Tegan (Tigga) Maccormack and Katie Scoble have been best friends for nearly three decades. Together, they run Cake for Days inside of Katie’s home. Located in Melbourne, Australia, their business has evolved from “making cakes for occasions” to making elaborate cake decorating videos for social media. They have over a million followers on TikTok and over 500 000 on Instagram!
Tigga and Katie recalled that their videos began to go viral when they went beyond their “basic cake decorating videos”.
As Tigga explained, “We’d been making videos for a little while and they didn’t go viral. They just sort of sat there…. There was nothing to differentiate them from another person’s decorating. So, I think it was from the moment we started putting some personality in. I put the voiceover on. I started saying, ‘Okie Dokie’ and I sort of adopted that as my saying. People just started to really respond. They heard my voice. I think people that weren’t Australian heard my accent and really appreciated it and liked listening to it. It was quite a trip for me because I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve got the easiest voice to listen to, but a lot of people seemed to like it!”
“Basically before COVID, we didn’t have the time to focus on our social media.” Tigga continued. “So when COVID came along, we lost all of our orders. Here in Melbourne and Victoria, we had quite strict event rules and lockdowns…. We couldn’t really work! So we ended up pivoting and we’re what you would call ‘The COVID TikTokers’. There was a big rise in content going onto TikTok at that time. We really took off from there but it had more to do with showing people who we were…. We’re really down to earth too. We don’t strive for that perfection and we just really want to be ourselves.”
Katie added, “I think we’re just really proud of the fact that neither of us are professionally trained. Tigga’s completely self-taught as a designer. I think that makes all of the cake designs accessible for everybody and achievable…. We just do it for fun and it’s a form of escapism, really.” She also mentioned that “Okie Dokie” became contagious and she finds herself saying it too.
According to Katie, the most viral video so far has been a cartoon cake slice.
From June 30-July 2, 2023, Tigga will be teaching people how to make it in various workshops:
“….It’s really exciting to be able to pass on Tig’s skills and meet fans. We’re working with some awesome Aussie businesses and brands that we’re really excited about.” Unfortunately, they can’t say just yet what they are working on, but certain projects are expected to be released in late 2023 or early 2024.
Prior to the pandemic, Tigga worked in another cake shop that eventually closed down. Then Katie suggested that they start their own business together in her house! Katie acknowledged that this transition was something that they both needed. “We’d been talking about it for awhile. I had a spare room and it was the push we needed to give it a go and convert that little spare room into a tiny, little commercial kitchen. It’s exactly what we still work in today….”
Katie was also inspired to start their new venture after she saw Tigga’s cake version of The Millennium Falcon. She said it happens to be her “personal favourite” out of all of the cakes that have been created:
“The detail was incredible! It had lights on it! It was amazing! That was before I was involved and we were actually in business together. Of course, being Tigga’s best mate, I followed all of her cakes online! That was the cake where I was like, ‘Her talent has gone beyond where she was in this little shop!’ I was like, ‘We have to go further with this!’ That’s where the whole idea came from!”
That cake was one of Tigga’s favourites, too. As she explained, “….It took me about a week to do from start to finish. Not just the decorating but the preparing of it and making the stand. It had LED lights on it, so it lit up! All of that was really cool!”
“….So when they’re a really big challenge and I sort of nail it, they definitely go up on the favourites list! It’s a really satisfying feeling when you overcome the challenge of how to do a cake.” Tigga also had a list of “honourable mentions” which included a robot, a Nike shoe and Pinocchio. Tigga and Katie have even successfully transported a cake on a plane.
In terms of the strangest cake request they’ve received, the bakers agreed that it was a C-Section themed cake for a baby shower. The cake was in the shape of a “pregnant stomach with a baby coming out!” Although they are known for documenting almost everything in the kitchen, Tigga said this one was not widely shared online because it was “quite graphic”.
“It was very strange. I think I have footage of the baby’s mom with the cake because it was a surprise. She didn’t know about it and her friends got it made for her. They just revealed this Caesarean cake!”
Katie went onto describe it as “eerily realistic”.
It is unlikely that they will make another C-Section cake, because as their business began to shift to content creation, they stopped taking orders from customers. However, they started a wish list for people “who want or need cakes”. Every month they go through the wish list and do a custom order for free. While they would love to open the list up to other locations, Tigga and Katie noted that the cakes “can’t go in the mail”. So pick-up is the only option for now.
“We felt really bad that we have to say no all the time when there are still so many people asking for these cakes. So it’s a nice alternative to be like, ‘You can go on our wish list!’” Said Katie.
Tigga and Katie have known each other since they were eight years old and now they are both 35. They love working together and Tigga said that they get “so much joy” from their job, “it’s crazy!”
“We absolutely love it! We love going into the kitchen and not knowing where the day’s going to take us! We just do crazy things! ….We’re very similar in a lot of ways…. We’re very sensitive and understanding…. We have a lot of fun! We laugh a lot! We don’t take things too seriously unless we have to.”
Katie agreed: “We’ve been best friends for the majority of our lives! So we just know each other inside out and understand each other really well…. There’s definitely a lot of laughter and I think we just balance each other really well. We always joke that I’m the accelerator and Tig’s the brake…. I jump gung-ho into things way too quickly and Tig will say, ‘Let’s think about it.’”
Other than Katie, Tigga stated that the one thing “she could not live without” is “a really good turntable”. (The turntable is used to rotate cakes while decorating them.) “….I could decorate a cake pretty well with other things from my kitchen, but I think a turntable is just so important—number one tool!”
When they first started making videos, Tigga Maccormack and Katie Scoble admitted that they might not have had all of the tools they needed but they did it anyway.
According to Tigga, “If you’ve got the ideas, then don’t let anything sort of small hold you back from doing it. Just start! Just have a go! I think that’s really important because we found that we put things off for a long time. We didn’t feel like we were ready or we didn’t feel like we had the right equipment. We didn’t have cameras or things like that. Then we just started it doing it anyway with our iPhones. We didn’t even have a phone stand to put it on!”
“Don’t be afraid! If you’ve got a phone and a passion for it, do it!” Katie continued. “There’s always going to be a million reasons not to do something. If you’re looking for it, you will find the reasons not to do it. But at the end of the day… everything can start as a side hustle or a hobby and you build from there. You’re going to get that joy because it’s something that you actually love doing! You can build up your skills! Try and make your designs your own.”
Tigga advised that it is important to stand out on social media, regardless of which platform is used. “….That’s one thing that I think has helped our channel grow. We have a point of difference. There’s something that makes people go, ‘Oh, I know that channel!’ Or, ‘I recognize this video!’ We don’t just get lost in the abyss…. There are a thousand cake channels out there!”
Finally, she encouraged people to “Never stop learning! Always keep building your skills and get inspiration from everywhere—not just other cake decorators! Get inspiration from nature and everything around you, like interior decorating and art….”
For more information, please visit: www.tiggamac.com.
Photo courtesy of Tigga Maccormack and Katie Scoble.
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