10 QUESTIONS WITH BEN THE CAKE MAN
I was recently bestowed the honour of promoting myself as a recommended supplier at the recent Hampton Manor Hotel open day. This impressive Manor House is nestled in beautiful countryside tucked away in the outskirts of Birmingham. This place is a stunning wedding venue, a hub of young creatives, planners, stylists, sommeliers, artists and Michelin starred chefs. The open day showcases these creatives and their crafts for couples in the planning process of their big day. It was an excellent opportunity for me to meet couples and to also meet other suppliers that quite often play vitally important roles in your wedding but don’t have a physical presence on the day. One such supplier is the Cake Man. Ben the Cake Man. I wanted to give readers a little insight into the world of an artisan wedding cake creator. Ben’s been baking beautiful, stylish and delicious wedding cakes in the West Midlands for over twenty years so he certainly knows his shizzle.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BEN THE CAKE MAN?
I have been making cakes since I was a child, but ‘Ben The Cake Man’ was only started as a
business 14 years ago: this is when I stared concentrating properly on making wedding
cakes.
HOW MANY CAKES HAVE YOU MADE?
A lot! A rough calculation of 120 per year for the last 14 years is 1,680 (more or less!).
DO YOU BAKE ALONE?
Yes. But I have a washer-upper once a week, and someone else sometimes deals with
emails if I can’t.
WHAT ARE YOU SPECIALITIES?
A lot of clients come to me because they want something which isn’t mainstream. I think I
excel at making cakes really personal with special details. A lot of thought has gone in to
each one in the designing stage.
HOW LONG DOES A WEDDING CAKE TAKE TO MAKE?
The cake itself usually takes about three days, but the decoration can be anything up to a
week, very rarely a little more if there are a lot of handmade sugar flowers and
mouldings.
TELL ME, WHAT’S A CUTTING CAKE?
If you have a large number of wedding guests, but have a limited budget, plain iced cutting cakes can be supplied to increase the number of portions and help reduce cost.
FAV CAKE OF ALL TIME?
An absolutely huge (nine tiers) cake for a Greek client. It was the largest that I have ever
made — I needed a ladder to get to the top of it, and it had to be delivered in a van hired
for the purpose! It still get a lot of looks and likes.
LEAST FAV CAKE?
That’d be telling! I do find it offensive when someone brings me a picture of another
designer’s work, and asks for a straight copy….that’s not really what I’m about.
SO HOW FAR OUT FROM THE WEDDING SHOULD A COUPLE ORDER?
They need to book the date as far in advance as possible, sometimes more than 12 months
if the wedding is in peak season. The design and the final tying up of ends is much closer
to the date, usually about 4 – 6 months beforehand.
WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT YOU JOB?
A large glass of Pinot at the end of the day!
LOOKING FOR A HAMPTON MANOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER?
Do you want the best of the best wedding suppliers? You need a trusted and recommended Hampton Manor wedding photographer.
If you answered YES and YES to the above and you feel the style of my pics doth butter your parsnips then hit me up via my contact page where you can fill in my contact form and check my availability.
