Photo 1: Wed. Dec. 11, 2013 – My 10, 14, and 12 year old sons, and the 50% pineapple peel based cakes they baked WITHOUT an oven. All they used was the charcoal stove, a heavy metal pot, and flour, sugar etc that I brought ALL the way from Cotonou…LOL!
Now They’re Selling Their Cakes!
Yep. I found out just yesterday afternoon, when I called to speak with them.
Actually, I called to scold them for leaving their rooms, and most of the house disorganized.
Their mother had complained about that the night before.
So I decided to call and speak with the boys. One is a teenager already, while the other 2 are approaching that age, but the restlessness of youth makes their attention span notoriously short.
I started with the 12 year old, asking him why he’d left the sitting room un swept and disorganized. He mumbled a number of excuses.
None of them held water. But I played along.
Then I told him I would call by 10p.m to ask if he’d done his chores. And if he had not, he and I would have issues. He knew what I meant, and promised he would get it done.
I had a similar chat with the 10 year old.
The 14 year old, this time around, was not at fault. He has had to support his mother a lot since I began traveling, and the many different roles he’s playing have made him mature beyond his years.
He’s become extremely capable in terms of handling house hold chores, including cooking.
The teenage excesses still come over him at times, but he’s learning to better manage them.
I told him to follow up with his younger brothers and make sure they did what they’d promised to do.
Just as I was about to end the call, the 10 year old (he’s always the one who leads these initiatives) snatched the mobile from his older brother, and exclaimed: “Tayo, we’re now selling our cakes!”
It was like a repeat of how they told me they had started selling their drinks.
I asked: “Really? Where?”
“In our school. Our classmates bought all the ones we took to school yesterday!” he replied.
“How much do you sell them?” I asked.
“N50!” he replied in an excited voice “They bought everything, and told us to bring more.”
Photo 2: The 14 year old has a finger in his mouth. That’s where most of the first set of cakes they made went…before they recently began selling them…lol!)
As Shown Below I Also Brought Them the Cake Cups I Used In Cotonou
The price he mentioned was one we’d agreed on before I returned to Cotonou. That day we sat down and did simple costing of the inputs, to agree a reasonable selling price for each cup cake.
Our computation came to roughly N55.
Photo 3: Heavy metal pot my kids use for “non-oven” baking of the pineapple peel cakes. I also brought them the Cake Cups I used to make mine back in Cotonou
In Cotonou, I’d seen many people, towards the Christmas celebrations selling similar cake sizes for 150 FCFA.
This amounted to approximately N50.
So we agreed they should try selling the cakes at that price.
I Had No Idea If They Would Find Buyers or How/Where!
I just told them: Try and sell them(just as I did after teaching them to make the drinks)…LOL
For one thing I noticed the first set of cakes they made using my “zero-oven-village-charcoal-stove-baking” method tended to be a bit undercooked.
(That did not however stop them and their sisters from gobbling everything up. They really had fun making cakes with over 3kg of flour I brought with me, plus another 2 kg I bought before I left. All the cakes were eaten up. No attempt was made to sell. Kids!!!! LOL)
I later found the cakes undercooked because they were not keeping the charcoal bricks burning. As a result the heat tended to diminish with time.
So I told them to let each cakes batch stay longer, and to fan the embers for longer periods.
As You Can Imagine, An Oven Would Have Made All This Hassle Unnecessary…
That’s true.
However, the improvisational approach I used helps people – especially kids – discover how to use their creativity to do things inexpensively.
And it also equips them with valuable life skills.
The way I see it, as young Africans, it’s useful for them to know how our traditional cooking “equipment” work.
Who knows where they’ll find themselves in future!
Anyway, considering that they now make sales, and buyers want more, it’s safe to say they’ve now gotten the “Cooking Time” for their cakes right 😉
Next Step: Getting Them to Understand Why They Must Re-Invest – & Save – Money They Make
I told the 10 year old I was pleased with what they had done, and to “Keep it up!”
But he was not done yet…
He quickly cut in to say: “Tayo, tell Mommy to give us N300, so we can buy more flour and sugar, to make more cakes.”
That request reminded me of a mistake they had been making since they began recording sales.
They’d showed me wooden piggy banks they put their money in. But it rarely stayed there. They always found ways to spend it all!
In fact, the last time I spoke with their mother, she complained they got money from her to buy sugar, flour and other ingredients for making the cakes and drinks.
But they never brought home the money from sales. Instead they spent it on snacks right in school!
Since they are kids, this was not surprising, and I expected it.
I told him to give the phone to his mother. Then I told her to give them the money, BUT to demand that they hand over sales they make to her.
The next step I have planned is to sit them down, and explain why they must plough back part of their sales income to purchase materials for the next production.
And I’ll also tell them why they have to save some of what is left.
Final Words: One Thing I Know From Coaching Kids Over The Years…
If you explain it clearly to them, so they see the benefits, you will NOT need to chase them to do it.
For now, I’m letting them enjoy the feeling of being able to make the classmates part with N50 for each of the cakes they make by themselves.
I know it’s a wonderful feeling, and it will inspire them to think of more ways to put their skills to use.
I urge you to do the same for your kids.
Entrepreneurial skills of this kind can prove crucial for their achievement of success in their adult lives.
Children find activities of this kind exciting/challenging, so interest is unlikely to be lacking.
And as shown above, they can do it, while still schooling full time!