As a Surrey mum, I'm all too familiar with Farnham and the hottest party spots for pre-schoolers. Pirates Landing, a pirate themed indoor playground and soft play centre bang in the centre of Farnham in Brightwells Yard is ideal for kids parties. They not only have fun ball pits, climbing frames etc for the kids but also a smart looking cafe for everyone to relax in and enjoy.

Booking parties there is a piece of cake - you get exclusive use of the pirate party ship full of activities, a buffet for the kids, a party host and also party bags. All you need to bring is the CAKE which is where we come in as one of Farnham's most popular cake makers.

Our customer's soon to be 5 year old son Ethan wanted a Snail & the Whale themed birthday cake as it is his favourite book. The bespoke cake booking process was done entirely through WhatsApp where the customer sent us some inspiration images and we discussed the decorations, sponge flavour and most appropriate size and budget for birthday cake.

We baked 3 layers of our super soft and moist Belgian Chocolate hero sponge in our 6" round size that's ideal for 8-12 portions. I then filled and covered the cake with our signature smooth and silky Swiss meringue buttercream in tones of blues and sea greens. 

We had hand-modelled sugar figurines of the Snail & the Whale (the snail is the cutest thing ever), a sting ray, some fish, starfish, shells, coral and sea grass. We also had a Number 5 decorated in the same style. You see, the devil is in the detail.

Once the buttercream waves were piped and the sugar figurines were placed the cake made such a visual splash! It came ALIVE. 

Now, as a rule, I avoid sending photos of finished cakes to customers. Other than the fact that I usually forget to take photos as we are so busy baking there are a few other more pertinent reasons for this:

1) The lighting in the bakery is TERRIBLE. It literally doesn't show the cake off in the best light, the colours look off and the stainless steel background makes everything look ugly.

2) The anxiety of sending a photo and not hearing back for however long, whether it's a minute, an hour or a day....makes me AGE like nothing.

The customer asked to have a photo sent to sweetly that I had to oblige. However, as soon as I sent the photo (and a video!) of the cake, I hung onto my phone for FOUR WHOLE MINUTES until she replied.

I kid you not, I must've died at least twenty times in the longest four minutes of my LIFE.

Good news people, she loved it. And the reason she took SO LONG to reply was because she was showing it off to her colleagues, which to me is an acceptable reason to let me age forty years.

Upon delivering the cake to Pirates Landing she came up to me and even gave me a hug! It's these warm interactions, through the ordering phase, delivery, and even after, that keeps me loving what we do.

Hope you enjoyed reading about the inspiration and making of our Snail & the Whale cake!

If you have a birthday in Farnham or Surrey, get in touch with us over email or WhatsApp and let us make you your perfect custom cake.

Love,

Reshmi xoxo