26 S MAGAZINE ★ 26 MAY 2019
I ask Fiona about her own wedding
cake, expecting a colourful description or
a photograph of the most wonderful tiered
creation but, she confesses, at the time
she wasn’t the slightest bit interested.
“It was a fruitcake covered in royal icing,
made by a friend of my mother’s,” she recalls.
“My mother always baked but I didn’t think it
was very glamorous. I liked eating Mr Kipling’s
fondant fancies or frozen eclairs, defrosted of
course. She said I should feel lucky that she
baked. Well, I didn’t.”
Newly married, 27-year-old Fiona, a freelance
illustrator at the time, signed up for a cookery
course. Upon moving to Leicestershire –
“which I found absolutely dire,” she laughs –
she was hired to work in the Michelin-starred
restaurant at Hambleton Hall.
“Everything I’d learnt at art college in London- all that colour, design and shape – was put
on to a plate,” she explains.
Fiona began making cakes for friends and
family. It was her husband Kishore Patel who
set her on a path to success. He had a vision
to make baking a business.
Fiona began by selling her cakes to Harrods
and The Conran Shop and opened her own
bakery, attracting celebrity fans like Pink Floyd,
Simply Red and Sinéad O’Connor.
“We made cakes for Paul McCartney for
about 20 years,” she recalls. “I remember
making a three-tiered Christmas cake covered
in snowmen playing guitars. I made a wedding
cake for Keith Richards’ daughter, too.”
No longer a one-woman operation, Fiona’s
bakery employs about 120 staff to help her
design, create and share her show-stopping
cakes. Nearly every cake begins with one of
her bright ideas or recipes and she tastes
every single one. Fiona’s business might have
moved away from the kitchen table, but the act
of baking is as joyful for her as it’s ever been.
“I find baking so exciting now,” she admits.
“I’m making more than just a cake. It could be
the most important cake of someone’s life.”
And it’s not just cakes she makes these
days. It’s slightly surprising, she teases, but
she has a bathing range, too, inspired by
Fiona’s passion for baking, flowers and
gardening, and the iconic rose.
“We’ve made thousands of sugar roses,”
she reveals. “I draw them and paint them
on to cakes. I used them to flavour cakes in
the summer and I grow David Austin roses
in the garden. So, you can choose from nine
rose-scented products.”
After decades of baking fine cakes for the
royal, rich and famous, Fiona has developed
a bit of a picky palate. Her favourite food
depends entirely on the season. Whatever you
do, don’t serve asparagus to Fiona in February.
“I get very upset if someone does that.
Wait until May,” she advises with a frown.
“I wouldn’t cook with rose water in a light
airy sponge in January. I would do so in the
summer, along with meringues with the
sharpness of lemon. Take a look at my book
about seasonal baking. I feel strongly about it.”
Back at home in the kitchen, Fiona still
bakes for her friends and family.
“If I’m ever at a loose end, there is nothing
I enjoy more than making homemade gifts.
I tell people I stir in the love.”
Many moons ago, a very tense afternoon in
the kitchen taught Fiona that to make a great
cake, she must always bake with love.
“If something isn’t working, it isn’t going to
work,” she explains. “Do something else and
go back to it. I think you can tell if someone
has made a cake out of love or if they couldn’t
be bothered.”
Fiona rarely bakes for herself but she’s
extremely keen for all of us – even beginners- to pick up a spoon and get creative.
“Anyone can make a cake,” she reveals. “Follow
the rules and the recipe, and you’ll make a
great cake. Most importantly – enjoy it.” ●S
You can find out more about Fiona’s cakes
at fionacairns.com.From novice cook to
royal wedding cake
maker, Fiona Cairns can
rise to any challenge
Interview by Kirsten Jones
“I
made a wedding cake for the future King
of England. It’s a big deal... a very big
deal, and I’d go through it all again.”
Fiona Cairns is one of the most famous
bakers in Britain. In 2011, she was
hand-picked by the Royal Family and asked to
make an eight-layer white wedding cake for
Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke
and Duchess of Cambridge. In the space of
three months, Fiona knuckled down at her
Leicestershire bakery to make 17 fruitcakes
and 900 hand-crafted sugar flowers with her
talented team. It was a daunting challenge,
she recalls, and such a big secret that she
couldn’t tell a soul.
“The Queen’s former pastry chef – now a
good friend of mine – told me it was all about
the memories. But at the time all I had were
sleepless nights. Can I do this? Will the cake
fall over? What if someone breaks in? All those
worries and so little time.”
The wedding cake was a roaring success
and made Fiona a champion of the baking
world. For 25 years, the bakery has handled
confectionery requests from all over the
world. The business sells celebration cakes
in Selfridges, Harrods and Waitrose, made a
wedding cake for Pippa Middleton and baked
a fruitcake for Prince Charles’ 70th birthday.
“Fruitcake is a Royal Family tradition,”
she explains. That’s not to say Prince Harry
and Meghan Markle’s lemon and elderflower
cake was a flop, though.
“A fruitcake is not revered in America,” she
says, eyebrows raised. “Perhaps they haven’t
eaten a slice of ours.”From left: A selection of Fiona’s sweet treats; her
cakes are on sale in Selfridges, Harrods and Waitrose