How it all began

Once upon a time...

Long story short. I was dabbling making the odd cake here and there for special occasions when a text popped up on my phone asking if I'd make a fiftieth birthday cake. "Of course" I texted back - thinking I could recreate a pink layer cake I'd done a few months earlier. "Great" came the response. And then I re-read the original text. It was for her husband's fiftieth birthday. Hmmm...maybe pink wouldn't cut it.

Strawberry and white choc layer cake - not at all girly!

So I then asked what design I should do. "He likes trains...but not Thomas the Tank!" Hmmm...how hard can that be. Just layer over that that I work full time and every year can be heard swearing to anyone in earshot that after the annual trauma of doing Mini-me's birthday cake, I'm never doing a novelty cake again.

Of course just to add insult to injury, it happened to be on the weekend when I had a huge project just about to go live at work and I had to scurry in to provide brownies and moral support to the Payroll team. Of course it was a great 'excuse' for all of the flaws I could see but thankfully Sarah and her family loved it. "You should sell your cakes" she texted me. I said I was flattered but didn't think it would be a good idea.

The train that started it all...I've come a long way since then!

But she'd planted the seed in my head so several months later after a lot more mess in the kitchen, and plenty of willing testers giving me feedback, I launched The Ladybird Cakery. I've been kept very occupied over the last few months and spend every second minute obsessing about cake but I'm mostly loving what I'm doing and bringing a little joy into people's lives.

I'm eternally grateful to the people who've listened, inspired, cajoled, scoffed, praised, mopped my fevered brow, and washed up (thanks Rob!) and I'm looking forward to more cakey adventures in 2019.

Thanks for reading!