A Day In The Life of Ellie From Milk Street Kitchen

 

I met the lovely wedding cake designer, Ellie, from Milk Street Kitchen at a wedding supplier drinks event. I was photographing the reception and whilst chatting we decided to organise A Day In The Life for her wedding business. It is so important to make connections with other industry professionals, which is why a business shoot is a fantastic way to spend time and connect with one another.

Having A Day In The Life shoot is the perfect opportunity to to capture how you work, what you do and show your clients what is involved with your business. I spent the morning with Ellie from Milk Street Kitchen in her house in Surrey, observing what a day in her working life looks like. Ellie works out of her house in Surrey and it is the most gorgeous little work space.

It was so nice to see how a day in the life of a wedding cake maker works. It was lovely to chat to Ellie and find out how other businesses functions. A day in the life shoot gives me the opportunity to photograph you as a business owner in a behind the scenes style. After our shoot, Ellie and I had a little interview about what it is like to run your own creative wedding business which I have written up below. Budding cake makers be sure to scroll down for her advice on starting out in the industry!

 

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If you are interested at all in having a day in the life shoot for your business please do not hesitate to get in touch hello@jessicagracephotography.co.uk or fill out the contact form here.

My week tends to have two halves, the first half is admin – emailing couples, writing, proposals, keeping on top of finances and doing my orders for that weeks baking. The second half of the week is spent in the kitchen baking up a storm. I make everything from scratch for each order so first up are jams, curds, caramels etc followed by the cakes themselves and then it’s down to filling and dressing the cakes.

How did you get into the industry? 

 I fell in love with working in the kitchen when I took a break from my job in PR to study patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu. I knew I wanted to make patisserie my full time job and experimented with doing all sorts of different things from market stalls to working in professional kitchens. When my friends started getting married they began asking me to make their wedding cakes and that was that, I was sold on working in the wonderful world of weddings!

 

Is there any advice you would give to couples embarking on their wedding plans and decisions in terms of wedding cakes? 

The main joy of a cake is in the eating, so my advice would always be to focus on flavour! A good first step is to sit down with a cake baker, eat some cake and pick their brains on what they think would work well in terms of style and size to fit perfectly with your wedding.

What is your favourite part about your job? 

Meeting couples for tastings is definitely one of the best bits! It’s such a happy part of the job and the excitement of wedding planning is infectious. I also love doing the final set up and delivery of the cake at the venue, seeing the design come to life among all the other beautiful details.

If you could make any type of cake what would be your favourite to prepare?

Tough question! If I’m baking for fun, I love getting the chance to revisit my Cordon Bleu days with a proper fiddly patisserie style cake such as a Fraiser, filled with light fluffy sponge, fresh strawberries and vanilla creme patisserie.

 

If there are potential readers out there looking to start a new career in baking, what would be your advice?

Spend lots of time in the kitchen, read lots of recipes and practise – it’s not too tricky to find willing volunteers to taste test your creations! I’d also suggest learning about ‘business’ side of starting your own company so you can make sure you’re well organised and going to make a profit, there is lots of support on this front online and through networking groups.

Fondant icing or Butter Cream? 

Always buttercream for me! In particular Swiss meringue buttercream which is creamier and more luxurious than a typical cupcake buttercream.

 

 

Naked cakes or Covered in Ganache?

Tough one, I love the natural beauty of a naked cake but the design options with ganache are pretty exciting.

Lastly, sweet or savoury?

Can I have both?