When my colleague Jacqui was flipping through Facebook pictures at lunchtime one day, I had to ask her to stop so I could stare over her shoulder. Her friend Jo’s cakes were so gorgeously decorated, I was instantly jealous. And hungry.
Well, Jo, who is entirely self-taught, has now gone professional, and I have it on good authority from cake fans that her creations taste as good as they look. I dropped Jo a line to ask her about her new business…
What’s Polka Dot Cakes all about?
Basically I have my professional licence, so I can do small orders such as birthday cakes, retirement, and, well, any occasion that needs a cake really! I started after getting into making my kids’ birthday cakes, then people kept asking me to make their kids’ birthday cakes so I thought I would give it a go!
I haven't tackled any wedding cakes (apart from my own) yet, I want to do a course to get a few more techniques under my belt really before I launch fully into that market - though I’m always open to suggestions! If people wanted a seven tier royal iced structure of a cake, I'm probably not their woman, but if they want something a bit more shabby chic-ish, that's more my style I guess.
What’s the fabulous icing made of and what flavour are the cakes?
My cakes are usually covered in sugarpaste icing, and the most important thing to me is that they taste as good as they look, so I tend to do the cakes that take me a couple of evenings to decorate using recipes that stay really moist and get better after having sat for a couple of days - mainly madeira with various flavours or a really chocolatey dark chocolate brownie one.
I also do cupcakes which are good fun; I'm always on the lookout for nice recipes to make them a bit more interesting, hence some polka dot ones I’ve named the business after, which I made by adding hundreds and thousands to the mix - give it a try, it looks quite good!
How can people order, and how big an order can you cater for?
In terms of sizes of orders, it's best if people give me a call or send me an email as it will depend if I have any other cakes that week to do. That way I can work out if I can do it and give them a quote and we can go from there! I am a local business based in Bedford so people are welcome to pick up cakes from me here. I’m afraid I can't do mail order at the moment; maybe it's something I might be able to do in the future.
Prices start from around £35. My phone number is 01234 327326! My name is Jo Plomer, but you’ll notice my email address is in my maiden name (and is likely to stay that way for now!).
While Jo is very much still working on a local scale, Bedford is less than an hour’s drive or train journey from most destinations in London. Talented local bakers need our support if they’re going to become the Candy Cakes or Lola’s of the future, right?
And no, I wasn’t bribed in cake!