A taste of the competition

Things are moving very slowly with regards to the business. We are waiting and waiting for other people to reply or to get back to us before we can start so for now, we are focusing on other parts of the business. 

I have been trying out our new dough mixer and testing out recipes.  Since the equipment and baking pans are new, I need to try them out so see exactly how much batter I would need for each pan.  I don't want to have either too little nor too much batter and this is the best time to experiment so that I can get all recipes sorted.  It is important to do that for the cake batters since baking calls for exact measurements.  I want the baking to go well from the moment we start so that I don't have too many things to worry about.  It would be my first time at cooking many dishes in bulk so I would definitely be stressed out at first.

I have also been cooking dishes and baking cakes so that I could take photos of them.  The photos would go into our website, menus and flyers so I end up making more to have on standby so that I could take the perfect shot.  Because of that, we sometimes have lots of food left over.  Luckily we didn't have to eat everything ourselves. I have been giving them away to Pete's family or my friend who lives in the next block.  That's a win-win since we get feedback from them and also we don't have to waste any food.

Another task that we have been doing is a bit more fun - food testing.  But not our own food.  We have been trying some Asian food that are available here.  We have tried mainly Chinese and Thai food since those are a bit similar to ours.  So far, though, I haven't been impressed by their flavours.  Growing up in a place where street food is cheap, good and varied, I have tasted many different, delicious flavours and I think the Asian food here is sadly not up to scratch.  The sauces I have tried tasted like they either came out of a bottle or there were many ingredients missing resulting in insipid flavours.

Whenever I tasted the food, I would compare it with what I've experienced or with my own food.  I do think mine is more flavourful but I don't know if this would give me an edge over my competition.  What if our customers are more used to the bland flavours and are put off by my strong tasting foods?  I certainly don't want them to reject my food because they can't handle the spices or the new flavours they have never experienced.  Should I tone down the spices to cater to more palates or do I stick to the traditional flavours that I grew up with?

It's the same with cakes.  Most of the cakes here are very heavily laden with cream.  The cakes have only two thin layers of sponge and then filled and covered with whipped cream.  The cakes I am used to are more varied and much better looking.  I have been spoilt by world famous bakeries that have opened in Singapore and I thoroughly enjoyed the French and Japanese baked goods.  I can't make similarly exquisite desserts but the cakes that I can bake and love to eat are very different from those that are found here.  Cakes such as the humble butter cake, moist chocolate cake with ganache frosting, red velvet cake and lemon pound cake are not easily found here.

But with the cakes, I am going to stick to the recipes I know and love.  I am going to give our customers new choices.  If they want the usual cream cakes, I'm sure they can find those easily. But if they want something new, hopefully they will buy them from us.  What we need to do is to market our products well, maybe give out samples so they know what we have to offer.  And that's our challenge for now.