Luxury cake makers star on TV show

Suzanne Thorp of Uppermill's The Frostery will feature on Channel 4 as her team prepares a speciality wedding cake

ELABORATE designs and fancy fondant have helped an Uppermill cake shop find fame on television.

Staff at The Frostery in Court Street were observed by camera crews as they prepared an elaborate wedding cake earlier this year.

The team and their creations will feature on Channel 4's Extreme Cake Makers as it premieres on Monday night.

The programme follows The Frostery making a cake for a wedding at Gorton Monastery as well as preparing for Tatton Park's Bride: The Wedding Show which took place in February.

Owner Suzanne Thorp, who opened her shop in 2011, said: "The most elaborate request I have had was being asked to create an open Faberge Egg. I spent a week of very long hours, hand-cutting 1,000 sugar clover leaves and hand painting each one to create an enamelled look.

"The surprise inside was a hand modelled sugar fairy and the whole open egg was stood on a bespoke stand as the real Faberge eggs do."

While creating the cake is one thing, Suzanne said one of the most nerve-wracking aspects to the job was transporting the showpieces.

She said: "Sometimes it feels like creating the cake is the easiest part; transporting some of our cakes can be so stressful. For the Faberge Egg, for example, we had to take the cake to London in a special wooden box created to support the 'open' egg and stop it from moving around.

"We travelled by car, train, taxi and tube to get to the venue and our hearts were in our mouths the whole time. It arrived in one piece I'm relieved to say.

"Any cake delivery is nerve-wracking because you never know what conditions you will face."

Designing high specification cakes can take around two days before the baking has even begun.

Cakes are usually baked a few days before the associated event, with weeks given over to the process if it involves multiple sugar flowers.

Last year Suzanne was given the opportunity to make a wedding cake for the creator of Wallace and Gromit Nick Park and his wife.

She said: "This was my all-time favourite commission.

"It will forever be my favourite because I have been a huge fan of Nick's work since I was a little girl and have at times obsessed over his plasticine creations. The fact that they chose me to create their special cake meant the world to me."

The professional cake artist and her shop are one of several teams who feature in Extreme Cake Makers.

The series, which kicks off at 5.30pm on Monday, focuses on the successes and failures of a group who go all out to produce the world's most delicious cakes.