Year 1 in the life of a Lockdown Cake Shop
The inspiration for my display, comes from the excitement, challenges and experience of starting a new business, opening a cake shop during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The display charts the shops progression from day 1 getting the keys, opening, adapting to lockdowns, home schooling, completing larger orders to finally being confident enough to tackle more challenging designs
Cake International
A year after opening my cake shop, I was bullied by friends and family into entering the biggest and most renowned cake competition- Cake International which took place in November 2021 at the NEC.
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Being a cupcake shop, it seemed appropriate to enter the 'Display of 6 Cupcakes' category. This was well outside my comfort zone, and a very scary undertaking as all pieces are on display, with judging notoriously hard, but I felt I could tell the story our first year in business through cake.
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The piece 'Year 1 in the Life of a Lockdown Cakeshop' showed representations of key points during our first year, and the challenges we've had to overcome due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Starting with the excitement of getting keys, painting, and decorating- to opening with our delicious cakes and coffee.
Moving then to the November lockdown where we had to switch to takeaway only, then another lockdown in January where I had to balance shop orders with home and often shop school!
The final 2 show us moving into larger and more exciting orders- an order of 600 cupcakes for local NHS employees as a thank you for all the vaccination work and finally a miniature of our largest and most complex cake since we opened!
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I was so happy to finish the piece, complete with a miniature cake shop with clear windows (and a hint of the cakes inside!)!
To get any kind of award is a huge achievement and I was overwhelmed to be awarded a Bronze- very close to silver so maybe next time!
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The results can be seen at:
https://www.cakeinternational.co.uk/competitions/results/birmingham/competition-results-autumn-2021/