Miranda's nappy cake recipe for business success
The UK’s first Nappy Cake Training Academy giving budding entrepreneurs chance to learn a craft and then set up their own businesses has been launched by a Mayfield mother-of-three.
Nappy cakes – beautiful non-edible multi-tiered cakes built using nappies - are proving to be popular gifts after the birth of a baby or at baby showers where friends and family celebrate the prospect of a new arrival.
Miranda Hart, who lives at Wellbrook, Mayfield, with husband Richard and children Charlotte (nine), Maxwell (five) and Jack (four), ran her own nappy cake business for five years and began sharing her knowledge at a training course held for five delegates in Tunbridge Wells on Saturday.
Miranda said the event was a great success and she is pressing ahead with organising more courses in Tunbridge Wells.
She is also launching in Brighton and has been asked to run classes in Newcastle and Stockport too.
This weekend Miranda going into a family home at Crawley where a mother and daughter want to learn the secrets of building a nappy cake.
They will be taught where to source beautiful toys and nappy cake materials, the art of tying a perfect bow and how to cellophane-wrap and package the finished product ready for delivery.
Miranda also focuses on the practicalities of setting up and running a business, including registering with HM Revenue and Customs, learning how to protect your own nappy cake designs and ensuring Public Liability Insurance is in place.
The courses are suitable for those wanting to launch their own business, for gift shop owners and traders wanting to add new product lines in-house as well as mums and others interested in earning money while working from home.
She said: “I am enjoying sharing the knowledge I have gained over the years and people are able to leave my courses ready to set up their own businesses straight away.
“Everybody knows somebody, whether a relation or a friend of a friend who is having a baby so the market for nappy cakes is massive. They make a lovely gift and are guaranteed to bring a smile.”
Miranda started her own nappy cake business after receiving one as a gift after the birth of her second child. It arrived in a black bin liner with blue poly ribbon encircling each layer of nappies.
Miranda immediately saw ways of making similar gifts more special and began designing her own cakes which were distributed across the country.
One of Miranda’s cakes was chosen as the centrepiece for a baby shower held in Mayfair for footballer’s wife Nicola McLean.
A photograph of the cake being presented by Chantelle Houghton can still be seen on Miranda’s Say it with Nappies website.
Miranda was delighted to receive glowing testimonials after her course on Saturday. Delegates are pictured below engrossed in their task.
One of the delegates, Claire Barnes from Bexley, said: “Thank you so much for hosting such a wonderful training day. You covered all the areas needed for us to now go out there and start out own little venture into the world of nappy cake-making and you have essentially given us a head start by sharing with us all your own experiences and pointing us in the right direction for supplies leaving us to get creative and get our designs out there.”
Learn more about The Nappy Cake Training Academy courses on the company’s website at: www.makeanappycake.co.uk.
The Nappy Cake Training Academy can also be found on Facebook.
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(Added to site Friday, November 4th, 2011)
