I wanted a place where I could be creative, make beautiful things and be inspired. A place that was separate from my home life, yet still connected. When I moved to my home in Dorset 3 years ago (which was a dream in itself) I was presented with an opportunity to build onto the house using planning consent which had expired for the previous owners. There was a square of decking outside the house and an old utility room, it was the perfect area to demolish and create something new. I had ideas for what I would like but I couldn’t afford it.

It was way too expensive and I was just starting to build up my work again after covid had reduced it to nothing. So I waited and hoped things would get better, in the interim I taught myself how to pipe buttercream flowers, launched a new online cake school and my business slowly and steadily picked up again. People seemed to like what I was doing so started to ask if I could teach them too.

It seemed like a natural progression to make myself a creative and functional space where I could share my skills.

In February 2025 after one and a half years of planning, saving, worrying, saving, planning, saving more, deciding…. and more worrying. The works and demolition finally began. All stresses aside I was super excited to be finally getting the cake studio of my dreams, as well as a gorgeous extension to the house which would also house a beautiful new utility room at one end.

I planned it all meticulously and wanted it to have all the pretty little touches that would give it a unique character as well as a practical area to work and teach from. Ultimately I wanted it to be an inspirational place to be, with gorgeous views across the garden and flowers. I didn’t just want to build another kitchen, I already have a kitchen. This was going to be a beautiful creative space, not too huge, cosy and intimate with warmth, artistic twists and little nods to my quirky side.

I’m lucky enough to have the most wonderful views across agricultural land and a garden that I have been working hard on and I wanted to be able to look out on to the one thing that inspires me every day no matter what the weather.

For 7 months my house has been full of builders and dust, mostly men, I’m not complaining and its been rather lovely chatting away to them all about life whilst I’ve been working. Ive also fed them all lots of tea and cake and its been fab to have mouths to feed all the testers and offcuts. Watching the building works unfold has been utterly fascinating, I’ve also enjoyed being able to keep a close eye on proceedings to make sure nothing goes wrong.

A year ago I had made a little card model all to 1;25 scale and every day I looked at it hoping and praying it would become real. It had beautiful steel handmade doors, bespoke cupboards for all of my things and a mosaic floor made to my design with a floral motif in my corporate colours. Step by step brick by brick the space started to come to life and every day that I walked downstairs to the mess I couldn’t believe that all these people were building something for me just the way I envisioned.

It was really important that I used local companies to help achieve my vision, I wanted to create a really unique space and not a blank white room with no soul, so several items were handcrafted to my own design and I will pop links to them all as you read if you are interested.

I’m lucky to have a talented brother who runs London Mosaic they supply and create beautiful tiled floors. With a family member in the trade how could I not have one of their floors installed, so I chose a gorgeous mosaic hexagon design which I customised to fit in with my branding and colours.

I also chose a gorgeous solid oak beam to run along the roof, it was never actually needed to hold anything up, I just love a lump of wood, all 70kg of it! In addition I had beautiful oak windowsills from Dorset Design Works

My old dining room table was properly pimped up by Robbie from Interior Tailors a fantastic local company that revamps and repairs old furniture. For me it was turning an 25 year old solid oak John Lewis table into the cake decorators table of dreams. He raised it to working height, added a wipeable surface and inserted perfectly sized drawers at either end to hold all of my piping tips and pots of colours. It is utterly amazing, a joy to behold and totally unique to me.

A few gorgeous stools and it is the perfect table for teaching around. I also have a little vision of me when I’m older, getting out my flower press or painting easel and taking up one of the other arty hobbies that I love. Its also a place for lovely lazy family lunches and sharing a glass of wine with good friends.

Inbuilt cupboards

Doors

Plank Handles

Me doing the DIY

Built in cupboards at the far end were put in by my carpenter Andy and the whole build was completed by James Newsam Builders, a local Dorset company. I chose bobbin handles in an antique brass from plank Hardware which I fell in love with and these gorgeous cupboards were designed perfectly to house all of my boards, boxes, paper, tools, cake stands etc as well as a lovely little hidden desk at one end for me. Ohhhh and I also have a secret fridge and microwave in there too… for wine, and lots of buttercream!

Lastly, before I share a few of the finished images, this room was also all about the view. I kept things light and bright with large sliding doors to the outside decking. The perfect place for my students and I to sit with a cuppa and gaze at all the beautiful flowers, as well as sleek and slim profiled steel dividing doors. These gave me a gorgeous division between my home life and my studio life, but also allowing me to swing both the doors open on non work days and just enjoy the space. These were handcrafted by local company BOMEN who are just 5 minutes down the road from my home.

Designed to perfectly fit the space to the mm, the slim lines echoed that of older style warehouse buildings and helped to add a chic and elegant piece of character to the space.

Once the doors were installed all I needed was for the guys to deliver and put together my new table. Excitement doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel about my new space, I cant even believe its mine and that I have achieved it all by myself through hard work and determination. Building work is a stressful undertaking and it did break me just a little towards the end BUT the summer is over, the skips and porta loos gone and I now get to open my doors to you, my students.

I get to share my gorgeous new space and be creative with you, its the best job in the world. Oh and did I mention I have a fully installed air con system too so no more sweaty buttercream and hot hands. We can programme it to the perfect working temperature!

If you are wondering how to go about booking a course with me you will find upcoming group workshops here on the website Workshops

If you prefer a one to one Masterclass where you get all the attention then take a look here Masterclass

But don’t worry if you cant travel to the gorgeous county of Dorset, UK, I have online classes that you can follow from home wherever you are in the world. You can choose from over 100 buttercream flower tutorials right here in my Cake School

If you are travelling from far away I can even put you up in my little boutique bed and breakfast room at the house.

For now, I’m off to do some baking and I cant wait to meet you all soon.

Rachel x

Since I moved to the Dorset countryside 2.5 years ago my love for gardening and growing cut flowers has increased massively. I always loved a spot of gardening, I was raised in the countryside so it was always in my heart but when I lived in London my garden was small and I hadn’t yet discovered a love for floral piping.

But then I found my dream home, it coincided with discovering buttercream flowers so I built a cutting bed with my son so that I could grow beautiful dahlias and other flowers and spread them around my home. I could fill vases in my kitchen and use the flowers as inspiration for my work. A bit like an artist might set up a still life.

When I first taught myself this gorgeous art I was at the very beginning, I was just learning the way to hold my bag the consistency of the buttercream and how to twist and turn to make the medium do what I wanted. Once I had mastered the basics I wanted to take my work to another level, not to just pipe the simple shapes to represent a rose, but to actually make the rose look like a rose. I found that as my skill progressed I just wanted to do more and more and to me that meant actually looking at the flower, the colours, the way the petals moved and the shading.

This way I could start to add more depth to my work and there’s nothing like having the real thing in your garden to look at when you are in need of inspiration.

Some days I wake up and I havn’t a clue what to pipe, all I need to do is walk outside and see what’s growing. Flowers constantly amaze me and as my love for piping them from buttercream has grown, so has my love for growing them! Its a viciously wonderful circle that I am absolutely loving and that’s why I want to share it with you. For an art that involves creating something so beautiful and tasty why on earth wouldn’t you want to be looking at the real thing too. My garden is and always will be my biggest inspiration.

I know and fully appreciate that some of you wont have big gardens or a place to grow your own flowers and so I will bring my flowers to you. Here in the UK we will have flowers that you may not have in your country, equally you have flowers that we don’t have and I love it when you all send me images of your native flowers, there’s always the next one to learn and be inspired by. Always the next piping challenge.

I get so excited to see what will come next and I am always striving to pipe new flowers, ones that I havn’t seen piped before or ones done my way, the Rachel way. I can spend hours experimenting some days, just working out which tip will pipe the petal shape that I’m after, mixing up the colours so that they are just right.

Once I get there I cant wait to share it with you via an online tutorial in my Cake School and by that time I’m itching to book in my cameraman so that I can show you all how to create that flower too. It makes me so proud and happy when I open up my socials and see you all piping my new design and creating stunning bouquets.

Below is a Ranunculus I grew in my garden this year, I’d never grown them before and this little flower just blew me away. Mere seconds after discovering it I’d mixed up my colours and was piping away. I got it wrong the first couple of times but third go and I had success.

If you ever need a little inspiration go outside and hunt down some real flowers, it is after all what we are striving to create. Delicious edible flowers. Give them movement, jiggle that hand a little and see where the buttercream takes you, take colours from more than one pot and mix things up a little. You never know the flower you create might just surprise you!

I will continue to share the flowers that I grow, they will be a daily occurrence in my feed and stories on Instagram @rachellesbespokecakes I really hope that what I share inspires you all too.

I love my job, it makes me happy. Flowers make me happy. Cakes make me happy

Rachel x

I wanted to write a little post on Social Media….that thing that we all have to do as small businesses to get noticed. You know, that new job that we have all had to train ourselves in as well as the usual day job.

That thing that we are expected to be amazing at, graphics, film making, photography, editing, showing our faces, being amazing all the time, posting new content every day. Do you run your own business and use instagram and face book as a platform?, well it can be exhausting.

Have you ever heard of Imposter Syndrome?

” It is a psychological occurrence in which people doubt their skills, talents, or accomplishments , those experiencing this believe they do not deserve their success or luck”

Instagram can be horrible for making you feel this, especially with its erratic algorithm that we all have to adhere to. Its a funny world that we now work in, where we need to show up, show our faces, be cool, be amazing, jump around to silly music, speed ourselves up, slow ourselves down.

Then some days no matter how hard we try or how amazing we are being, social media hates us. No one sees our fabulous content and we feel deflated. This saps our energy and we feel like pants.

How come Janet down the road is producing wonderful content every day?….well I can assure you that Janet is hiding behind a big screen because I can bet your bottom dollar that she’s feeling it too!!

Its also very easy for people to be mean on social media, harsh flippant comments with no thought to who they are speaking to. These in particular I have learnt to scroll on by, quickly execute and remove. Its not worth my mental space and can put you in a low mood.

I made a point of saying at the start of this year (2024) that I would not let myself be ‘effected’. By that I mean to focus more on being me and what I aspire to be, rather than looking at others and wish I was doing things as well as they are, or I think they are…. (or appear to be!)

I think its really important on the socials to just be yourself. If you are not the person that wears a silly dress and dances round the garden with a cupcake, then don’t try to be them.

Since I started up my life in the country 2 years ago, a side of me has come bursting out, its always been there I’ve just not had a chance to fully tap into it.

That person is not in a white apron, in a perfect kitchen with perfect nails and hair all the time. That person is me, the mother, the business owner, the twitchy creative, flitting from planting flowers in the garden to rounding up the chickens, fishing in a stream with my son or digging up an apple tree. In between all that I’m dreaming up the next cake design, wondering what I can create from buttercream next…. flicking through garden magazines, ordering new flowers for my cutting patch and drawing pictures of my next edible bouquet with my colour pencils.

Let your followers see who you really are, and if that’s not what instagram likes then hey ho!

I’m always itching to come up with new ideas for my cakes and strive to be unique and original in my own work. We all have competition out there, but that is a healthy thing and spurs me on to be myself.

But why are we a part of all this new craziness? For me it gives me a buzz that you like what I do, it also gets me business which is important. I can use it as a marketing tool, for advertising and I like chatting with someone in the day and showing you what I’m up to. Its valuable feedback too and Ive made some great instagram friends Ive never met.

BUT… all this aside, do try to avoid clicking on your engagement every day…. DO NOT DO IT!

Just be you, keep doing what you do well. Who cares what Janet is doing….she’s just sapping your creative energies. She’s probably peeking at what you are doing every day too and wishing she was as good as you are!

Does it really really matter if you have 50’000 followers or 1 million followers. What really matters is that you stay true to yourself. What’s the point in having random robots following you if they don’t engage or give you business. I have some really lovely followers and its important to me that they receive my support and that I inspire them daily with what I love.

My followers are my virtual office, cake making as a single parent can be lonely but I love my virtual office and your support spurs me on daily, I thank you deeply for that.

Last year I used to wake up in a bit of a panic that I hadn’t done my instagram post, or made yet another reel,….

Whilst its important to remain current and keep followers engaged I’ve tried to step back and only post content I really want to when I want to, not what I feel I should post just to keep Instagram happy. Otherwise its exhausting.

Its important to me to show who I really am too, what motivates me to bring out my creative soul. And that the life I live is the one I share with my son in my house in the country with my animals, after all it is my surroundings and beautiful garden that I find the most inspirational for my baking work. So if you really don’t like the odd story with a chicken in it, or me digging and showing you the flowers I’ve grown then I’m not the baker for you.

I urge you to stick around though as great things are coming, and I’ve got hundreds of dahlias ready to grow in the garden to inspire my buttercream blooms and if I can’t show them to you guys who on earth will I share them with!

Stay true to you.

Rachel x

This is such a lovely book and one of my sons favourites when he was little and I think most children will have come across it somewhere. It is even a West End Theatre show. I was so happy when a client came to me and asked me to make a cake themed around it for her daughter.

She wanted me to keep the decor in the same illustrated style as the book so all credit to Judith Kerr and the team. Elements that had to be included were the little girl at the door with the tiger, some balloons and the tiger playing his trumpet. I used the technique of cutting out the shapes from icing and then hand painting them in the same colours as the book. Above is my very sketchy drawing, with lots of scribbles!

I loved some of the retro details in the drawings. You can see here some of the images I used resting on the base board which I have hand painted in the same detail as the carpet from the book. I didn’t want anything to be too neat and perfect. I enlarged images from the book on my photocopier and then cut round them on pieces of floral paste to make cutouts.

I’ve always loved images of messy paint palettes and if you know me or follow my http://www.instagram.com #rachellesbespokecakes you will know that I’m always taking pictures of them too. Here is a mixture of the colours I used. All slightly dirty and not too bright, just like the book.

Above are all the little pieces I have painted ready to go onto the cake, i wanted them to have that ‘handpainted’ look so I kept the colours all wishy washy. I used water and sugarflair paste colours to do this and let them all dry completely before adding to the cake.

Here is the final cake I made for Tillys first Birthday, I hope you like it. I loved it!

All credit to the illustrations and content of the book ‘The Tiger That Came To Tea By Judith Kerr’.

I’ve done tonnes of teaching over the years, but one company I work for on a regular basis is Pretty Witty Cakes. A few years back I used to teach live classes with them but now they run an amazing online platform, and you can become a member. Just click here to see https://www.prettywittyacademy.com/Rachelles/pwa

Once you join the Academy you will have access to tonnes of tutorials by over 80 talented cake designers, including me. As well as that there is a friendly and active forum where you can ask any question you like, including help for businesses too. There is even a podcast and live videos and chats. Whats not to like? If you click here you can go straight to the joining page https://www.prettywittyacademy.com/Rachelles/pwa

Oh and if I forgot to say, the academy doors are not always open…. so take advantage and join today, you won’t regret it. And clicking the link might just help me a little bit too 🙂

https://www.prettywittyacademy.com/Rachelles/pwa