Five minutes with West Midlands wedding cake designer Laura Nolan

Regular Your West Midlands Wedding styled shoot contributor and Hot Topic expert, Laura Nolan, shares her inspiration - the perfect way to get to know your cake designer before your wedding day!

"Hi, I am Laura the owner of The Nuthouse Bakery, a small, friendly business based in Dudley in the West Midlands, and covering the surrounding counties of Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Warwickshire. Since opening for business in 2011, I have become well known for my signature stylish and elegant wedding cakes, winning numerous awards.
"Working from home, I offer everything from initial consultation to delivery and staging of your cake on-site at your wedding venue. At The Nuthouse Bakery I use the freshest ingredients to ensure your cupcakes and cakes always taste delicious.
"I strive for my cakes to not only look fantastic but equally to taste delicious too. I hope you feel inspired by my cake designs and I sincerely look forward to working with you to create the cake of your dreams."

Laura's Q&A this issue in Your West Midlands Wedding magazine.

Q My hubby to be and I would love to wow our guests with a flavoursome wedding cake? Which interesting flavour combinations do you think work well and will keep our guests talking about the big-day cake long after the wedding? 
My menu is so extensive, however I find most couples stick to the traditional flavours of vanilla, chocolate and lemon.My chocolate and caramel sponge cake is like no other chocolate cake you have ever tasted, it's so light and moist, and even people who don't usually like chocolate cake fall in love with it. People constantly tell me my vanilla and chocolate cakes are the best cakes they've ever had.

So, actually I am less convinced there is a need to find an interesting flavour combination or to try new/unusual flavours rather than focussing on selecting a cake maker who can provide a cake that has an amazing texture, lightness, and is of the highest quality. That will impress guests far more than a niche or trendy flavour, which can often only appeal to a small selection of those eating the cake. If you do want to try unusual flavours, which I often make upon request, we always recommend to guests that this be limited to only one or two layers of the cake, so that other more traditional flavours can also be incorporated to please all tastes.

However, what I can highly recommend is the technique that I use with most of my cakes, which is to cover them in ganache rather than buttercream, as the layer before the sugarpaste is added. This not only has an aesthetic benefit of providing a much more highly quality, smooth finish for the sugarpaste, but makes the cakes richer and, according to all my customers, far more satisfying and enjoyable! We use a very high quality Belgian chocolate to make the ganache, using white chocolate for vanilla or lemon sponges, and either milk or dark chocolate for chocolate sponge-based cakes.

Laura Nolan | The Nuthouse Bakery | www.nuthousebakery.co.uk

Images courtesy of www.stilllightphotography.co.uk