One of the most common mistakes cake makers make is doing too much before the booking is confirmed.

Consultations, tastings, design work all before a single penny has been paid. It feels like good customer service, but it leaves you exposed.

In Episode 10 of The Cake Academy Podcast, Cheryl shares her own experience of running a process that was costing her time and creative energy with no guarantee of a return, and what she changed to fix it.

If you have ever put work into an enquiry that went nowhere, this episode will give you a clear and practical way to approach your booking process differently.

There are ways to grow a wedding cake business that feel like hard work, and there are ways that feel like quiet, steady momentum building in the background. Supplier relationships fall firmly into the second category.

In this episode, I am talking about one of the most overlooked visibility channels for cake makers; the relationships you build with the venues, florists, photographers, and wedding professionals already working alongside your ideal clients. When a venue recommends you, when a florist mentions your name, the enquiry that follows comes with trust already attached. That changes everything about how it converts.

I cover who you should be connecting with, how to approach those relationships in a way that feels genuine rather than transactional, and why the long term return on this kind of investment tends to quietly outperform almost any amount of social media activity.

This is not about collecting contacts. It is about building a small number of strong, mutual connections with people who do exceptional work and who will confidently put your name forward because they know exactly what you deliver.

If you are building a wedding cake business and you want a steadier, more reliable flow of warm enquiries, this episode is worth a listen.

Most cake makers pour their energy into social media and never build anything they actually own. Your email list is different. It is yours. No algorithm decides who sees it. No platform can take it away overnight.

In this episode, Cheryl breaks down email marketing in plain terms for cake makers, covering how to get set up, what to send, and how to build an automated system that works in the background so you are not starting from scratch every week.

Cheryl also shares how she personally treats new email subscribers as warm leads, following up with them directly and tracking those conversations inside Tier & Co alongside all other enquiries.

Whether you have never sent a marketing email in your life or you have a list sitting untouched, this episode will give you a clear and practical starting point.

If you have ever started the month with good intentions and then gone three weeks without posting anything, this episode is for you.

Cheryl opens up about the fact that she goes quiet on social media too, and explains why that is more common than most cake makers admit. She also shares something important about why her business continues to generate enquiries during those quieter periods, and why that context matters depending on where you are in your business journey right now.

This episode covers the real reasons consistency is hard, from not knowing what to say to the pressure of feeling like your content is never quite good enough, and gives you a practical, low-pressure approach to showing up more regularly without overhauling your whole routine.

If social media has been feeling like a burden rather than a tool, this one is worth a listen.

In this episode of The Cake Academy Podcast, Cheryl Bottomley breaks down the key numbers every cake maker should be tracking each month, and why most are flying blind without them. From enquiry numbers and conversion rates to revenue and expenses, learn how to use your data to make clearer business decisions and build a more predictable income.

In this episode of The Cake Academy Podcast, Cheryl Bottomley breaks down the key numbers every cake maker should be tracking each month, and why most are flying blind without them. From enquiry numbers and conversion rates to revenue and expenses, learn how to use your data to make clearer business decisions and build a more predictable income.

Struggling to turn cake enquiries into confirmed bookings? In this episode of The Cake Academy Podcast, Cheryl Bottomley breaks down the full enquiry to booking process and explains why many cake makers lose orders despite strong skills and steady enquiries. Learn how to improve your enquiry management, follow-up strategy, and conversion rate so you can secure more bookings and run a more organised, profitable cake business.

What if getting fully booked wasn’t about chasing more enquiries, but understanding the numbers behind the ones you already receive? In this episode, Cheryl breaks down enquiry to booking conversion rates and shows how to calculate exactly how many enquiries your cake business needs to hit your booking goals.

The Cake Academy Podcast is for cake makers who want more than just pretty cakes. It is for those who want consistent bookings, clear pricing, and a business that actually works.

In this podcast, Cheryl Bottomley shares the real reasons cake businesses struggle to grow, and the practical steps to fix it. From pricing and enquiries to marketing and systems, each episode is designed to help you build a stronger, more reliable cake business