There was a time, long before Becca's Bouqcakes and Flourish and Bloom Kitchen existed, when I thought supplying a café would be my big break. The facilities director at my old job in a university approached me one afternoon, all smiles and enthusiasm, and asked if I’d consider supplying cakes to the on‑site café. He'd eaten many free cakes I'd bought into the office during my tenure as a project manager; had seen a new concept I'd come up with and thought it would work well

You bake for fun. You bake because it’s creative, grounding, joyful. You bake because it gives you a sense of achievement that the rest of your life doesn’t always offer. And sometimes, before you even take that first step into selling, you see someone else doing it. Someone posting immaculate cakes. Someone whose piping is flawless, whose brownies are glossy, whose presentation is polished. Someone who is clearly talented — and yet calls herself “just a hobby baker.” Today

Every year, around this time, I start to see the same thing happen in baker groups and inboxes: “Help, I’m drowning in Mother’s Day orders.” “I’ve said yes to too much again.” “I’m already exhausted and it’s not even here yet.” If you’re in the US or elsewhere and your Mother’s Day is still ahead of you, this might feel very current. If you’re in the UK, you might already be nodding along thinking, “yep… that was me a few weeks ago.” Either way — the pattern is the same. I ge