Top Tips for Booking a Wedding Cake Artist by Angel Cake Company
Welcome to the second feature in our new wedding supplier Q & A series where we will be speaking to some of the best Wedding Suppliers in the Industry. We hope to uncover valuable information and tips that will prove essential to your own wedding planning.
Many have been chosen for their unique skills, offering something above and beyond the traditional standard services. All share a common love for the couples they work with, along with the leading knowledge within their industry.
This week I’m speaking to Nikki & Emma from Angel Cake Company. A family run business by two sisters based in Poundbury, Dorset. Innovative wedding cake artists bursting with creative vision, as well as delicious tasting cakes whose recipes that have been 40 years in the making.
If you are wondering whether you should commission a professional , read on!
Whats the story behind the Angel Cake Company?
Nikki started baking when she was 12 years old, making cakes for people in the village. This early start then led onto a career as a chef in Bath. She then moved back to Dorset and decided there was enough of a client base to set up a new business.Mum retired, so we thought we would do a two fold business with shop and cakes.We started that and then asked Emma to join us in 2008 because we were really, really busy. From here everything has built from strength to strength.
We have combined skills of art and design, silver craft work, managerial work and retail. We come from a family who have always run their own businesses. Our Dad was a small business advisor and our Mum had her own company for many years.It was a natural progression of art and cooking together.
Getting into the cake business was something I realised I wanted to do.It wasn’t something I was expected to do.It was a business that evolved through natural demand.
Who is your ideal client? What sort of people look for your skills?
Good question…. I would say we are a high end business.Through this recession we have been quite lucky.Notoriously within a recession high end and low end businesses survive, but middle range crumble.We are a special occasion destination business, so people spend on that.Our clients tend to be middle aged, middle class, with a bit of disposable income. They prioritise and they make £400 available as they want something from us.They value the product and the service.
If you could pick the ultimate fantasy job or dream client – who or what would it be?
We would love to do something for some professional musicians or celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver.We have worked for a few celebrity chefs and we do have a few famous clients. we love the unusual rather than cookie cutter clients.We have had a few dream clients where they have said ‘you are the professionals and we trust you, do this – this is our brief – that has been fab!I’d love to do something for Tim Burton or Helena Bonham Carter – an eccentric job is refreshing, keeping diversity and creativity flowing.
What are your Top Tips for someone looking for a cake artist?
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- Work ahead -Don’t leave it to the last minute.Often the list goes, venue, photographer, dress, florist …and cake.Then they are surprised when we are fully booked.There are only so many wedding cakes that can safely be made and delivered on one specific date.Make a date to come and see us, around 6 months in advance and we can talk it through.All they need to know is the colours and the type of look they are going for.They don’t need to have a theme or anything like that because we can usually pull out of them ‘what they didn’t know they wanted’.We can work to a budget as well, if they want something amazing but can’t afford it we can make something to fit their budget.We’re quite good like that!
- Trust us – you have come to a professional for a reason and some people ask if they can see the cake before it comes out.We like to surprise, you are trusting us in our work.I realize that it can be a scary thing as they have never commissioned a cake of between £500 and £1000 before, so that is probably quite nerve racking for them.Our track record, our reputation goes before us – so trust is very important within our work.Trust in the designer and the fact that it is going to happen.All too often we hear things such as ‘Our cake maker has let us down…Can you make me a cake by the end of the week?’We constantly wonder ‘who are these people that keep letting people down….where are they from?’Whether they are family or friends who are now feeling they have bitten off more than they can chew I don’t know, but we hear this all too often unfortunately.
What sets you apart from everyone else?
Our attention to detail, our quality, quality of ingredients, our customer service I think is second to none.I really do – I’ve seen how other people have been served.Our combined range of skills.Emma & I compliment each other Nikki being precise in lettering, and Emma being better at sculpture.I can pull all sorts of things out of people as in, I can talk someone into a design that they want and Emma,cant do that.What she can do though is translate what I have designed into the finished product – she is very good at that.
We are really good at seeing colours well.We are not just cake makers that make delicious cakes, we have got artistic vision. As a Wedding Cake Artist I think a lot of people can copy other peoples work but what sets us apart is our innovative approach.You will get something different from us, if thats what you want.We can do basic, we can do standard white cakes to a very high standard, but we can also do something that little bit different as well.
Author: Linus Moran
https://www.linusmoranphotography.co.ukHi I'm Linus, a Dorset Wedding Photographer offering Documentary Wedding Photography and portraiture throughout Southern England and the UK. I aim to capture your decisive moments unobtrusively as an observer, leaving you at ease to relax, have fun & enjoy your guests!
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