Stories

   Our relationship has endured for years

"I couldn’t imagine a better artist than Sophie: a true flair not only for creating a thoughtfully decorated, elegant cake that rang true to my concept, but also for baking such flavour, deliciousness and creativity into each different layer! Our relationship has endured for years: cakes designed with love for both my parents, and now - both my children!"

Lila & Davide

An Autumn Wedding

Lila and Davide’s cake story is a particularly memorable one for me because their wedding date fell on my mother’s birthday.

The wedding reception was held at Kew, a beautiful venue and incidentally my first time setting up there.

Wonderfully organised, the couple initially contacted me through email and had already sourced the style of cake they were after, sending some images and outlining certain things already in place, including the florist. They also knew straight away they wanted sugar flowers on the cake – a dream for me.

After the tasting and consultation the decision was made to step away from those styles of that first email and also a fondant covered cake. Although Lila was in fact a fan of fondant, I don’t believe it was the consensus and as such we went with a textured, white ganache finished cake.

A little differently, it was also chosen to have sugar peonies. Baring in mind the wedding was in the October time, so fresh peonies were certainly not going to be included in the florists proposal. However, this was no matter to the couple, they had their heart set on them and as such they slotted in beautifully amongst the rest of the wedding’s overall aesthetic.

I was very pleased with the final cake. After going through various different design options, the final choice was beautifully simple in its overall appearance, with gentle blooming sugar peonies being the focal point at three different levels on its large five tier size. They also had a very tasty selection of four flavours.

I have been fortunate enough to since create many lovely birthday cakes for their children and parents. It is a real privilege to be a part of a couple’s growing family in such a way.

  • Tiers – 5” chocolate / 7” carrot / 9” chocolate & ginger / 11” carrot / 13” lemon
  • Finished in textured white chocolate ganache
  • Decorated with sugar flowers
  • Venue – Kew Gardens

Photo Credit: James Davidson

   We loved our cake so much

"We loved our cake so much; not only was it so delicious, but Sophie’s sugar flowers are now a forever memory that we have in a glass display box. We fondly remember the cake tasting at Sophie’s studio, it was one of our favourite parts of the wedding preparation!"

Rebecca & Fred

A Spring Wedding

As a couple, Rebecca & Fred were super organised and made contact a year in advance of their wedding date. Although certain decisions hadn’t yet been made in terms of the florist, colourings etc, it was definitely going to have a lovely springtime vibe to it. Also, with the reception being held at Claridge’s, colours were going to compliment the rooms they were using.

As it sometimes happens, the cake designs were drawn up and decided upon before the tasting. There was plenty of time in advance of the tasting to email and chat through various looks and options so it made sense to get the ball rolling with the design. Flavours can always be factored in afterwards.

The couple decided upon sugar flowers after seeing how realistic they could be made as well as discovering their benefits - one being they could keep them as a memento of the day. Therefore, by the tasting, which was held about four months before the wedding, the design had been confirmed so it was just the flavour decision.

The cake was a beautifully elegant three tier that played with dimensions, slightly shaking up the classical appearance. Sugar flowers adorned the middle front section and were to appear almost like a band around it. The bottom tier size allowed for plenty of ‘ledge’ space for the sugar flowers to sit. Some delicate hand painted foliage was then added as though ‘coming out’ of the 3d sugar work.

This cake was close to completion in the studio – a rarity! Once at Claridge’s, only the top tier was added on. I wanted to be able to spend lots of quiet, quality time on the placement of the sugar flowers, the painting too, which could only be done last. I knew the cake would be fine to travel part stacked – the distance was thankfully not far, it wasn’t hot weather and nor was the cake enormous.

On arrival I was overwhelmed with delight that the backdrop for the cake was an utterly gorgeous mantelpiece floral display. Your wedding cake stands out so much more if the background &/or cake table placement has been considered!
 
  • Tiers – 5” lemon / 7” lemon / 11” chocolate and passionfruit
  • Fondant finish with sugar flowers and hand painting
  • Florist – Lucy Vail
  • Venue – Claridge’s
 
Photo credit – Alex Lloyd @ Zoom photography

   We could not have asked for any more

“We were absolutely delighted with our wedding cake. It was so beautiful and Sophie made sure it was exactly what we wanted. We could not have asked for any more”

Sophie & Max

A Summer Wedding

Sophie and Max’s gorgeous midsummer wedding was planned by the super ARC events and as such the wedding cake ‘management’ was done through them. The booking was taken a good 9 months before the wedding date, near the end of 2020, when covid was still rife and weddings could only have a certain number of guests. However, as we got to a few months into the next year, the numbers grew and everyone of course kept their fingers crossed it would be possible – which thankfully it was!

We went through many different cake finish options, decoration decisions and sizing. To begin, there was a request to include their cats subtly within the design. We went from potentially just a two tier cake with fresh flowers for a nominal amount of guests to, in the end, a four tier with sugar flowers and to feed a three figure guest sum. Huge enjoyment for me as the chosen design incorporated lots of different florals to make. 

The colours were so classically ‘wedding-y’ and summery, just a delightful one to make.

Due to its size, I made the decision to stack and decorate the whole cake on site. This inevitably meant a longer set up time, but because of the design I felt happier about doing so. The reception was held at The Chelsea Physic Gardens, a beautiful venue surrounded by glorious gardens that makes you forget you’re in Central London. Under a marquee the cake was set up, stage end for all to see. Firstly stacked and then carefully decorated, this was one of my longer set up times. It might not look like it, but knowing where and how to place these delicate flowers can be a little hair-raising, especially when there is much other activity going on around you! Plenty of flowers were taken in case of breakages (this is inevitable). After getting over the initial anxiety of a blank cake canvas things started to slot into place well and I was extremely pleased with the final result.
 
Tiers -  5” fruit / 7” coffee & walnut / 9” marble / 11” lemon
Fondant finish with sugar flowers
Wedding planner – ARC events
Venue – Chelsea Physic Gardens
 
Photo credit – Lucy Davenport