Hello I’m Caroline Drew. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about myself and what led me into the world of cake decorating, and how I have been making a fabulous living from a hobby I love.

I was the youngest in our family, the only girl, with five large very protective brothers. We lived on a dairy farm near the tiny settlement of Te Manuka in New Zealand’s far north.

My dad was a sharemilker. If you are unfamiliar with the term, he owned a herd of approximately 200 cows which he accommodated on another farmers property. In payment for the use of that farmers land they shared the income from the milk produced.

Along with my brothers I attended the local school at Te Manuka. A primary school with one teacher and about thirty pupils ranging in age from 5 to 13. We got to school by riding horseback, a one hour ride each way. The school had a tree lined paddock out the back where we used to keep the horses during school hours.

When it came time for me to move on to secondary school we still rode our horses into Te Manuka and then went by school bus to Kaitaia College, a 60km trip each way on a dusty, winding gravel road. Kaitaia was the nearest town of any size. I think the population at that time was somewhere around 2,000 – 3,000.

In the college curriculum we had a half day each week where the girls had the choice of either sewing or cooking. Well I chose cooking and loved it. In fact it was the only thing I did like about school. I never failed to get top marks in cooking but was a complete dunderhead in all other subjects. As soon as I reached the age of fifteen, the legal age to be able to drop out, I was out of there.

Farmers in those days relied extensively on horses for work and recreation. I had a great affinity with our horses, I could do anything with them and they would all do anything I asked. The other love in my life at that time besides cooking was my pony Trish. Trish and I gained quite a reputation winning numerous Pony Club competitions for about six years running.

When I left school, because of my small size along with my love of and affinity with horses, my parents suggested that I should consider employment as a jockey. Dad had a friend with racing stables training a large team of horses at Takanini near Auckland. As I often spent school holidays staying with his family helping out in the stables while there, I had a fair idea of what was involved and was all for it.

I joined the industry work force initially on trial as a probationary, and then as an apprentice jockey. Within a couple of months of joining the stable I was riding some of the quieter horses and a year later had advanced to the stage that I was riding at trials. Race day rides quickly followed, as did the ultimate buzz – riding winners. It didn’t take long for that winning feeling to grow and become a challenge every time I got in the saddle on race day.

All in all, I suppose you could say I was a fair sort of a jockey. I did quite well kicking home my fair share of winners until one day about a year after I came out of my apprenticeship it all turned to custard.

I was riding in a sprint for 2yo colts and geldings. I was feeling pretty good as I had just ridden a winner in the previous race and the colt that I was on was well rated with a good show. We were just coming out of the bend into the straight, I had my horse tucked in behind the leader ready to make his run when for no apparent reason he veered in and attempted to jump the running rail catapulting me into the air. I landed heavily on my head with my body slamming into the rail.

I was unconscious for several days. I had a scull fracture, multiple broken bones in my left leg and two fractured ribs. I was not allowed to get on a horse for four months because of my head injuries, and was not declared fit for race riding for nearly a year.

Well during that year off from race riding, my life took on a new focus.

Initially I was devastated. After all, horses and race riding was my life, I new nothing else. I started playing around in the kitchen. I remembered how I had enjoyed the cooking classes at college. I started to do some cooking, some baking and some cake decorating. My friend Cindy Petrie who had been operating a cake decorating business from home for a number of years started showing me the professional techniques and finer points of cake decorating and at the risk of sounding conceited and blowing my own trumpet, I have become pretty darned good at it.

Anyway, when I had recovered from my injuries and become fit enough to ride again I found that things had changed. No I had not lost the incentive, I still love to ride horses, but I found that I had a new interest that was actually giving me every bit as much satisfaction as race riding. I also found that, because I had been very naughty and had been sampling a lot of my own culinary creations, it was becoming extremely hard to waste down to a competitive riding weight.

So, when Cindy approached me about the possibility of starting a home based cake decorating service, I jumped at the opportunity. I gave up all thoughts of race riding to concentrate solely on building a cake decorating business. And what a wise decision that has proven to be. Cindy and I have won numerous cake decorating awards and what started out to be a hobby, has now built into a flourishing and very profitable business.

As an extension to that business We opened a school for cake decorating where our students learn how to set up and run their own cake decoration business. The school has become very popular and is constantly booked up for two to three courses in advance. You may even be one of the unfortunates that has not been able to get into one of these fully booked out classes, or you may live in a different locality and want to know how to start and run your own cake decoration business.

Well we can help you there. Cindy has joined me in writing a book “Cake Decorating Business Secrets“. Our book teaches everything exactly as we teach it in our classes. It sets out in step by step detail, everything that you need, and everything that you need to do, to set up and run your own successful cake decorating business.

Also included with the cake decorating business system, for no extra cost we are giving you our very popular book “Frosting Perfection” where we show in detail, our professional cake decorating tips and techniques along with many of our most requested cake decorating recipes. The contents of ”Frosting Perfection” will give your new business that “cutting edge”, or if you are not starting your business just yet, it will be a great help for your cake decorating hobby.

You will be amazed at how fast you will have your cake business set up and bringing in an income by following our Cake Decorating Business blueprint and if you click on this link Cake Decoration Business Secrets you will find that we are giving you our other book “Cake Decorating For Beginners” absolutely free with no obligations.

Sincerely

Caroline Drew