Quick! What are the rules of cake?
Thou shalt use an egg.
Thou shalt use flour.
Thou shalt use sugar.
Thou shalt add a flavouring.
Thou shalt bake it in the oven.
Wait. Except…
Vegans like cake too, so there are no-egg cake recipes.
And there are ones that don’t use flour for gluten-intolerant peeps.
And ones that substitute natural sweeteners for those who are reducing their calories.
And someone figured out how to make a cake in a mug in the microwave. (Genius.)
So… the only unchangeable rule about cake is that you must add a flavouring of some kind?
Why you need to learn the rules
Some rules never change, and they are ones you should pay very close attention to. They tend to be the most boring rules, but they’re the baseline between success and failure. (Failure like flavourless cake, which is an abomination unto the Lord.)
Most rules can be changed, once you know what they are: to make a vegan-friendly cake, you have to know what non-vegan ingredients are in it. Then you can adapt and experiment until it works.
And a lot of rules can be abandoned entirely. The etiquette around cake has disappeared, only coming out coyly to visit at high teas. So have rules like “store-bought cakes show that you don’t care” and “no real cook uses pre-mixes”.
But you have to know the rules before you can break them, abandon them, question them, enshrine them or take them home to meet your mum.
So what are the rules of your business?
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