Hannah and Joseph are the best example of people I want to bake for over and over and over again. The exact opposite of the people on my no-cake-for-you-list. Say what?! There's a list? Oh yeah, there is. But luckily it's not too long and I'll get to it after I wax lyrical about how cool the couples we bake wedding cakes for are!
Hannah and Joseph were SO involved in the design of their bespoke cake. They had a specific brief but were open to all our suggestions on how to incorporate the various elements of their overall "look and feel" of their wedding day into the cake which makes me so happy to bake to.
The brief translated as luxurious, fun and autumnal. We included real gold leaf embellishments and macarons, doughnuts and popcorn, and to keep in with the seasonal theme we made chocolate truffle acorns with almonds. The colours were pastel pistachio with dove grey accents. Initially, the brief could have gone so very wrong (dove grey is not the most appetising of colours, acorns could be very expensive to hand-model, gold leaf all over a cake is cost prohibitive blah blah), but I was so happy that our suggestions to create the cake perfect for their day and also made them so very happy on their wedding day! So much so that Hannah wrote she was still enjoying the cake 5 days after delivery. Hurrah!
So what's the no-cake-for-you list then you ask? It's a dirty little secret amongst us small business bakers. At the heart of our business, is of course people and as people we all need to feel appreciated to some extent to be motivated into doing our best work ever. Why would we want to ever put out anything lesser any way?? Occasionally we do get some odd enquiries that do not sound or seem "right" for us, and life is too short/time is too tight to accommodate something that we aren't going to feel good doing. And very rarely, but it does happen, do we get some outright rude enquiries. It does floor me, probably because of its infrequent nature. Eg: "I can get 12 macarons for £6 from M&S, is there any negotiation on your price?", "I would like this cake taken from your competitor's website but can you come in on a lower price?". Umm, polite answer is always a quick no thank you, but really what I want to say is you've just insulted me and devalued my work to bits and my heart is crushed and I want to dig a hole and cry into the ground long enough so I disintegrate into mud and get eaten by earthworms because that's how unworthy I feel.
These types of enquiries are often sent by a certain type of consumer, the ones that consider price over value. They may not actually mean anything malicious by it, or indeed may not even be rude people in real life, but I wish they knew how it comes across to the other side, and that it's more likely to get them on the no-cake-for-you-list as opposed to encouraging someone to respond favourably or indeed bake a cake with a smile on their face.
Thank you to Hannah and Joseph for being such a joy to bake for. And to all our customers who value us and our bakes - you really make us whistle while we work :)
If you already know the theme of your wedding and would like us to translate this into a bespoke wedding cake Anges style, please get in touch!
Lots of love,
Reshmi xoxo
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