Well here we are. At the beginning of my latest adventure - you join me at the beginning of my journey to set up Manki Rabbit, a small home based business making and selling cake pops. Cake pops are small chocolate candy coated cake truffles on sticks. They look fantastic and taste divine. If you have never had one, you really don't know what you're missing. They are great for parties, wedding favours, baby showers and even corporate occasions. And believe me, you will be seeing and hearing much more about them very soon...
So where am I up to?
Well you join me at the beginning of setting up Manki Rabbit and I will share with you the adventure I go through to get up and running properly. To come is my advisory visit by the council and my kitchen inspection, discussions with Trading Standards to cover all the labelling requirements I need to meet and the fun bit - trying out new designs and serving new customers.
And why cake pops?
I have been making cakes for 15 years and it is always the sugarcraft and the modelling that really excites me. And cake pops give me the chance to make something that not only tastes fantastic but also gives me the chance to keep developing my modelling skills and using a whole range of tools and techniques. It keeps both my cake making and my artist heads very happy indeed :)
And why now?
Manki Rabbit represents for me the chance to keep running my own small business (which I have done in some guise for over 10 years) whilst balancing my want to keep precious time with my family. I also work as a part-time lecturer teaching Art and Design and have for the last few years run
Small Details Photography where I fulfill my passion for family photography.
I have spent the last few months balancing a busy workload with the commitments of a young family (I have 2 gorgeous girls, Maisie who is 3 and Isobel who is 2, as well as an amazing husband who I really don't see enough of) and as my photography diary got fuller, it became apparent that is was weekends which were the busy times. I am now less than 12 months away from my little girl starting school and weekends will become so precious that I made a rather hard decision to cut back on my photography commitments and put my energy into something home-based that doesn't have to take me away from home all the time. I will still continue to work as a photographer but on a much more restricted diary, and with the extra time and energy this will give me and I am diving head first into the delicious world of cake pops :)
And why on earth Manki Rabbit??
Yes I know 'manky' isn't a word with particularly positive connotations (and depending on where you hail from you may not even understand it!) but let me explain where the name of the business comes from. This is Manky Rabbit...
He is a toy that Isobel has had since she was born, and a toy that still rarely leaves her side. He is part of the family - and as you can see, he is indeed manky (this is what he looks like after a good wash!!). So he is known to everyone, including Isobel, as 'Manky Rabbit' and he is manky through love, devotion, commitment and true friendship.
He represents everything Manki Rabbit is about - family, loyalty and love.
I have obviously changed the spelling to give me two cake pop 'i's' and to maybe remove a little of the 'manky-ness' of the original - but you have to admit, it's an unusual name that you will probably remember, and one which I hope you now fully understand.
So, here we go - let's see where Manki Rabbit takes us...
