Creative Inspirations: Cardiff cake makers, ‘Scrumptons Cakes’.
Scrumptons Cakes.
Welcome to the third instalment of my Creative Inspirations series, where I showcase creative folks who inspire me. This time, I’m back in Wales again, chatting to Anne Yewlett who runs the cake making business, Scrumptons Cakes, with her partner Dan.
I discovered Dan and Anne’s incredible cakes quite by chance, when we were on holiday in Wales last Easter. I was browsing around an indoor market in Cardigan when I spotted an amazingly realistic cake on display at Sylvia’s Country Kitchen. The stall belonged to Dan’s mum Sylvia, but she was helping to sell her son’s cakes.
I flicked through the folder showing the range of cakes available and marvelled at them. I hadn’t seen anything like them. The Millennium Falcon cake, in particular, had an astonishing level of detail. Being the nosey curious person that I am, I had to find out more.
That’s when Sylvia told me the fascinating story of how Dan and Anne ended up in the cake making business and how things were already starting to take off for them.
That’s when I knew I wanted to feature them on my blog and tell more people about them and their business. I took a business card and popped it in my purse, biding my time until I could share their story. Anne and Dan are one of the reasons I started the ‘Creative Inspirations’ series. I wanted a platform to showcase ordinary people with an extraordinary talent. They truly are an inspiration and I’m delighted to say that when I called Anne and nattered away like a crazy woman about how much I loved their cakes, she said she’d be delighted to be involved.
Over to you, Anne.
Creative Inspirations: Scrumptons Cakes.
1. Tell us more about the team behind ‘Scrumptons Cakes.’
Dan and I met in 2004 in London where I worked as Cabin Crew and Dan worked as an Aircraft Engineer. We soon moved back to the countryside to start a family and had three little girls two Dogs, two Cats a Hamster and a garden full of Ducks. Dan continued to work as an Aircraft Engineer in different locations all over the world as it was all he had ever done. To begin with, this was fine, but it was becoming a problem as Dan was missing the children growing up.
2. Tell us about your first cake.
Our first cake opportunity came when our eldest daughter Tilly had her first birthday party at age 4 and requested a nine turret Disney princess castle cake. Keen to compensate her for Dad working away it was built for her and took 62 hours in labour and seventy pounds in materials but Tilly had a princess castle cake for her birthday.
3. How did that first cake lead to the idea of setting up a cake-making business?
Tilly’s birthday cake set a precedent as we have two other daughters who expected equally elaborate cakes for their birthdays. This escalated every year as the children tried to ‘out do’ each other’s cake!
Before long, the guests at the parties started to order cakes from us as they assumed that we were already bakers. The more people who asked for cakes, the more confidence it gave us to believe Dan had a route out of aircraft work and a way for the family to be together doing something people appreciated.
4. How did your dream of starting a cake making business become a reality?
We embraced the new business with everything we had, including selling a rental property that was planned to fund our lives in old age. This gave us the start-up capital to learn our new trade properly. We both attended many courses and decorating workshops before we finally started advertising and taking orders as home bakers.
The business grew well with many inquiries and orders. Unfortunately, although many people loved what we produced they didn’t have the budget to cover the amount of time that a bespoke cake can take.
This is a common problem around the country where people have a choice between a £10 supermarket cake or a bespoke baker who can charge up to £100.
5. How did you manage to cut the costs of the cake-making process, without affecting quality?
Determined to solve the problem [of the time taken to make a cake] and allow us to expand the business, we turned to technology to try and create a more efficient process.
Dan’s engineering background led him to destroy a twenty thousand pound 3D printer! Then after four months of tinkering and rebuilding it, we had the ability to print fondant/icing directly onto the cake with amazing levels of detail. This was our ‘eureka’ moment.
We’d invented a digital cake decorating process and cut the decorating time down by 80%. Dan said he felt like Henry Ford and it meant that we could produce beautiful cakes to fit within everyone’s budget.
6. Once you developed a faster cake-making process, how did you grow your business?
Now we had a mountain to climb! We sold our family home and moved into rented accommodation and began perfecting our new digital process. Once we were sure our new technology was reliable, we moved closer to Cardiff, where we both grew up, to have family support.
7. What’s the most interesting/unusual cake you’ve been asked to make?
We were asked to make a cake of the Church of Scientology, in Manchester.
8. What’s your most popular cake?
Probably the cat cake and the Star Wars themed cakes.
9. What’s your favourite cake design?
I think my personal favourite is the cat cake.
10. What’s the most difficult cake you’ve had to make?
Probably and At-At Walker from Star Wars. It was 2 feet high and in a walking pose!
11. What’s next for Scrumptons Cakes?
We are now developing our range of cakes and flavours in as many styles as possible which can be personalised. We are also developing a delivery system to allow us to post nationwide, without risk. We’ve also approached major retailers and are currently developing a range for Harrods.
We are also planning to open a factory and our goal is to produce a huge range of cakes which can be personalised and delivered for free Nationwide for under £40.
We believe everyone should have the opportunity to have a centrepiece cake at their birthday or occasion.
For more examples of their wonderful cakes, see my Scrumptons Cakes Pinterest Board:
Thank you, Anne and the team at Scrumptons Cakes.
I would like to thank Anne for agreeing to be involved in my Creative Inspirations series.
I think you’ll agree their story is a wonderful story of ingenuity and creativity.
I have a feeling you’ll be hearing a lot more about Scrumptons Cakes in the future!
For more information about Scrumptons and to see more of their incredible cakes, visit their website: HERE.
Over to you.
What do you think of Anne and Dan’s cake-making journey? What’s your favourite Scrumptons Cake? If you could choose a cake for them to make, what would it be?
As always, I’d love to hear what you think.
In case you missed them…
I hope you are enjoying my Creative Inspirations series. If you missed my earlier interviews, check them out below: Mike Matola and his incredible line by line posters, then click here:
Mike Matola and his incredible line by line posters: Creative Inspirations: Mike Matola, LineByLinePosters.
Chris Baker and his photorealistic drawings: Creative Inspirations: Chris Baker.
Win a Scrumptons Cake!
Scrumptons Cakes are offering one of my readers the chance to win a cake of their choice from the Scrumptons website (The cake can be up to the value of £100 and you must give Scrumptons 5 working days notice to make and post it).
For a chance to win, enter the Rafflecopter competition below:
Competition terms and conditions:
- There is one Scrumptons Cake available for one winner.
- The winner can choose one cake from the Scrumptons website up to the value of £100.
- Please allow 5 working days for the cake to be made and delivered.
- You must place your cake order by 31st July 2017.
- This prize draw will be drawn at random, and is open to entrants aged 18 or over residing in the UK.
- Up to 6 entries per person. All are compulsory methods of entry.
- Maflingo.com retains the right to change the competition if necessary.
- The prize is not transferable and there is no cash alternative.
- If the winners do not contact me within one week, I will redraw another winner at random.
- Entries must be received by 11.59pm on 10th January 2017.
- The winners will be chosen at random and notified by email on 11th January 2017.
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