Scrumptious Buns business is a winner
Elaine MaslinFor one Norfolk-based freelance graphic designer, her hobby of creating often highly intricate cup cakes has become a new online business from her home.Elaine Maslin
Turning a profit from a hobby - now that must be the icing on the cake.
For one Norfolk-based freelance graphic designer, her hobby of creating often highly intricate cup cakes has become a new online business from her home.
Samantha Douglass, of Norwich road, Wroxham, launched her business, Scrumptious Buns, last October and since going live, she has been inundated with orders - including one for a 'flock' of cup cake sheep for a 70th birthday party.
She said she was fully booked every weekend with wedding and birthday orders as well as orders for gift boxes of 12 or 24 bespoke cupcakes during the week.
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Over Christmas she said she even had to turn down many orders for corporate customers hoping to give a special treat and in the first six days of this year she had 17 inquiries.
Miss Douglass' skills in website design, branding and marketing has been a great boon to the new business, allowing her to optimise her website on search engine Google - keeping it at the top of search results.
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'I worked in advertising so I know about marketing and I had always baked so I thought I would give it a go,' she said.
'With the recession graphics was a bit quiet so I used the opportunity to create something new.
'Now business is booming and it is profitable. I call it a hobby but it is a very viable business. The cakes sell themselves. The ingredients do not cost much, it is just time.'
The recent craze for specialist cupcakes follows a well established trend in Australia and America, said Miss Douglass, 35.
They are most popular for 18, 21 and 70th birthdays, corporate orders and christenings but also weddings, which she hopes to do more of as she builds the business.
Already she has had eight or nine inquiries for weddings per week. She hopes to do more when her two children are both at school.
Miss Douglass, 35, had worked at a design firm in Norwich and became a director but set up her own firm Peach Plum Creative after being made redundant.
She now runs her graphic design firm from a log cabin in the garden of her home, which she shares with her partner and two young children.
