Rocktavia's Cakey Muto

I’m a lot cheerier than the last blog.  Things have changed in the shop and I think there is a happier vibe.  We’re just getting our heads town at Team Cakey and we have a few ideas as to how to expand our reach.  There’s been some really amazing people getting in touch, all of which is for things that will take a little while to develop, but the irons are in the fire and smelting.  I just hope we can find a few twigs to keep the fire stoked until then.   

Every day someone comes in with an amazing connection, I just met a girl who works in a place we could supply fairly locally, a guy who runs events popped in to ask about us supplying wedding cakes for all the events (BIG events) he caters for.  Jeez, some of this surely has to stick to the wall, doesn’t it?  

We’ve some fun events in this month, a pop quiz on the 19th April and two gigs on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th (Goodnight and I Wish and Lund respectively).  The more events the better. 

We also have the craziest range of cake commissions in the next two weeks, involving 3D lettering, 60s bands remodelled, homages to a soap opera and a gaming hero and a cake for a metal band to destroy in front of a live audience.  

Thinking about branching into weekday markets too, so if anyone has any recommendations/experiences of this, that would be great to talk.  Failing that I’m buying a pink wig and a shocking pink usherette tray and I’ll be taking some long walks in short skirts and high heels, will let you know my route. 

It goes good.  Four months in and we’re so busy on commissions it’s insane.  We’ve made proposal cakes for three people, one didn’t collect (shit), but we have made two couples become one. It brings a tear to my eye to be so closely involved in the secretive nature of the make or break cake.  Alas, me and mine haven’t made it, but we are continuing to work together and it just shows how stressful opening a business can be.  We’ll be okay and I hope will come out of this better friends.  

I knew something would break in all this, I just didn’t think it would be that. 

Keep an eye on the Facebook page over the next couple of days for pictures of some of our amazing commissions… wedding cakes, proposal cakes, cakes for advertising and new baby baskets of cupcakes….  

You get to see the evolution of relationships through cake making, I never realised it would be this deep!!!

Hey! We are alive!  We are also in the process of getting a website together, so I thought as we now have a holding page, with a link - I should get my shit together and actually write a post.  

Things are going great guns, we’ve lots of commissions coming in, all sorts of themes - jungles, gardens, vodka bottles, football, stormtroopers, pandas, Happy Feet - the imagination is the limit.    We had our first kids’ party and it was a resounding success, less so for our mascot stuffed fox who suffered a little at the hands of the throng, but we’re still up for more and he will be placed in a safe place next time. 

We’ve been tasting wines, courtesy of Jascots Wine Merchants and they have done an excellent job at the pairings with Mr Hair’s Pies and also our cakes, so look out for them coming soon.  I’m enjoying a little more of the Chilean Cab Sav as I type.  

We start the evening events tomorrow with Lord Sinclair’s world famous Rock ‘n’ Roll Bingo, previously seen at ATP (Minehead, London & New York) and The Lexington.   Expect high level swearing, booze, cakes and ‘HOUSE!’

We are also in the process of installing a DJ booth and various bits and pieces to bring the basement up to spec for proper events - next is sorting out the live music aspect.  We’re very excited to have Myriad Publishing holding an event on Friday 23rd March with Nina de la Mer, Jonathan Kemp, Ed Siegle and maybe Oh Standfast! - still TBC, details to be released soon.  

It’s difficult for this not to turn into and ‘and then!’ style blog - I’m rather out of the habit!!   I’m just rather proud of how things seem to be going for us!  And did I mention we were in The Guardian?  Well, we were!! Here’s the link, not bad for a three month old, eh?!

https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/travel/2012/jan/20/london-olympics-venue-guide-2012

Well, I was born 39 years ago today (cough), and Cakey Muto was finally squeezed out into the world on Saturday 29th October 2011.  So we are both Halloween babies.  It seems fitting I guess that we should open at a time of year when we could have fun with zombie biscuits and edible bats, I’ll be sad we can’t do them all year round.   We had a really busy weekend, lots of positive feedback, I had to do a bit of trolly dollying up and down Chatsworth Road to tempt people past the invisible barrier of Paks Chemist, they’re not used to walking any further up, but it will change I’m sure! 

I shall post lots of picture here over the next few weeks, check the Facebook site for regular updates, but we’ve done it! Cakey Muto is alive!! 

As I write this I’m baking a cake.  I’m also baking a pasta bake for our tea.  Well, I was, I have everything in place and just needed to cook some pasta so I can assemble and pop in the oven once the cake is out (not a good cross contamination of smells) - but I forgot to buy pasta.  Oh dear, thankfully I feel a bit more in control of Cakey Muto, but only marginally. 

I’m continuing in my self test by working full time in TV, last weekend was the R1 Teen Choice Awards at Wembley, which was a stretch of my sanity and no mistake, lots of early mornings, shitloads to do and a few tense moments, but we made it through and I’m on a week of clear up, next week I’ve one week off work and all cake is gonna break loose. 

The kitchen goes in, the coffee machine arrives, the bakers and I will be thrashing out the menu for Cakey treats and more importantly I’m hoping we can open the doors.  

We’ve even tarted up the downstairs area which was always going to be a bit further down the line, but I figured we may as well do as much as we can.  Aprons have been ordered, the final bits of building and painting will be done in the next week, I am so excited I could forget to buy pasta for a carb heavy dish. 

The training at Monmouth was amazing, terrifying in parts, but it seems we all aced the coffee part, but we may need a further day on ‘milk’.  

I ordered some expensive tables today, I had finally found some inexpensive tables after a long, long search, but despite paying for them and saying it would be a while before I required pick up, they seem to have gone missing - so with less than two weeks to go and nothing out there second hand seemingly fitting - I’ve gone for my dream beauties, and now there’s a worry they won’t be made in time, so we could all be standing, sitting Japanese style or working with trestle tables if they don’t make it in time.  It’s always the simple things.  I also ordered some embroidered aprons and a neon sign.  Next week it will be tills, ingredients and ‘STUFF’!!!

Will keep you posted. 

By the way, just reading a couple of old blogs, I realised I never announced that I passed the alcohol exam and the licence application is in the post.  Also here is an pic of the newly painted ground floor. 

And here is the old sign coming down courtesy of two passing gypsies.  I’m not sure I’ll be so keen to re-hire them, it was the scariest 20 minutes of my life watching a large aluminium sign being shoddily dislodged from it’s fittings, whilst they commented on my nervous disposition and reassured me with lines such as “he’s not the full ticket”. No shit. 

A lot has happened in the last month, you wouldn’t know that though as I’m still a slacker on the updates.  It’s all moving like a travelator on warp speed, and I like it. We have a painted ground floor, the Council seem happy/impassive, next week we have the basement being painted red velvet, the toilet being descuzzed, a few minor alterations, some electrics put in downstairs (to be christened the Cake Hole), the sign going up, black and white chequered flooring going down and a final (this time I mean final) meeting about the kitchen, with actual dates and shit.  I can’t believe it, my aim is to be open for Halloween, which would be awesome as it’s my birthday on 31st October and what better opportunity to display our cake making prowess.  Once the kitchen is installed, I can get the bakers in and we can start plotting.  

We have 225 likes on Facebook, which I think is pretty incredible. I googled Cakey Muto and there are people I don’t even know that seem excited about the prospect of us opening, I can’t wait to get the chance to make them happy.  Tables are ordered, the jukebox ready to be delivered once the floor is in, a world of crockery and minutae currently in the flat ready to be put in place, it’s really starting to come together. 

Four of us are booked onto a training day at Monmouth Coffee’s roasting house on 10th October, and we’re all very excited.  Next step is learning how to draw a skull and crossbones into a latte, or a cat in a cappucino, what coffee art would brighten up your day?  I went into the Milk Bar in Soho the other day and received a verbal dressing down for requesting vanilla syrup in my coffee.  Whatever anyone asks for in Cakey in their coffee, within reason and the law, we will make happen, how dare anyone belittle someone on their coffee choice?   No coffee snobs in my shop.

I bought 20 litres of red paint today for the basement, I really want it to contrast to upstairs, which has to be friendly and appeal to the young & old, so downstairs will be our opportunity to weird out.  Inspiration includes the red room in Twin Peaks, being absorbed into a giant red velvet cupcake, the old goth in me and creating an underground womb!  Lots of fairy lights and dark wood/leather.  A real bolt hole, and will be available to hire. 

Another job for next week is soundproofing the flimsy connection between Cakey and the flat beyond, which is so badly done that you can see their living room carpet under the 2 inch gap.  I could make the landlord rectify this, but his contractors would probably fuck it up and I want to keep these guys on side as making an enemy of those so close would make no sense, currently they can hear us every time we pop in, which must be pretty annoying.  I wonder how they fared listening to the inner workings of Global Link, day after day.  Dull probably. 

The sign will go up early this week too, and it’s amazing.  It’s HUGE!  Martin Kingdom is a local Hackney-ite and a bloody good artist and he has really done us all proud. Here’s a sneak preview… 

Lots more to follow next week folks….

I’m not going to mention my lack of blogs, it’s not all my fault – I typed up a stonker last week and then when inserting a picture, Tumblr deleted it.  I had to have a very long sit down with a glass of wine afterwards – livid.   7 days later and I feel enough time has passed for me to be able to retrace my words and retype my recent activities.   It’s been quite busy, but like a duck, whilst not much seems to be happening on the surface, I’m going like the clappers behind the scenes.

Since my fated and deleted blog the Council have come back with comments relating to my Building Application for the basement work and the shop refit.  When I first read my Architect’s email I had an overwhelming sense of doom that all was not good, but having reread it a few times, I don’t think it’s as bad as it appeared at first glance.  Ever the optimist!  They suggested I install a lift, which seems rather over the top, although I’d love to have my own lift – perhaps one of those NY sorts with the pull across shutter?  No, it’s crazy - we are going to fight that one.  I have an appointment on Monday morning with a chap at the Town Hall to go through it all and I’m really nervous, I may bake him a little council themed cake to show him how I roll, or will that be seen as a bribe?  What decoration does a council cake make?   Some red tape around the base perhaps?

We are ripping up the floors this weekend and painting the walls, it seems a very bold step, I am currently fluctuating wildly between a very ‘me’ lilac or going completely off the wall with an orange, or playing to a grown up crowd with a ‘what I perceive to be a bit sensible’ taupe.   I don’t think anyone will thank me for launching a sensible cake shop though, so orange or lilac will prevail.  There’s also a bawdy green hovering in the wings.  All will be decided in the paint shop at 9am in the morning, I have a horrible feeling it will depend on the hangover.  How exciting, even I’m intrigued to see what the outcome will be.

Should I smooth things over with the council, then I do hope we can get the kitchen in after the bank holiday.  Imagine that!  I wonder if we’ll be trading before the next rent is due at the end of September, possibly not, but we surely will be open for my birthday and the cake inspiration date of the year, Halloween on 31^st October.  What a way to launch, with some seriously spooky cakes.  

 I’ve passed my alcohol exam, so it wasn’t 30 years wasted gaining first hand knowledge of the effects of alcohol, I can now apply for a personal license once my CRB check comes back.   I can hold up to 50 events in a year through a temporary license or apply for a premises license, so cakes and a tipple are not out of the realms of possibility, especially good for celebration events.

 I’ve had a few wonderful commissions lately too, one for a book launch in Brighton for the book 4a.m. written by Nina de la Mer, and another for Russell’s of Clapton a super-cool B&B on the Chatsworth Road, which may have led to a very exciting and prestigious commission, more on that later.  

It’s taken about 300% longer than I thought it would already and we’re not done yet. It’s getting there, I’ve had my black Thursday when I cried myself to sleep after a 14 hour shoot day, convinced we’d never open and I had made a terrible mistake, but the next day I pulled myself together and back onto cracking the whip and I feel very positive again now.  I can’t wait for the walls to be painted as I think that will change the feel of the whole place and the signwriter starts from tomorrow too.  I reckon it will be a case of once the sign is up and the inside starts to take shape all will fall into place (positive thinking!) The council will be lovely and we’ll be open in super quick time.  Well, a girl can dream!   If you’re passing tomorrow, do swing by – I can’t wait to meet everyone.