Business is icing on the cake for Louise

YOUNG mum Louise Laverick has turned her passion for baking into a thriving new business.

The talented cook decided to put her hobby making cakes to good use. And already the idea for the money-making venture is rising faster than the perfect sponge.

Louise, of Ivy Terrace, Lane Head, Brighouse, has only been in business for a month and she’s been overwhelmed with orders for her decorated cupcakes and celebration cakes.

She launched the business, Cuppie-Cake Creations, at a stall at Elland Cricket Club on June 5, baking 130 cupcakes to sell. At the end of the afternoon only six were left.

“I was amazed,” said 24-year-old Louise. “The feedback I received was excellent. People came in and made a bee-line for the stall. They were coming back two or three times to stock up. It’s great to think I’m making something that people enjoy.”

Her cupcake creations - double choc fudge, chocolate mint, red velvet, strawberry swirl and lemon sensation - went down a storm as did her cake pops - decorated sponge lollipops at £1 a time - and cake truffles.

Louise and her husband Jay have two daughters, Chloe, aged five, and Nieve, almost one. She started baking with her mum when she was child and regularly makes cakes for her friends and colleagues at Hewett and Associates where she works as a dental nurse. She’s also keen to encourage her own daughters how to cook.

“I just discovered I had a knack for it. I’m dyslexic so I don’t much like sitting around reading, I’d rather be making something. Going into the kitchen, getting out my baking equipment and producing a batch of cakes is my way of relaxing.

“I’ve got a secret ingredient I put in my sponge mixture to make it so light. People are always asking me for my recipes but I’m not going to pass them on because they are what my business is about!”

Louise makes all her cakes in her kitchen at home and bakes well into the night to meet an order. “I don’t believe in putting cakes in the freezer so I make sure all my cakes are as fresh as possible.”

She’s already been booked for an event in Bradshaw near Halifax this summer and she is unable to take on any more orders for Father’s Day.

She’s brimming with ideas for novelty and celebration cakes and her dream is to open an old-fashioned tea-shop where she can serve up her mouth-watering creations.

“One of my best-sellers is a box of six cupcakes for £7.50. People buy them for gifts and parties and I can customise them to any design.

Best Red Velvet Cake « Le Food Snob

For as long as I can remember, this was the cake my mom made for my birthday. Then one year it became tradition for her to make two of these cakes on my birthday (it goes over so well that there was never any leftover), and so one cake was served at my birthday party and the other cake I got to take home and eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it was gone. Now that I live across the country from my family, it falls upon me to make my own birthday cake. (BF did say he would try his hand at it if I wanted him to…)

This year I made the cake with a bit of a twist. Two layers of frosting — the traditional cooked frosting as a filling and outer layer topped with chocolate buttercream (which looks way prettier than cooked frosting).

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Red Velvet Cake Ingredients: 1 c. shortening 3 c. sugar 4 jumbo-sized eggs 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares 4 bottles red food coloring 5 c. flour 2 tsp. salt 2 c. buttermilk 2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp. vanilla Directions: Cream shortening, eggs, and sugar. Melt chocolate and add food coloring and chocolate. Sift flour and salt. Add baking soda to buttermilk. Add buttermilk and flour mixtures alternately to creamed mixtures. Add vanilla, mix well. Grease the bottom of three 8″ round cake pans (or three 8×8″ square cake pans). Line bottoms of pan with wax paper or parchment paper and grease paper before filling with cake batter. Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cooked Frosting Filling Step 1 ingredients: 2 c. whole milk 1/3 c. sugar 1/3 heaping c. flour 1/4 tsp. salt Step 1 directions: Microwave milk until scalding. Pour 1/2 c. hot milk into the blender with dry ingredients until smooth. Pour into hot milk and whisk until smooth. Heat in microwave on high until thick. Chill completely. Step 2 ingredients: 1 c. butter, room temperature. 2 c. powder sugar 2 tsp. vanilla Step 2 directions: Cream butter and sugar well. Add cold filling to creamed butter mixture. Beat 10 minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Spread.

This frosting has an amazing flavor but looks terrible when applied. It tends to be drippy, so I upped the amount of powdered sugar I added during step two of the frosting to make the frosting more sturdy. It also tends to pick up bits of the cake as you’re frosting; which is very obvious in white frosting.

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