‘A trip to New York inspired my baking’
Rosalind Miller, 60, lives in London. she’s the founder of rosalind Miller Cakes, a company making wedding and celebration cakes.
✢ THE IDEA lecturing in design at central saint martins college of Art and design, i’ve always had a keen eye for detail. so when i visited magnolia bakery on a trip to new york, i was drawn to the prettiness of their cupcake designs. i’d never seen anything like them in the uk! they reminded me of the sugar flowers my mother had learned to make on a course and, over the next few weeks, i played with the idea of creating something similar back in london. ✢ MAKING IT HAPPEN Arriving home, i booked a space at greenwich market – i thought it would be a good way to gauge if there was any interest. reading up on creating sugar flowers, i’d perfected my design and made 150 cupcakes in my kitchen. i was so pleased when, at the end of the day, most of them had been sold! returning to the market each weekend, the queues were growing. i started experimenting further with fondant icing to create new and more intricate designs.
✢ BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT When harrods called in 2014 to ask if i would create a range for their cake counter. We were thrilled, and designed christmas cupcakes, mini cake towers and christmas cakes for their festive hampers. Around the same time, we were asked to create a dessert table for 1,000 guests at a middle eastern royal wedding – i knew then that there was a real market for our design-led cakes. two years on, harrods invited us to make a life-size gingerbread house for the store’s christmas window, and we had lovely feedback from customers about that. our ready-to-order range is now established, with the robin and reindeer cakes proving especially popular – christmas is becoming increasingly important to us.
✢ STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE learning how to run a business. As it grew, i had to educate myself on how to run an efficient and profitable business.
✢ WHERE I AM NOW i have five full-time members of staff now. my daughter yasmine is my business partner. When the team isn’t busy in the studio with creations for clients (who include claridge’s, harrods and the ritz), they’re running baking and decorating workshops in the studio next door. w&h BUsINEss
IN FIgUrEs start-up costs: £600 Comprising… Ingredients: £400 packaging: £50 Website: £150 Current turnover: £400,000 Website: rosalindmillercakes.com