We are one, Happy First birthday to us! I can’t really believe that Julie’s Cake Company, is now a 1 year old!
How many cakes Julie?
I am not really too sure is the truth!
I can confirm we have helped to celebrate numerous special birthdays; first birthday’s complete with handmade rabbits, second birthdays with Peppa Pig enjoying a picnic with her family. Then, I have made a Batman cake, a Godzilla cake and even Super Mario was featured resplendent in his Go Kart with moving wheels and axle!
What is the most popular flavour?
Chocolate of course! More than 70 % of my fine delights are chocolate. Some heavily disguised beneath other decorations including a Harry Potter sorting hat. You can sneak a peep of our chocolate cakes here.
Others were smothered in more chocolates, decorated with chocolates and filled with chocolate buttercream too!
What other flavours are there?
A couple of months ago I found a home-made Passion Fruit curd. I tested a recipe using the curd to fill cupcakes and topped them with white chocolate buttercream. They were very popular and a prefect flavour for summer. Lemon is also popular filled with zingy lemon curd. But chocolate is far and away the most popular. Sometimes filled with raspberry and other times vanilla. No sign of any dissident chocoholics in the cake industry!
Any big ones?
I have also designed several 2-tier cakes. One covered in edible £50 notes, an Engagement Cake complete with a view of Toronto harbour and another with featuring favourite holiday photographs.
Can you make wedding cakes?
Yes, I can. I was asked to make a wedding cake for a lockdown wedding with limited guests but a cake was needed nonetheless! So, a 2-tier cake was made with a chocolate and raspberry lower tier and vanilla top tier. Everyone could then enjoy their favourite flavour. I have been asked to make other wedding cakes, but I was fully booked. So maybe next year.
How much notice do you need?
As long as possible. I am very lucky that some regular customers pass me a list of their family birthdays and say “please book these in.” I have 3 families that do that, as you can imagine that’s a fair chunk of time.
I have had many calls asking for cakes the same day. Everything is baked freshly and is made to order so that’s not possible.
Models take time to dry in order that will be secure on the cake and the petals of sugar flowers need to be cut, formed and dried. Nobody wants to lose a wheel from a car or be a few petals missing from their flower.
Have you got a favourite?
I have a few. I made a Paris themed cake for a lockdown birthday. The 11-year-old recipient was so pleased. She couldn’t see her friends, was home schooling and couldn’t have a party. Her face was filled with pure delight and that was definitely a heart-warming day.
My husband collects and repairs watches, I made him a Tag watch cake. He thought I had bought him a real watch. Whilst I appreciated his confidence in the accuracy of the detail, I had to tell him it was edible! Not one for his collection.
I have a very special friend who is a very talented baker. But at the moment she is taking a break to concentrate on some other things. For a while she made cupcakes on Fridays and I constructed her kitchen as a cake. I tried to fill it with her cupcake baking essentials. Including piping bags, her favourite Costa Coffee and her oven.
She wouldn’t cut it for 2 days! The expression of her face was priceless.
What next for JCC then?
Onwards and upwards I guess. I want to learn new skills including wafer paper and some more chocolate work. The concept of buttercream applied to cakes with tiny palette knives and stencilling hasn’t been tried in my kitchen yet. There are so many more skills to acquire.
Here’s to the next 12 months.