Confecting a sweet business plan

With a personalized confectionery collection already developed, the Palmiye Cakes & Cookies bakery is planning further product additions and to boost its number of customers.

Tami Moryosef, the owner of the bakery, says she started by baking at home for private clients and other people who might be interested.

“I came to Romania eight years ago with my husband. I had planned to study pâtisserie but it never happened. But it was always my passion. I’m always looking for recipes and modifying them, changing quantities to see how it goes,” she says.

In 2006 the businesses started catering also for restaurants. In November 2011 a place was rented on Luterana Street to serve as a kitchen, a staff of two was hired and trained and Palmiye started targeting restaurants and coffee shops more decisively. Representatives of the bakery say word of mouth is the best marketing they can get and, while they plan to increase the number of restaurants they serve, they also want to boost the number of individual clients and the catering for events such as private parties, weddings and other functions. The bakery doesn’t have a retail point but it is possible to order online or by phone. Products are made to order and are delivered within 24 hours. Palmiye didn’t start selling until January of this year but today it counts among itsBucharestrestaurant clients one big chain of nine locations, another four restaurants and one coffee shop. The business caters for functions such as parties with as many as 900 people, weddings (120 people) and baptisms (60 people).

The bakery’s current product portfolio includes twelve cakes, brownies, and various biscuits including organic granola ones. It also has a separate line of sweets for children, with several cakes and cupcakes and an egg-free chocolate cake for customers with an egg allergy. “We have Italian specialties, American ones, French ones. It is a mix, taking things from different kinds of places and adjusting them to Romania.”

The bakery says it puts on the market a high-end product, one which is hand-made. “In the beginning I used to say that we made homemade products, but it’s not the case because they’re not made in the home. Now we say they’re handmade, which means they have the quality of the homemade product but they’re also professional,” Moryosef explains.

One important part of the handmade experience is the use of a pizza oven to bake the cakes at a slower pace. Unlike ovens used in larger kitchens, it doesn’t have the air circulating through it to make the baking process faster and it maintains the temperature all over the oven. “It is the closest to a homemade taste,” she adds.

The owner says the use of high quality ingredients is half of the success in any dish. “We use 82 percent French butter by Elle & Vire, 72 percent dark chocolate by ICAM, dairy whip cream, fresh orange and lemon juice, and high quality cheese ,” Moryosef says.

The business saw around 250 orders this September, with the cold season being generally better for business than the summer. March and April were also good months with about 350 orders and the plan is to reach 600-650 cake orders a month next year, in the cold season. An expansion of the range of products offered is also in the cards, as the bakery wants to add more organic products and energy bars made with natural ingredients, as is expansion on the delicatessen segment.