About

About Fancy Cakes

I decided to setup fancy cakes as a home business after leaving my kitchen designers job in june this year (2009). After years of designing and making cakes for my family and friends and being told how good they were i thought, why not make them for the rest of the world (or Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire for now at least!).

Although there is some pretty big competition out there, Supermarkets, Independant professionals, Cake making companies etc. There is a sizeable market place for Fancy Cakes, a market for delicious, beautifully handmade-at-home cakes, tailored to any theme or logo, and importantly,these cakes don't cost the earth.

I've done a bit of research over the years, and as a mum of two that has predominantley worked full time, I myself have run out of time to get down and dirty with the cake mix and found myself buying supermarket celebration cakes right at the last minute. Unfortunately these cakes usually didn't quite live up to their expectations and generally left a distinctly bad taste in the guests mouths (a rather sweet and plasticy processed, bad taste). I've also had a good look round at other websites and companys who offer a similar cake making service and was aghast at the cost of the cakes. One site had a lightening Mcqueen cake almost identical to the one I made my son for his 5th birthday, selling from £125.00!!!!

This family talent seemed to skip my older sister, proved last year by her attempt at an Iggle Piggle cake for her 3yr old daughter (I finally got hold of a picture of it, see the blue thing to the right). Of course it's the thought and effort that counts!!!

More me

Since then I have sporadically made birthday cakes for both my boys including footballs, a pikachu, Thomas the tank engine car shapes and just plain sponges, chocoholic gateaus and fruit loaves. I also made my sisters and my own wedding cakes, although i didn't dare decorate them, at that time, i hadn't got the skills or the confidence for anything so important.

I have never really used my catering training or my cooking skills for anything other than for my family, so it is a real leap of faith for me to use this skill/talent to make a living. I'm very concious of doing the best work that I possibly can.

To help me acheive my "best work", I recently took a surgarcraft course at Squires Kitchen International school of cake decorating in Farnham. What can I say, the course was invaluable, honestly it's nothing more than an introduction to the essential basics such as covering a cake in sugarpaste and rose modeling etc. However, these skills are vital and having learnt them I feel a great deal more confident with sugar paste and would now be able to decorate any wedding cake.

In the new year I am considering taking the novelty modelling and royal icing courses at Squires Kitchen, really just to perfect my techniques and cut down on some man hours.

A family trait

I've always been told that I take after my Nana, in several different ways but predominantley with my cake making and general cooking skills. These are just a few photos of some of the cakes my Nana made for my sister and I when we were young. I have her old cake baking books with all of the classic cake recipes and decorative suggestions, which I use frequently.

Me

I have been making cakes since as long as I can remember, at first with the help of my Mother and then mostly on my own. My Mother often had a surprise cake when she got home from work (and a surprise mess).

Obviously my early attempts weren't always so successful, there was the one with the lurid green water icing that melted into the cake because the cake was still hot when i iced it.Then there was the ring shaped cake which I baked with a small tuppaware pot in the middle to make the ring hole, I buried this cake in the back garden so my mother wouldn't see the melted tuppaware pot/cake mix disaster. Fortunately, I've advanced a little bit from those days, which hopefuly my portfolio will back up.

The left hand picture shows one of my first "novelty" cakes, I made this 3D Humptey Dumptey for my oldest sons 3rd Birthday (which would have made me 20 yrs old then). At that time I was at catering college studying hotel and catering management which included NVQ level 2 in catering and advanced food hygiene management.Next to Humptey is my attempt at the Pokemon, Pikachou a year or two later.

This Is my son Williams 7th birthday cake, R2D2 from Star Wars (if you couldn't tell!) William is mad on everything Star Wars. I've based him on a simplistic lego version of the character as I think the real image might be very intricate and as a cake may end up looking messy.