EICESTERSHIRE-BA-SED CAKE designer, Fiona Cairns, who runs a cake firm with her Indian-origin husband Kishore Patel, has been chosen by Prince William and his fiancée Kate Middleton to create their wedding cake. Mr Patel is managing director of Fiona Cairns Ltd, which the couple started from their kitchen 25 years ago.Trained
as a graphic designer as well as a pastry chef, Ms Cairns will make a multi-tiered traditional fruit cake for the royal wedding. The cake, which will be decorated with cream and white icing, will have a strong British floral theme using elements of the Joseph Lambeth technique, Clarence House said.
The Lambeth Method is the name given to creation of 3-D scrollwork, leaves, flowers, and other decoration on a cake.
The company is a regular supplier for high-end stores like Waitrose, Harrods, Selfridges, John Lewis and Fortnum and Mason. Ms Cairns attributes the start of her successful business in luxury cakes to her husband who “spotted the potential of her beautifully crafted handmade cakes.”
Ms Cairns’ company now makes 27,000 fairy cakes a week, but she started her baking commercially when her first customer ordered 72 miniature Christmas cakes, which she made at her kitchen table.