00:00I'm Lucy Fink. I'm a video producer at Refinery29, but every so often I like to try other people's jobs.
00:06I'm spending the day with Chelsea White of Chelsweets to learn the ropes when it comes to being a food
00:11content creator.
00:12This is Lucy for Hire.
00:15Chelsea White is not your typical content creator. Her subject is cake. Layers upon layers upon layers of it.
00:25I started making cakes about six years ago, and it was really just a great way for me to unwind
00:29after work and kind of have a creative outlet from working in public accounting at the time.
00:34Four years, over 600 cakes, and almost 650,000 Instagram followers later, and Chelsweets is still unique for most content
00:42creators.
00:43Something a lot of people don't know about me is that I actually have a full-time day job in
00:47corporate finance, and that Chelsweets is really just a side hustle for me.
00:50It's not every day you meet someone with 650,000 Instagram followers who says their Instagram business is their side
00:57hustle.
00:58Money, money, money, money!
01:00When it comes to money, I obviously still have my day job where I do have a six-figure salary.
01:06And a lot of people I think would be surprised to know that with Chelsweets I make almost twice my
01:11corporate salary.
01:12Part of it is through ongoing partnerships with different networks, and then I also have some revenue come in from
01:17advertising on different platforms like on my blog or on YouTube and things like that.
01:22My first challenge was to create the cake concept.
01:25I'm a content creator of my own. I'm making videos and telling stories all the time.
01:30But Chelsweets audience repeatedly comes back for one thing and one thing only. Cake.
01:36So she needs to be continually innovating and coming up with the next big cake idea.
01:41So the first part of this is going to be coming up with kind of the design and the concept
01:44of the cake that you're going to make.
01:45It's important to note that Chelsweets typically spreads her work out over the course of a few days.
01:50One day after work I'll make the layers, another day I'll prep frosting, I'll get everything ready, and then on
01:55the weekends one day I'll decorate the cake and film it.
01:58And then I like to usually edit it the following day or the following week whenever I have time.
02:01But for the purposes of this episode, she challenged me to do it all in one day only.
02:07We began by brainstorming the way Chelsweets typically does, pulling up inspiration images online and sketching out designs in a
02:14notepad.
02:14We came up with a few thought starters, scratched a few ideas, and then ultimately settled on a holiday-themed
02:21present cake.
02:22Okay, here's our idea.
02:25Red buttercream Christmas cake shaped like a package with a white fondant bow, red, green, and white tie-dye Christmas
02:33-y layers inside.
02:35This is it.
02:35It's going to be beautiful.
02:36This is the one.
02:38Alright, let's get started.
02:39Let's do this.
02:40We got to work making the cake batter, mixing all the ingredients, and then creating rings of red, white, and
02:47green that would ultimately make the inside of the cake look very cool.
02:51So you want to, yeah, get it like inside of that, and then it'll eventually start having that really fun
02:55pattern.
02:57We popped them into the oven and moved on to my second challenge, setting up and prepping for the shoe.
03:03For people interested in creating their own food content, this part of the video should give you some great insights
03:08into how Chelsea works.
03:10So for my setup, I really like to use two of these, I call them umbrella lights.
03:14I'm not sure what their technical name is, but I think that's right.
03:17And I also have a tripod that has like a pivoting head, which makes it really great because if your
03:22legs are a little bit uneven or your floor is a little uneven, which mine is, it's really great having
03:27that and being able to adjust.
03:28But that's all it is, is two lights, a tripod, and a camera that can shoot video.
03:32She uses adjustable softbox lighting and a Canon Rebel T5, and she keeps her lights set up in her apartment
03:38all the time for easy access.
03:39Is it always like this?
03:41It is always there.
03:42My poor fiance has to stare at it 24-7, but there's nowhere else to put them, so that's where
03:46they hang out.
03:46I have lights like this in my bedroom, so production life.
03:50Yep.
03:50We worked together to move them and assemble the lights into the right position.
03:54And afterwards, we popped the camera onto the tripod and made sure it was level and centered with the cake
03:59stand.
04:00I think that looks pretty good.
04:01Yeah.
04:02It looks centered.
04:03It looks nice.
04:04It's important to have all of the ingredients you'll need pre-prepped and ready to go,
04:08so that once the camera starts rolling, you're ready to work.
04:11So we trimmed the cakes.
04:12We got Loose Sweets in the kitchen today.
04:14She is making moves, trimming some cake layers.
04:17Just call me Loose Sweets.
04:19And gathered our essentials.
04:22There's the fondant.
04:24My third challenge was to shoot.
04:27While filming these videos, Chelsea's running the camera and lighting by herself,
04:31but she's also the one in the video making the cake.
04:34So she's managing the technical side, but also the creative side as well.
04:38This challenge involved a lot of technical skills.
04:41Firstly, frosting a cake properly is not easy.
04:45As I was working, I realized how different Chelsea's job is from a classic cake maker.
04:50She's not just making the cake and hoping the finished product looks and tastes great,
04:55but her art is actually the process of making the cake.
04:58At every step of the way, she needs to be aware of the camera,
05:01how low the battery is, what the lens is focusing on,
05:05and if she's working on an area of the cake that's within the camera's view.
05:09How do you do it so long to start from here?
05:11Yep.
05:12Exactly.
05:13It's all about the reach.
05:24This challenge took the longest amount of time, but the final payoff was magical.
05:30Once the shoot was wrapped, my final challenge was editing and programming the content appropriately.
05:35I use iMovie to edit my videos, which is just a free software that came with my Mac.
05:40It's super simple and straightforward, and I taught myself how to use it.
05:43I'm usually only making like two or three cakes a week,
05:45and to kind of help maximize my content and spread that out to fill my feed,
05:49I like to divide each cake into one video of like the build and the assembly,
05:53and then another video of the decoration and the cut.
05:55I chose to edit my video with Adobe Premiere since it's the software I'm most familiar with at work.
06:00Thankfully, I have some video editing skills from my job,
06:03so I just pulled all of the footage into the software and began cutting the clips.
06:07I exported two versions the way Chelsea does,
06:10one showing the assembly and frosting of the cake,
06:12and another showing decorating and the cut.
06:16Stay tuned on my Instagram at LucyBFink for these videos.
06:21My favorite part about being a food content creator is the flexibility,
06:25and I mean that in so many different ways where you can make your cakes when you want,
06:29for the most part, minus partnership deadlines.
06:31You can try different designs, different techniques.
06:33There's not as much pressure because you really have full creative freedom to do whatever you want.
06:38You're not confined to an order or a certain flavor that someone wants, so I really love that.
06:42My least favorite part about this job, and by job I mean being a cake content creator,
06:47has to be sometimes the negativity on social media.
06:51You know, people don't realize how much time you're putting into something and how much work,
06:55and I think it's so easy to just make a simple statement that's critical,
06:59and it just doesn't make you feel like your time and all of your effort is really being valued.
07:05Overall, my day as Loose Sweets was a major success.
07:09My Christmas cake was not only beautiful, but it was delicious too,
07:13and I think my Instagram audience will love watching it come together.
07:17As the sole proprietor of Chelsweets, I would absolutely hire Lucy in a heartbeat.
07:22Maybe it'll be called Loose Sweets. Who knows?
07:25Chelsea is blazing the trail for female entrepreneurs that want to build their business on social media.
07:30She's a true example of the fact that doing what you love
07:33can bring you immense joy and financial gain.
07:36And as we all know, cake is always the answer.
07:40It's really good.
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