about emma

Hello! I'm Emma.

I live and work in Devon, and when I'm not covered in icing sugar I work as a primary school teacher in a lovely school in Exeter.

I have always loved working creatively and have been a bit of a Goldilocks with my hobbies; tried clay (too messy), wood (too sawdusty), spinning (too twisty), jewellery making (too equipmenty) and finally sugar (just right!) I love working with sugar as just about anything can be created and people get to scoff it at the end - much tastier than clay!

I started developing my own style of cake decorating as a reaction against the 'doily' style cakes that it seems we've been stuck with since the 70s (a good decade for producing excellent people, by the way.) Why have a boring old cake with stiff structures, prissy flowers and a dry old chewy middle when you can have something exciting, funny, bright, happy, beautiful and with a gorgeous moist inside?

I wasn't born a cake decorator, but was in training from an early age. I entered a cake competition when I was in primary school. I made a cake with a teddy bear's picnic on top; it had marzipan bears, a red gingham picnic rug and little marzipan foods for the bears to nibble on. It didn't win, I think Tammy's 'Bird's Nest' cake did, not sure I've forgiven her... I have always loved fiddling about with the recipes and often end up making cakes with all sorts of odd ingredients in; my marshmallow and coconut cake resulted in Ade begging for 'just an ordinary cake.' My fruit cake is now perfect, though I say so myself, and not a shrivelled old currant in sight. Ignoring Ade's request I invented a cracking beetroot cake which has a bright pink inside and a carroty cake feel to it.

I started my life in sunny Dorset where the beaches are as lovely as the people. Feeling the usual teenage need to escape I moved to Cardiff University to do my degree in English Literature. I must have liked it there as I went on to do an MA in Creative Writing and then got a job with the University in marketing. I trundled along in this job for a few years before the yearning to be covered in paint, dress up as a witch, eat wasabi and do maths dances got too strong and I went to Bath to train to be a primary school teacher. I lived in a gorgeous little cottage with my two cats and an increasingly hairy man - don't worry, I keep him away from the cakes! We then moved to Bracknell and I worked in a little school in Ascot with some fantastic people.

Now we're in Devon in a white cottage with all kinds of plants growing around it, delicious fruit trees and four fat chickens clucking about. I'm happiest when in the kitchen creating and Ade's happiest digging up worms in the garden. Dulford is a tiny hamlet with about thirty other people living there. It's one of those places where everyone knows your name, if you have your jumper on back to front and when you last painted your ceiling - so if you want to know anymore about me just ask anyone in Dulford!

emma@emmascakes.co.uk
01884 266159

 

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