I believe that the most important element of any cake is the taste and texture. It sounds blindingly obvious but so often the cake itself is used as nothing more than a structure for the decoration. Fruit cakes suffer particularly; we have all been to weddings or Christmas parties where the cake is dry, crumbly and tasteless. Birthday cakes usually consist of an unexciting sponge and children’s cakes are even worse. All my cakes are delicious by themselves, without any adornment. They are all cakes which we eat frequently (and in large quantities!) at home and you will not find a boring Madeira amongst them.

The next critical difference between my cakes and many others is that every one is unique. With the obvious exception of cupcakes, each design is based upon you and nobody else. I will never repeat any of my cakes and this is why the design process itself is so important. For example, the Sailing Cake included a picnic which consisted of specific things that the recipient liked and which could be locally sourced, obtained or made; the caravan was the same make as his; boats were modelled on ones that he had raced. This meant that the cake was extremely personal and could not belong to just any sailor. As another example, the bears on the Teddy Bears’ Picnic were modelled on the children’s actual bears so couldn’t be for anybody else.