People often picture cake-making as the glamorous bit: piping roses, smoothing buttercream. The truth is a custom cake is mostly planning, timing and washing up. Here's how a typical order day actually runs.
Early — sponge first
I bake the sponges before the house has properly woken up, while the kitchen is cool and quiet. Cakes need time to cool completely before anything else can happen, so this is always step one, coffee in hand.
Mid-morning — fillings and crumb coat
While the sponges rest, I make the buttercream and any fillings — a caramel, a curd, a jam reduced down until it's glossy. Then the cake gets stacked, filled and given a thin 'crumb coat' to lock everything in before it chills.
Afternoon — the fun part
This is the decorating people imagine: the final coat, the colour, the texture, the toppers. It's the slowest part on purpose. A rushed finish always shows, so I'd rather lose an hour here than hand over something I'm not proud of.
Evening — boxed and ready
The cake is boxed, labelled, and set aside for collection or delivery. Then comes the genuinely least glamorous part of the day: the mountain of bowls, palette knives and piping bags. Every cake leaves a small storm behind it.
A good cake hides all the chaos it took to make it. That's part of the gift.