We teach how to make beautiful buttercream cakes efficiently
so the process stops taking over your mornings, nights and weekends.
Cake smarter, not harder today.
Cake smarter, not harder today.
Anyone can put a cake together… eventually.
The question is: would you rather it take 3 calm hours or 13 chaotic ones?
Our Cake Smarter, Not Harder® courses teach the systems, not just the recipes and the why, not just the how — so you can create confidently without the mess or stress.
Choose Your Cake Smarter, Not Harder® Course
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Buttercream Cake Mastery
This on-demand course teaches a simple, 4-step system to efficiently create beautiful buttercream cakes. No more late nights, early mornings and missing out on weekend fun just to make a cake.
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The Versatile Baker
This on-demand course teaches baking science and a simple baking system that turns one base vanilla cake recipe into 15+ flavours plus cupcakes, baked donuts and free-from substitutions.
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Level-UP
A library of 10 on-demand courses designed to spark playful, messy creativity. You already know how to make a buttercream cake. It’s time you learn how to create your own designs.
Special Offer
Special Offer
Bundle all 3 Cake Smarter, Not Harder® courses and save 66% off.
“Thao’s courses allowed me to refine my skills so much faster than if I’d just learned from trial and error or YouTube.”
I love all the recipes and use many of them every week in my business.
Alanna Holmes - Colour Me Cake
“DTC courses provided fantastic methods and recipes which I was able to harness and adapt to best suit the needs of my business.”
The entire DTC system and its philosophy; to focus on "maintaining quality while maximising efficiency", really is what people in the modern cake-making world desperately need.
Kat Medrzejewski - Halo & Horns
“I am so glad I found these courses early on. It’d be a shame to do this for years and realise there could have been a better way.”
My work looks so much more refined and elevated. It gives me the confidence to try new things and experiment because I have a strong foundation.
Jeannine Nguyen - Sprinkle Happiness Cakes
1 Simple Philosophy
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11,161 Confident Students
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1 Simple Philosophy • 11,161 Confident Students •
Why we care
Don’t Tell Charles began with design-driven, modern buttercream cakes: clean lines, beautiful colours, precision. Back then, it was about mastery and pushing boundaries.
Over the years, I realised the real magic wasn’t in how perfect a cake looked. It was in how it made people feel, both the maker and the receiver. It’s about connection.
What started as a personal pursuit of perfection evolved into a philosophy of efficiency and intention. Because when you understand why things work, you don’t need to overcomplicate them.
Today, Cake Smarter, Not Harder® is more than a tagline.
It’s a mindset for modern creatives who want to bake beautifully without the burnout.
I have evolved from being an ambitious, perfectionist entrepreneur who worked 6 days a week to being a mother whose priorities are balance and time. Amazingly, despite the drastic change in my life phases, I still to draw from the same systems and recipes to help me save time and find joy in baking today.
So, whether you’re starting a business, baking for your kids, or rediscovering a lost creative spark, the Cake Smarter, Not Harder systems give you structure, confidence, and space to enjoy the process again.
Love,
Thao x
