A lot of us were looking forward to 2017 with a lot of hope for various reasons - hope for ourselves, hope for the world, hope for our environment, and hope for peace. I'm not going to dwell on the world at large here, because this blog is about our own little world here at Anges.
2016 was hard for me as it was our first year as a new online cake shop since closing the bricks-n-mortar shop. We had a rough idea but no real expectations of what was to come, and winged it largely, riding out some tough waves in the aftermath of the closure and looked forward to 2017, a brand new year, with a lot of optimism, for both, the business and our personal lives.
On New Year's Day 2017, we found out we were having a baby. Pretty epic start eh? I remember rushing out to Sainsbury's for two packs of preggo sticks and spending most of the morning in the loo reconfirming what we were so hoping for to be true. And it was true - I was no longer housing a food baby; we were finally growing our own little Baby Bennett in the belly.
I didn't think the year could get any better, but it did. Our croquembouche (and a bit of my mug) went viral in this video that featured on Delish. The response was INSANE!
We then received one of the highest badges of honour - an "MBE" from VOGUE! That's a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the Baking Empire ;) in their list of London's Best Bakeries.
We then got named as TIME OUT's best cake bakery in London and my ickle heart could not beam with more pride, especially after we had featured on THAT magazine cover.
There have also been some hilarious hiccups where we deeply disappointed a celebrity mum with our pink-not-red Pink Wink cake for a special 40th birthday. It upset me massively at the time but being 8 months pregnant and having a lot of other things on my own plate to prioritise I managed to see the ridiculous side of it all and penned a lyrically genius Instagram post that blew up my notifications for the day.
2017 also saw our cake catalogue explode with more than 20 new designs, and we were creating more and more cakes each week, including our mega-popular Mermaid cakes, already achieving the status of Unicorn legends.
That's not to say unicorns were on their way out! We've have more enquiries and orders for our Horn of the Unicorn croquembouche than ever and this more-than-a-meter tall wedding cake was created as my own last hurrah before maternity leave for Ellie and Phil's wedding planned by Always Andri.
Image: Michael Newington Gray
And in other wedding news, as my last-last-hurrah I went to one of my oldest friend's wedding in Norfolk rocking the big bump!
Our small, but perfectly formed, team also grew to become a slick and savvy crew of cakers just in time to welcome X-Ray in September, and after a little rocky start we brought him home and have been having some of our most challenging but happiest times in our lives. I also came to realise that I didn't actually know the true meaning of "winging it" until I became a mum. Oh, the Lolz.
And now with this mental year coming to an end, we're all looking forward to a proper rest as we close the kitchen over the festive period from the 23rd of December till the 3rd of January. My first Christmas with our lil cherub as a family. 2017 has set the bar quite high for the next!
I wish all our lovely customers, followers, and friends the happiest of holidays and a great new year ahead.
Image: Chloe Lee Photography , Styling: Clear Hearts
Lots of love,
Reshmi xoxo
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