Erin & Meg Southon: The Cake Makers

Four years ago, Erin Southon got a call from her sister Meg. At home with a two month old baby, Meg had decided she wanted to start a business. Meg can’t put her finger on where this desire came from but recalls “All my working years I had important jobs. But I lost my job when I went on maternity leave so I had nothing to go back to. I was bored out of my brain and definitely had post-natal depression. So, I decided I would create something for myself”.

“I was bored out of my brain and definitely had post-natal depression. So, I decided I would create something for myself”

Meg Southon

Meg’s idea was to start making and selling cupcakes, “…because it was about all I could cook!”. She has always been creative and crafty, but Erin is the master baker.  “I never thought we would still be doing it four years later” Erin admits. The cupcakes where very popular and led to orders for custom made cakes. While nursing her own children Erin went looking for recipes for lactation biscuits, but struggled to find any that tasted good and worked. So she created her own. When Meg was finding breastfeeding a challenge and ready to give it up, Erin came round with a big batch of biscuits to help her milk supply – and they worked wonders. These ‘boob juice bickies’ became their next product line.

Baking was a big part of the sister’s childhood, courtesy of their mum, Dawn. “[Mum] never bought anything. We weren’t one of those families where we went to school with a packet of chips and a roll-up. That just didn’t happen. We went to school with something homemade” remembers Meg. “We have always baked. Mum was a mean baker. We would come home from school and there would always be something new made. We weren’t allowed to help, we were allowed to observe, because we made too much mess” Erin laughs.

It hasn’t all been cupcakes and rainbows though. There have been late nights, tears and hard lessons learnt along the way. Their first fondant cake order saw Meg’s husband doing a last-minute midnight dash to Woolworths for extra supplies because the fondant kept tearing. They don’t do fondant anymore. “We have done a lot of things we didn’t want to, things we really weren’t comfortable with or confident with” reflects Meg. When the cake orders took off, the sisters struggled to keep the balance between work and family. One of their biggest lessons has been the power of saying no.

“It has taken us a long time to get to this point but now we know if it is hard to say yes, it should be a firm no. If we have to think about it too much, we aren’t doing it” Meg states. They would often agonise over the need to tell someone they couldn’t do their order, feeling like they needed to have a reason. “When we first started, we just didn’t price ourselves accordingly. We had no idea of our worth and we were so excited by the idea that someone wanted something from us…as time progressed we realised we undersold ourselves and lost money. We have realised that saying no isn’t downgrading our business, it is preserving our business.”

” We have realised that saying no isn’t downgrading our business, it is preserving our business “

Meg Southon

Their advice to other entrepreneurs? “Just go for it”. Erin emphasises that you don’t need to go big from the beginning, you don’t have to have a shopfront or a fancy kitchen or the latest equipment. “If your product is good enough, your work ethic and customer service are good, then people will spread the word” adds Meg.

Both ladies would love to see more celebration of the amazing creative talents in Goulburn. After attending events like the pop-up markets at The Collective last year, there were a lot of people really surprised about the quality and creativity of the stallholders. “Why aren’t we spruiking the talents we have in the town? Why is it a bit of a secret?” asks Meg. They know the power of a supportive community in helping a small business grow, asserting that “Goulburn can be amazing, when they are on your team, on your side, they are so supportive”.

Goulburn is near and dear to the sisters, particularly because this is where most of their family is. Originally from a property out at Laggan, they moved to Queanbeyan following work for their father, Bob, who was a builder. They moved back to Goulburn when Meg was 14 and Erin 16. The move was not welcomed by Erin, who recalls her reaction – “when we were told we were moving back my world just imploded – how dare you take me back to the sticks!”. But she loves Goulburn for the beautiful buildings and history, and is a genealogy buff. Meg enjoys the small-town atmosphere and would be happy living even further out of town. “I would be quite content to stay here for the rest of my life…except that it is so cold!” she exclaims.

Erin and Meg are no nonsense, down to earth people who have turned a ‘crazy hairbrained idea’ into a thriving business. They have winged it, a lot. But they learn from each mistake and then move on. They successfully mix family and business by playing to each other’s strengths and not taking themselves too seriously. “Sometimes we are a little hard to take because we make fun of ourselves all the time. People wonder if we are serious or not. We don’t like all the fluff and fuss. Let’s not be fake and let’s not pretend. Let’s just be normal people and get life done” says Meg.

“Let’s not be fake and let’s not be pretend. Let’s just be normal people and get life done”

Couldn’t agree more 😊

Born2Bake Boob Juice Bickies are available from Harvest Café and they supply cakes/slices to the Library’s Paperback Café.

You can connect with Erin and Meg, and see their amazing custom cake creations, on Facebook, Instagram or via their website.

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