Artist in Icing - Helen Chesterman of Bayford

Helen Chesterman of Bayford runs her own solo business making cakes for special occasions. "So what?" you may say. "What’s so special about that?"

The answer is immediately obvious as soon as you see what she does.  Helen calls her business Helen’s Celebration Cakes, and each cake, be it for a wedding, a christening, a birthday party or special occasion is unique. The starting point is when a client comes to Helen with a special idea in mind. Helen listens carefully and then comes up with her own suggestions as to how to put this into practice and when they have agreed on a concept she sets about designing and making the cake and its icing.

In the process Helen has developed amazing technical and artistic skills, such as can be seen in creating the butterflies on the cake in the photo. These were meticulously modelled in sugar and then painted using icing colours mixed with pure vodka. Helen also makes all sorts of detailed and intricate marzipan and icing models of people or of objects to go on her cakes, and then there are the cakes themselves. These come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and of course can be of any type from fruit-cake to chocolate, many layered or single, or made into unexpected shapes - such as a large yellow ball for a tennis coach, topped with a model of the coach herself suitably clad with racquet.

Helen made her first birthday cake when seventeen, and from then on she became hooked on making special cakes and thinking up new ways of icing and decorating them. As she did so her reputation grew and after some years working in a factory, she found she was getting enough work making cakes to set up her own business on a full-time basis and she has now been working from her home in Bayford for the past eighteen years. She is kept extremely busy and clearly loves what she does. Naturally outgoing and friendly, she enjoys meeting the constant stream of new and returning customers and the discussions she has working with them to produce something really special, be it a huge many-layered wedding cake for an important personage celebrating his wedding in the House of Lords or Henry Allingham’s 113th birthday cake in the shape of the Red Ensign to a young mother ordering a christening cake for her new baby.

To contact Helen telephone 01963 33465, mobile 07989 622976.
E-mail:

John Baxter (Before the WW started I came across Helen when her skill were recommended when we were planning a family special occasion. I was so impressed I asked if I could write this for her.)

Comments

SamL24
Posts: 1

Helen is great
Reply #1 on : Mon June 21, 2010, 13:18:08

---

Helen has made cakes (and organised catering) for many a family function from birthdays to weddings. My wedding cake was absolutely fabulous - with hand made, beautifully crafted countryside flowers. Given this was 15 years ago, it's amazing that I still have the "bouquet" from the top of the cake in one piece! She'll be doing my 40th Birthday cake for this weekend and I just want to shout from the hills about what a great job she does!

Login to comment!