holding a stall next, just head to our website and click on "locations".

Dingley Village Craft & Produce Market
A lovely market that has several stalls with handmade crafty goods and homemade food stalls - perfect for your Sunday morning stroll. This is our regular market that we attend on a monthly basis.
Where:
31 Marcus Rd, Dingley Village
When:
9am till 2pm on Sunday 7th February 2010, Sunday 7th March 2010

Chinese New Year Festival 2010
Come along to this festival to experience Chinese New Year with lots of food, drink and performances. There will also be firecrackers at 12am to celebrate the beginning of Chinese New Year.

Where:
Pedestrian Mall between Centro Box Hill and Centro Whitehorse
When: 3pm till 3am on Saturday 13th February 2010/Sunday 14th February 2010


I'm most excited about the Chinese New Year Festival at Box Hill. We're going to have some special Chinese New Year cupcakes and also Valentine's Day cupcakes as this year the two occasions fall on the 14th February.

Hope to see you at one of those events!

Simple stylish black & white themed Wedding Cupcake Tower

I just found this photo of cupcake cookies I baked a while back. They were really fun to make.