Katharina Mayer is standing in the English Garden with a smile, as if nothing bad had ever happened in her life. The long hair curls around her face, she looks summery happy. Mayer had suggested the “Miss Grüneis” kiosk as a meeting place. She often ate lunch here when she was still living in Lehel, on Paradiesstrasse. A beautiful address, the location alone so close to the largest green area in the city is heavenly. But Mayer fell out of paradise, the apartment was only sublet and professionally she slammed on the brakes. A lot has happened in her life, but yes, Mayer can laugh again.
She is no longer “Katharina von Cake Gossip”. That was how she had introduced herself to others for more than eight years. She was 24 years old, had already completed an apprenticeship as a hotel manager and was studying business administration when she and Katrin Blaschke founded Cake Ratsch. The two had met in Innsbruck at the university. Blaschke left after almost two years. Mayer remained as the face of the start-up and boss of the last 100 employees. With cake gossip, Mayer had achieved something that is still very important to her today: influence society with a company – in a positive sense. “We want to make a difference,” said the first flyers.
The idea behind cake gossip is to bring older people together, give them a valued job and the opportunity for extra income. As the name suggests, it’s about cake. They are baked by senior women – and also some seniors – according to their recipes. Solid housewife’s craft, tried and tested for decades. Baking books have been created from the most popular recipes. The first book also contains the bakers’ CVs and interviews. “The linchpin is baking together,” Mayer and Blaschke describe their company, which was still young at the time.
You go for a little walk with Mayer under the canopy of leaves in the English Garden, then sit down on a park bench and let her talk. She looks around and says she loves being in Munich. Since studying in Oxford and doing her Executive Masters, she appreciates her life here even more. The familiar, the safety, the friends, her family.
Friends and her parents have supported Mayer over the past twelve months. It was the hardest time of her life so far. In July last year, she had to file for bankruptcy for cake gossip. She hid, desperate and ashamed, she says. She fought until the end and even landed a possible new investor. But the five shareholders, who were involved in cake gossip with contributions, did not agree. A crowd-invest campaign had previously failed. About 150,000 euros were missing from the desired goal. In retrospect, not an insanely large sum for a flourishing company. “We made almost one million euros in sales in 2021,” says Mayer, and a bit of bitterness sounds through. Couldn’t she have delayed the ending a little longer? The risk of delaying insolvency was too great, says Mayer. She didn’t want to take that risk. Nevertheless, today she thinks that she should have come up with a plan B, C or even D.
A picture from happy days.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
There are a few factors that were decisive as to why it ultimately came to this. The pandemic was very important. In 2020 the bakery stood still for seven months. Nothing worked. The elderly, who belong to the so-called vulnerable group, had to isolate themselves until the vaccines were on the market. Private celebrations such as weddings, birthdays or company celebrations did not take place or only on a small scale. But Mayer wouldn’t be a good business economist if she hadn’t thought about additional sources of income and expansion at the same time. With five baking mixes that could be ordered online or bought in 250 stores, business gradually picked up again, but not as much as it used to.
Before that, however, a place was found that Mayer still describes as “perfect” to this day. On the Theresienhöhe, not far from the Bavaria, a restaurant with large window fronts was empty. There is space for offices, a show kitchen, a sales room and a café, even with a terrace. During the conversion work, the funds ran out, bills and rent could no longer be paid. The Ukraine war and inflation had slowed down private investors. Cake gossip was then taken over by Höflinger Müller in October 2022. Was it a mistake to think so big? “No,” says Mayer to this day. “The external factors were not foreseeable.”
It was her birthday recently. “It was the first in nine years without a cake gossip cake.” She is now 34 years old and has been going back to university since January. She had already applied for the master’s degree in Oxford before Corona. A week there, four to five weeks back in Munich, where Mayer now works as a freelance consultant. The tuition fees are in five figures. Mayer took out a private loan for this. “I see a very clear added value in this course,” she says. “I think I can do a lot more with what I’m learning there.”