Winner Leanne Tang
Cake Decorator
Terry Tang Designer Cakes
Wavertree, Liverpool
Showgirls were the theme of Tang’s Las Vegas cake, which included intricately painted eyeshadow and lashes on the girls’ faces, as well as poker chips and playing cards.
Detail is important to Tang, who says she takes great care to create authenticity in her preferred medium of sugarpaste. The judges commended her exceptional modelling skills and described her as possessing "a natural talent and an excellent eye for detail".
The shop produces an average of 12 wedding and 40 celebration cakes a week, offering a range of flavours, including banoffee, and all disciplines. Tang says she is equally happy watching a customer choose a cake from one of the 200 on display, or from a choice of 600 photographs.
Finalist Charlotte Feve
Cake Decorator/Chocolatier
The Cake Room
Hessle, East Yorkshire
A qualified baker and cake decorator, Feve joined The Cake Room when it opened a year ago. Now her team of three produces around 100 cakes a week - a combination of bespoke wedding and celebration cakes plus simpler ’counter’ cakes, which can be customised. Feve also moulds chocolates and teaches at Hull Technical College.
"I like to give clients a perfect product," she says. "We discuss portions, shapes and personal interests, then I show them drawings, photographs and dummy cakes to develop the design."
Feve uses all techniques on her creations, but says she increasingly uses bas relief work to create a 2D effect. Her Las Vegas cake showcased her painting ability and featured cards and a roulette wheel, a model Elvis and a desert scene.
Finalist Amelia Nutting
Cake Designer, Shuga Budz
Tettenhall, Wolverhampton
Set for art college, Nutting spent last summer helping mum Debbie in her new shop, and loved it so much she stayed! Now training for her City & Guilds in both Sugarcraft and Teaching, her ambitions include writing a book.
At just 18, it’s hardly surprising Nutting has a reputation for designing fun, modern, quirky cakes tailored to the individual. She says she enjoys creating "mad" ideas and cites modelling, piping and use of colours as her strong points.
Her Las Vegas cake showed her pastillage skills. She took her inspiration from the name, showing a different theme for each letter - including the Ace of Clubs and a dollar sign, as well as modelled shoes (glamour) and glittering red feathers (showgirls)
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