Getting into the swing of things.

We had a brilliant day today at our second event: a 40th birthday party catering for 30 people. Try to imagine the scene, The Blue Scone Van, bunting and vintage-style table cloths out in the sun next to a The guests, including the children, were very excited by the Scone Van and loved hearing about the story of its evolution. One thing that lots of people mentioned was that we need to make our story much more visual and celebrate our USP(unique selling point).

It's great to get feedback from customers because we take our mission for granted and presume that what we stand for is obvious; however, I was surprised to hear that people didn't know about our eco-mission and our commitment to work with local businesses and producers. I think I need to create some signs celebrating our beliefs. I suppose I hadn't really considered that people might be interested in the fact that we make an effort to work with Surrey businesses, especially with people that make their own products. I realised today that its important to talk more about our food miles and how we have found ways to reduce the waste produced by the Scone Van. For example, last weekend at the end of the Brightleigh Farm Market, we only had half a bag of landfill waste. The rest of our waste was compostable packaging and reusable jam jars. I know how difficult it can be for businesses to be eco-friendly and make a profit but this has always been a really important issue for me. A lot of research has gone into finding good quality and responsible products for our cream tea boxes. With a bit of effort, we have found compostable and reusable packaging. I know we're not perfect, but we are certainly making an impact on our sustainable journey.

Afternoon tea is a luxury and the quality of the experience is as important as the quality of the food. I want to make the afternoon tea package as flexible as possible. I want the customer to get a feel-good vibe from the Scone Van. Nothing is too much trouble. The customer today requested 30 cup cakes and I agreed to make them. I really enjoyed baking layered cupcakes (chocolate and vanilla) and making the decoration as pretty as possible. The cupcakes had a chocolate and cream layer on the bottom and a vanilla layer on the top. The decoration gave me the chance to unleash my inner creativity with two tone icing and butterflies. I tried pink, pink and yellow, mint green and yellow, lilac and pink. The yellow and pink cakes were my favourite. Have a look and see which you like most.

The business is always evolving as my confidence grows. Therefore, what I would really like to promote is afternoon tea in the Scone Van. My vision is to allow customers to book the Scone Van for a few hours on their drive or at a venue of choice and then I will bake and serve a scrumptious afternoon tea. I would leave the supping clients alone with their teapot of leaf tea, scones, cream, jam and cupcakes. Once the customers finish their tea, I would return and clean up leaving the fully-satiated customers to walk away free from guilt. This will take a lot of planning so I may need some willing volunteers to test the idea before launching. Let me know if you're interested in playing the role of guinea pig!

So, that sums up my experience so far. It's been a wonderful journey so far and, as I grow in confidence, my artistic nature is waking up. Watch this space for more ruminations and ideas and if you have any comments, ideas or feedback, please let me know.