You’re going to need to get creative but be practical too

We think all big events should be marked with a cake – and small events too. Cake makes every occasion better! Getting married? You need cake! Birthday? Cake, obvz. Promotion? Treat yo’self. Bad day? See above. But when it comes to designing the big-life-events cakes, your cake needs to be thought about carefully. It’s a really fun process, and here at Anges de Sucre we’ll guide you along the way. We’ve always got plenty of ideas and opinions, and we love trying new things. But at the end of the day, there’s some stuff you’re going to need to consider. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help you plan your personalised birthday cake. 

Know your budget

Cake is an art form. It’s not just taking stuff out of a packet and chucking it together. If you have an idea of your budget, your cake maker will be able to make sure they’re utilising your budget to deliver the maximum bang for your buck. If you’re not sure of how much you want to spend, offer up a ball-park range. Cake makers generally don’t like to start quoting designs without a budget, as they could be wasting their time dreaming of cakescapes and extravagant croquembouches only to find you have a budget for something more, well, modest. As a guide, most good standard professional cake makers would look to charge from £300* for a bespoke 6" size.

Conversely, without knowing the budget they could risk quoting for a more-basic cake than you wanted. This could alienate customers who potentially have a budget to spend on more complex creations. Have the money convo early and be upfront – it makes everything sooo much easier in the long run. 

Portions

Are there six, sixty, or 600 people coming to your birthday party? A cake maker needs to know. It’ll affect the size and design – and cost – of your cake. If you dream of tiers but don’t have loads of people at your event, don’t worry - we can design miniature tiddly-tiered cakes for birthdays. If you have hundreds coming, we can create a stunning centrepiece supplemented with cutting cakes to serve the portions required. We have ways to make things work. 

Sign, sealed, delivered – let us take care of this!

We’ve got years of experience in the bespoke-cake business, and take it from us: you should not collect your cake. Just don’t. Let your cake maker deliver your cake to the party venue. Leave it to the experts who know how to handle fragile items. It’s their sole job to get it to you in perfect condition, and they won’t be two flutes of Champagne down, or teetering on heels like party guests might be!

We love a theme

If you’ve got a theme in mind for your cake, let your cake maker know. If you’ve seen a brilliant personalised cake on Pinterest, Instagram or wherever, show your cake maker them. You don’t want to be too set in your ideas though. Your cake maker is an artist themselves, and might be able to make something much more amazing than what you’ve already seen. Allow them to flex their creative license and let them wow you with their edible masterpiece.

No dairy? No problem – dietary requirements

If you’ve got people who have dietary requirements, let your cake maker know. If there are severe allergies, then go with a bakery that is registered as nut-free or gluten-free and can guarantee against traces. Then you’ll be 100 per cent covered and everyone can gorge themselves without worry. A lot of bakeries use our free-from hero-sponge recipes exclusively too so you'll know the taste will be amazing.

If you want a diabetic or sugar-free cake, look for bakers who are keto or sugar-free specialists. But it’s worth remembering without sugar, you may have to reign in your expectations of grand designs, as most grand-scale designs require sugar paste to create them. 

Go local – find a cake maker near you

If you live in West London, go for a cake baker who operates and delivers cakes in West London. If you live in Surrey, find a bakery that delivers cakes within Surrey. But if you live in Manchester, opt for a baker near you. Essentially, cakes don’t survive in the postal network so locality is going to be key to deciding who makes and delivers your cakes. What does your perfect bespoke birthday cake look like? Layers of Nutella and peanut butter, or a fairy tale pastel pink cake fit for a princess? Let us know in the comments. Had any birthday cake disasters? Always keen to hear those too!

* Don't worry if you were budgeting way less than £300 for a cake! We have countless stunning ready-to-order cakes that taste just as delicious as a bespoke cake would across all budgets.