New photos added of wedding cakes. They’re so beautiful. See gallery below…

When we saw the photographs of the fantastic Arts Tower cake on The University of Sheffield Facebook page, we were blown away. When we found out that the creator of this fantastic sponge and icing bonanza was a University of Sheffield graduate as well as a former member of staff, we simply had to meet her.

“It took me a week to make it,” said Claire Kemp, owner of Claire Kemp Cake Studio. “There’s 50kg of cake and icing there. I carefully placed in individual boxes, which we transported and built at the event.”

The cake is huge (see pictures below) and it’s easy to see why she didn’t build it beforehand. But what’s really amazing is that, to get all the sizes right, Claire built the cake using the architectural plans of the refurbished Arts Tower.

“There are skills from Architecture that I have been able to exploit,” said Claire. “I use Computer Aided Design (CAD), when designing some of my bespoke cakes so my course really has come in handy.

“It’s a really difficult time to get a job in Architecture. I was doing research at the university, but funding was cut.”

“Starting a cake business has always been in the back of my head, but I just thought it was a nice idea and something I would never really do,” said Claire. “I did my own wedding cake a few years ago and a few friends have asked me to do theirs since then. In fact, it was at a friend’s wedding, that I had done a cake for, where somebody asked me if it was what I did for my profession… and it got me thinking that it could be.”

This is not an entirely uncommon story these days. With funding cuts and jobs in general being few and far between, more and more graduates are finding that they have to create their own jobs in order to make a living.

“I have studied architecture for a long time and so it is a lot to give up,” said Claire. “But I don’t see it as giving up and I am just so excited about it. I really enjoy modelling and making things – that was what I loved doing in architecture. And I see this as the same really… except you can eat it at the end!”

That is pretty exciting. And the Arts Tower cake has certainly stirred up a lot of excitement. It’s been featured on the University of Sheffield website, had a 2/3 page article in the Sheffield Telegraph, been published in an architectural journal and Claire has also done an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield. So, all in all it’s been a pretty good start to her marketing campaign.

“It’s been such a good start for me getting the Arts Tower job,” said Claire. “Now I need to make the most of the publicity it’s had. I’ve had a conversation with Sheffield Showcase about maybe doing something with them and I’ll be targeting wedding fairs with sample cakes.”

“Everyone has an image of what celebration cakes are,” said Claire. “I am trying to something different and more contemporary. I like to experiment.”

Check out Claire’s fantastic photos below. And for more information and to see her portfolio, please visit her website.

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