Is there a difference in pay between a bakery clerk and a cake decorator ? I would like to work in the bakery department but would be more interested in the cake decorating job versus just being a bakery clerk. Are some people in bakery specifically just cake decorators or do they do everything in the department as well ? Are they paid more money ? What does training consists of ?
I worked in bakery for a short while, and our cake decorator mainly just handled cakes, but would also help out with other things occasionally when needed. Other people in the bakery sometimes will write names on cakes for people, but that tends to be about it as far as cakes go. They usually do other things such as making tortillas, cookies, hot bread, etc. I'm not actually sure about whether the pay is different or not. I wasn't in bakery long enough to think to ask stuff like that.
I have a friend who is a bakery manager at a store near here, so I know a bit about these things.
As a "cake decorator" you'll be working sometimes whilst another employee is doing the rest, however, oftentimes you'll be alone and have to man the bakery yourself.
You'll definitely be having to do other things than decorating cake, but what you have to do really depends on what your co-workers or bakery manager gets done. For sure though, you'll be doing more than writing on cakes. You get paid slightly more than a 'bakery clerk', however I don't remember exactly how much. I don't work at Kroger any longer so I probably tossed my union contract.
Where I work (Mid South), all bakery employees are on the same payscale. Decorators do not get more. If that were the case, as a baker, I think I should get more money too. Baking is just a much a skill as decorating cakes is.
Training consists of classes that are held periodically that your dept.head can send you to. The beginner classes teach you the basics...icing a cake, borders, how to make a rose. Other things you can learn on the job, but if your store is anything like ours, there's never any free time for training. I've been the cake decorator for our store for a long time. The pay rate is the same so there's no incentive for taking on the responsibility...and it isn't a job that's valued by management. People think it's easy but it requires skill and good time management to get everything filled and orders done in a timely manner. Good luck.
Training consists of classes that are held periodically that your dept.head can send you to. The beginner classes teach you the basics...icing a cake, borders, how to make a rose. Other things you can learn on the job, but if your store is anything like ours, there's never any free time for training. I've been the cake decorator for our store for a long time. The pay rate is the same so there's no incentive for taking on the responsibility...and it isn't a job that's valued by management. People think it's easy but it requires skill and good time management to get everything filled and orders done in a timely manner. Good luck.
It's the same way with baking bread. It only looks easy to other people because I've been doing it for so long and have it down to a science. The difference is a cake decorator can stop in the middle of decorating a cake and go on break or go to lunch. I have to plan my breaks and lunch around the bread. Some days I'll have an item or two that proofs very slowly and I have to adjust my schedule. I ask myself, "Do I leave the item in the proofer while I go to lunch and risk it overproofing or do I wait and take a late lunch?" Bread bakes differently at different times too. Usually it's because of the moisture content of the dough, which I have no control over. One day the Italian bread might take 28 minutes to fully bake. Another day it might only take 22. You can't go strictly by time. On top of that I also have to put away orders. Sometimes I have to make out orders and upload them. I also have to do the breakout and figure out how much bread we need to bake the next day. Since we only bake five days a week, on certain days I have to bake enough to get us through two days but not so much that we mark a lot of it down. It ain't easy. There's CAP (computer assisted production) but it's totally useless. It will tell me stuff like we need to bake 5 loaves of Twin French bread each day. I baked 17 loaves to cover two days and we sold out. It also says to bake 1 of each pie everyday. Who bakes just one pie?
In theory I could stop in the middle of decorating a cake, but it doesn't happen. I am the only decorator on duty anytime I work. I have no one else to fill cake cases, sales tables, freezers, etc. It's only me to go work my frozen order, fill it all up for set-up time and do all special orders before their pick up times. Sometimes on a Friday or Saturday there are so many orders that I don't get a break until the end of my shift. One reason I'm hanging it up.
The bad thing about CAP (well there's actually more than one) is Kroger expects its customers to behave like robots just as much as they expect their employees to. Just because you sold 3 of something on a given day for the last four weeks does not necessarily mean you're going to sell 3 of that item on the same day for the fifth week. Buying patterns change constantly. For a few days people can't get enough Twin French bread. Then suddenly they get tired of it and move on to something else. By the time CAP realizes this, it's already a week later and the trend has changed again. Last Sunday it told me I needed to bake 4 loaves of Sweet Italian bread for Sunday and 4 loaves for Monday. I baked 16 on Sunday. We didn't bake on Monday but that was still double for each day what CAP said we should bake. I came in Tuesday morning and it was all gone. Yeah, CAP really works.
