Your Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wedding - June/July 2020 (Issue 83)

CAKES 79  GORDANA STILLINGFLEET AT JUST BECAUSE CAKES Where did your journey in to baking begin? It’s hard to say exactly where or when my love for cake baking begun. I’ve always loved baking homely type cakes but my first “important” cake was my own wedding cake nearly 25 years ago. I’d love to say it was amazing but it really wasn’t. A hot July day and a sponge cake filled with fresh cream and strawberries, you can imagine! It tasted delicious though! I properly caught the baking bug roughly nine years ago and I’ve never looked back. What you love most about your job? The favourite part of making any wedding cake is the ‘prettification’ stage. Arranging flowers, sugar or fresh, and piping all the little details – the smallest of detail can make or break a cake. Setting up the cake at the venue and stepping back to see how it all came together is the best feeling! Favourite cake design: Ah, this is a tough one! It’s like asking a mother to choose her favourite baby! It would have to be an elegant minimalist all white beauty I did a couple of years ago for a wedding at the Cliveden House. Top tip: Find a cake designer you feel comfortable working with and allow them to guide you. We have lots of experience and valuable advice of what will work and give you the best cake for your special day. Go-to comfort-eating dessert? I love any sponge cake and if you add a bit of warm custard to it, yummy! But then again you cannot beat fluffy just-baked sponge cake any time of the day not just for desert. Contact Gordana: www.justbecausecakes.co.uk | hello@justbecausecakes.co.uk SAMANTHA TEMPEST AT THE PRETTY CAKE COMPANY Where did your journey in to baking begin? My love for home baking started as a child and now looking back, I can see how I had a flair for creative baking even then. Over the years my hobby progressed, I started experimenting and learning new skills. I left behind my career in clinical research when I had my first daughter, but I realised that I had the potential to combine a passion for baking with also the challenges of being the mum of two small girls. So, in 2008 I launched The Pretty Cake Company. I’ve seen it start as a celebration cake business, doing a bit of everything and it’s now developed into a luxury bespoke wedding cake business, specialising in creating unforgettable beautiful edible works of art. What you love most about your job? My true passion is making sugar flowers. It’s often one of the main reasons why my clients select me as their wedding cake maker. I relish the challenge of making my sugar flowers match the bridal flowers and love hearing that wedding guests often fail to tell the difference between the real and sugar flowers – it’s such a compliment. Top tip: I advise couples to think of their cake as a means of tying in all the elements of their wedding and take inspiration from things like flowers, bridesmaid dress colours, the bridal gown itself and stationery. I also advise couples to think of the cake table as a stage and maybe make the cake a super-feature with the use of things like floral cake stands, floral hoop installations or adding to the main wedding cake with other dessert table treats. Favourite cake design: I was approached by a bride who wanted a cake that was based on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding cake. It was important to me, and the couple, that the cake was not a replica of the original royal wedding cake so we made changes to the original design which meant that the cake was individual and personal to my clients. The finished cake was eight-tiers tall, and three-feet wide and took over 160 hours to make over four months and had in excess of 1,500 sugar flowers, buds and leaves. It took two days to install at the venue and when assembled was the same height as the 6ft 7'' groom! It remains the biggest achievement of my career and I would relish the opportunity to make something again that is equally as grand! https://kris tianlevenphotography.co.uk Go-to comfort-eating dessert? I love a good gooey sticky toffee pudding served with ice cream or lovely light vanilla custard. I love it so much that I’ve introduced a sticky toffee cake to my cake menu and many couples have chosen it for a tier of their wedding cake. Contact Samantha: www.theprettycakecompany.com | info@theprettycakecompany.co