Michelle Tang is a junior in the Hotel School minoring in Information Science. On campus she is involved with Camp Kesem, Hotel Ezra Cornell, Phi Chi Theta, and Cornell Business Review. She loves making sweets in her free time and sharing her creations with friends. She previously competed in state level baking competitions and later started a small business selling desserts to people in the area.
Julia: What first piqued your interest in baking and how long have you been baking for?
Michelle: Well, I think the first time I baked anything was with my mom. It was cornbread muffins, and I was seven. And all I did was put it in the oven. So I don't know if that counts. That's where it started, though. And then I think I found it fun because I liked watching all these ingredients become finished products. So, then I got really into cake mixes and I was like, “Oh my god, I'm such a pro because my cakes turned out well” but it was obviously because of the boxed cake mix. When I got to high school I joined the culinary arts program. My high school had an elective for Culinary Arts and I enrolled and focused on pastries because it was something that I was always interested in. I got to participate in competitions, which was definitely a lot of hard work. After my first competition, I realized that I had a lot of room for improvement. At that first one, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. Everything was so bad, like my muffins were sunk in the middle. And my pie crust wouldn't leave the tin, and then my piping bag burst on top of my cake. After that went poorly, the year after I practiced a lot more, and then in my next competition I placed in the States Level Competition. It was a really rewarding experience.
As I got better, some of my friends started ordering desserts from me for their birthdays and then I made graduation cakes when I was a senior in high school. So that’s how it kind of started in terms of selling to people. But I always loved baking because it's very detail oriented in comparison to cooking, which is very spontaneous where you get to throw in spices and adjust things the way you want to. I think baking is very scientific in the way that how much of a leavening agent you use can completely determine how your cake rises, or like how much sugar you use determines the crunch or chewiness of a cookie. I think it's very interesting. One of my favorite parts though, is getting to decorate. That's probably why I kept with it for so long – I love the detail and the creativity.
Julia: I know, your decorations on all of your desserts are so like they're crazy. I can't believe you like handmade them.
Michelle: I watched YouTube videos and tutorials. That's how I learned!
Isha: How are you letting people like in your area know about what you're doing?
Michelle: So it started just by word of mouth. I first thought of this idea because my friend came to me for a dessert for one of her events when I had come home. They offered to pay and I knew I didn’t need the money, since there’s many more people that could use it more than me, especially during this time. I am really fortunate now to be home with my family and be able to spend time on my hobbies and focus on school. So that's why I decided to donate the money first, and then that kind of spread through word of mouth and then afterwards when I started getting some traction, I posted on Facebook and I got a good response which was amazing. I'm really honored. I had really good friends share it and supported me, like Isha, and you commented on my post Julia, which was incredibly nice. Honestly, all the responses I got from people were really touching and made me super happy. I got a good amount of orders from my own posts and then through shares, I got some other contacts and distant connections expressed interest so that was an unexpected but great turnout. Over the summer, I'm planning to post in local buy, sell, trade groups on Facebook when I have more time to make the orders. The neighborhood I live in is a big subdivision. So, there is also a neighborhood Facebook group that's really active. So, I'm planning to post there in the summer when things wind down as well.
Julia: Do you create your recipes from scratch? And if not, or I guess even if you do, where do you get your inspiration from?
Michelle: Yeah, I think for the most part I find and collect a bunch of recipes and combine them to make my own. I use trial and error, so when someone orders something that I'm not super familiar with, I start with recipe research and I watch a bunch of videos that pertain to that type of recipe and then compare the recipes and see what's different between the ones I find. And then if I can, I test out multiple ones - I usually make it the first time and then see what I like about it and then adjust it or find another recipe just because with a lot of recipes you can't really tell what the turnout is going to be or what type of crumb the cake is or how dense or light it is until you actually make it. This is kind of expensive because there was a time when I made a cake three times because I wasn't happy the first two times, but after that I made notes on my phone and computer. This is helpful so that the next time I do it, I don’t have to make multiples.
Julia: Okay, so pull from others. Like videos or recipes that you find and make your own version of it.
Michelle: Yes!
Isha: So do you plan on expanding past your neighborhood? And, if you could expand further than driving distance, do you think you would do that? And if so, how would you kind of go about?
Michelle: I think it would depend on the state of the world. But, if I were able to go beyond my area, I would consider expanding to neighboring cities nearby. But I think at a certain point, it is too far to drive to people, and it's too far for other people to come to my house and pick it up. So, I would consider shipping things that have a longer shelf life. For example, macarons are a pretty good item to ship, because they actually taste better if you let them sit longer since the filling softens the shell, and there's not really any perishable dairy items or anything in them.
Julia: Do you see yourself creating a menu list for people to choose from in the near future?
Michelle: Yes, I honestly feel like I should have done that before because I've kind of just been going off of personal requests from people to tell me what they want and then learn how to make them, or use past experience. But I feel like once I get a good grasp on what people really enjoy, I’ll work on making a menu - because right now I don't really know what's really popular with people. I think after I get a good gauge on what most people would enjoy ordering, then I would probably create a menu list.
Isha: Awesome! And how do you decide how much you're going to charge people? Is it based off what they're ordering or how much they're ordering?
Michelle: I put all my recipes on an Excel book. And then every recipe is its own sheet in that book. Then I have specific columns for the units and the measurements for the recipes. I then do the costing based on that. So, I just researched the prices, for example, if a block of cream cheese is $2; and I only need half a block then I'll put how much it costs per unit, and how much I'm planning to use and then multiply to get my costs. And then I sum every ingredient up to get my product costs. And then I usually charge based on that; honestly, I should probably charge off a percentage, for example, charge 150% of my costs. But, this is the worst part. I don't like charging people a lot, especially if they're my friends. So, I usually charge what I think is fair. So right now, it's $1 per cinnamon roll or like $1 a cookie or I like to think about it in slices so like each slice of cake should be X amount, but I try to keep it pretty fair. There is definitely a method to this too: I Google how much these things usually retail for and then I do a percentage less than how much it costs to buy in a store. Because I'm not personally profiting and it's not my livelihood I feel better about charging lower prices.
Julia: What's been the most popular dessert that people have ordered so far?
Michelle: I would say macarons are the most popular. But I'm also getting a good number of requests for cheesecake because I think it's what I'm associated with because usually when I go to parties, that’s my signature dessert to bring!
Isha: What is the response that you've been getting? Obviously, you're getting a lot of orders, but, on top of that, have you been getting a relatively positive response?
Michelle: Yeah, I've been getting really positive responses from everyone. I'm really grateful, because I’ve been hearing from people I haven't talked to in a really long time, or like, my high school culinary teacher commented on my post and she shared it, which was really nice. But , on top of that, I was really touched by all the support from people that I don’t even really know, and there's even been people who have reached out to me who just wanted to donate even if they're not in the area. And then they have sent me the money and have asked me to donate the baked goods to a shelter instead, which is nice. It's really sweet.
Julia: I guess you kind of touched on this, but how did you decide to use baking as your means to help Coronavirus relief?
Michelle: I kind of had a sense that people trusted me enough to make a dessert, like in high school because people would come to me for orders. Because honestly, I think everyone's their own worst critic. So, I think personally, if you asked me, I would have been like, I don't think my desserts are good enough to be sold. But I think after doing it a good amount of times, and getting good responses and also taking note of what goes wrong, I've gotten more confident in it. Baking is one of those skills where it's pretty easy for you to share with other people I would say. Because it's not like playing an instrument, where it's a lot harder to sell a performance than it is to sell 12 cookies. I think it's one of those skills that has a very tangible end-product. So, people are more willing to spend money on it, and it’s been really beneficial in terms of fundraising!
Isha: For sure. And has it been hard balancing online classes and baking?
Michelle: It has been more of a time commitment because it's an additional thing, I guess I would say it's like another extracurricular. But I think because it's something that I'm really passionate about, I don't mind spending more time on it. But actually an unforeseen benefit by being so busy is that I force myself to finish all my projects days in advance. It's been good to motivate myself because there's timelines on the desserts that you make because you can't make them too early and you can't make them too late. People need to pick them up. So, by knowing that I have to set out these blocks of time to do these desserts, it's actually helped me a lot in motivating myself because now it's like, if I procrastinate before it was all on me. But now if I procrastinate, it's other people's desserts that might be affected. So, I've been better about it actually, which is good.
Isha: Last question that we have is, What's the hardest dessert you've ever had to make?
Michelle: I think the hardest dessert that I struggled with the most was my friend's graduation cake, just because it was a two-tiered cake. And when your cakes are really heavy, you have to dowel them. So, you have to put supports on the bottom tier, which is tedious. Honestly, I hate doing it because you also have to consider where the dowels should be placed so they don’t affect the cutting of the cake. But on top of that, it was entirely a buttercream cake and it was a really hot day. I drove 30 minutes to deliver it to her in 95-degree weather. I kept telling myself, “my cake is going to melt.” I struggled because there were so many components - everything was frosted, and on top of that there was a fondant banner that had the school that she was going to. The banner didn't want to work with me because I'm not that experienced in fondant personally. But that came to bite me because fondant really doesn't like me either, I guess. So the fondant started sweating. And then when it starts sweating it becomes so hard to work with. I had to do the banner three times. I think the fact that it had more components than usual that I was unfamiliar with made me more uncomfortable with it, so I struggled with it more. I would say to date that is the cake I am most insecure about. I think about that every once in a while, and I'm like should I have taken the money?
Julia: Do you feel like you'd be more comfortable now making a similar kind of cake?
Michelle: Definitely, just because I know what to expect now. I think I found some comfort in the fact that that same friend came back to me a year later for another birthday cake, so I must have not messed up that badly.
I think no matter how long I do it, I feel like everyone has this feeling to some extent where, no matter how long you do something you might always have this type of adrenaline rush. For example, no matter how many times you compete, you still feel kind of nervous before something, right? It’s the same way with me in terms of when I sell people my desserts, especially because money is involved and I feel more pressure in that sense. It gets better over time, but that feeling never fully goes away. But I've gotten more confident and also just by doing it more, I've been able to fail more and learn more.
Julia: That's really good! I actually have one more question: Are your career goals to go into baking or is that more of a hobby?
Michelle: Honestly, I have no idea. When I started college, I thought I wanted to do Food and Beverage operations. I worked a summer in F&B operations and I enjoyed it so much, but I also decided to expand my horizons after that to see what else I may enjoy. Currently, I’m really interested in the marketing and data analytics fields!
Although, my friends have predicted that I'm going to have a midlife crisis, go to culinary school, and open a bakery when I’m 36 so I guess we’ll see where that goes.
Isha: I feel like you would be very successful with that!
Michelle: I hope so!