Yeah you're right, WOW. Are these not the most gorgeous cakes from Victoria Made? I love how graphic, minimal and refined they are. No gimmicks, not over the top, just stunningly beautiful.

These are the work of Victoria Watkin-Jones, an innovative cake designer. She got in touch with me as she has recently relocated to Brighton (lucky us).

I liked her attitude as one of the first things she said was she was different to the frivolous cake market and although her cakes are high-end and luxurious on the outside, the level of detail went beyond the decoration. It's a fundamental aspect that sometimes gets forgotten in the fairyland of cake creation. I've been to so many weddings now with over the top cakes in modelling chocolate that have covered up dry basic cake.

Everything here is hand made including all the fruit and curd fillings using exceptional ingredients and there is a wonderful sample list of flavours that go beyond the standard chocolate, fruit and lemon sponge bases.

So with that in mind, there was only one thing for it. I needed to taste them so lucky ol' me was sent a few samples. And even the samples were a visual feast! Feeling like some sort of gluttonous princess, I rummaged through the cutlery for the nicest pastry fork I could find and sat faced with all of these beauties. I should have dug my duchess satin ballgown out of the wardrobe for the occasion.



This was a mocha, vanilla and swiss meringue cake. Probably the sexiest coffee cake I've ever sampled. I love coffee cake but often they are overpowering and one dimensional. This one was just right. There were three layers of light coffee cake with a chocolate and coffee cream filling.



The guilt I felt cutting into the fragrant orange, cardamon and swiss meringue buttercream was pretty high, but had to be done I suppose. Personally I love these sort of fresh, exotic flavours in a cake. Moist syrups ran through the sponge to carry the favour through. The flower on top was stunning and even for a little cake, being given the extra height literally elevated its specialness. Beautiful as it was but what a top tier to a wedding cake this would make.

These cupcakes were fun but still relevant for a stylish gathering, not too over the top or girly.

Often the additions to cupcakes are below par, looking the part but failing to deliver. But here the raspberry macaron was light and I loved the fine lemon shortbread disc. Each would have been enjoyable on their own. The light cupcake had a lovely raspberry jammy centre. My issue with cupcakes is that they are often style over substance with the base often forgotten about under a pile of buttercream. So nice to have that surprise to discover.

The colours on the Boston cream pie are divine with the orange and green of the physalis in contrast to the dark chocolate and deep burgundy of the rose petal. And this cake is one for the chocolate lovers with a thick ganache top and again, a creme patisserie centre to the cake itself.

And these were just her "samples". Her full sized wedding/event cakes look like this:



The decoration of each of the cakes, as you can see, is so elegant. Just enough wow factor but confident enough to allow a concept to be without too much fuss. Even the cakes with no colour or flourish, just sculptural, fine white shapes that play with the light are breathtaking. No wonder Victoria makes cakes for some exclusive venues and has been featured in an impressive line up of magazines.

Obviously for weddings one of these creations would be a showstopper but even the cupcakes, smaller cakes or dessert tables would be lovely for special gatherings and she also creates desserts suitable for events other than weddings. The different decoration, even in the few samples I saw, I would be confident Victoria could turn her hand to anything in keeping with her eye for style.

You know, my tooth isn't the sweetest, but I really enjoyed these. I'm not sure of anyone in the area doing cakes in this style to this level of quality, all the while tasting as good as they look.

The only negative was that that in sampling and seeing such amazing cakes? The wounds of my own disaster wedding cake just twinged again. I sure deserve one of these for the next big anniversary!

Absolutely get a consultation from Victoria, who is also really lovely and approachable, for your next event.