Cake Fantastique
An article by Robbie Roberts
This article is all about cakes. In particular, the cakes made by Samantha Strecker who runs her own business, Cake Fantastique. Anyone who has met Samantha or seen or eaten one of her cakes will know that you’d be hard pressed to find a more appropriate name. Fantastique is what her cakes truly are! You only need to look at the photographs on her website to see the dazzling array of colours, designs and intricate structures of the cakes Samantha makes, let alone the dizzying choice of flavours.
Cake Fantastique is based in Redditch, Worcestershire. After around 10 years of making bespoke cakes on a part-time basis, and working for other local cake shops, Samantha finally decided to set-up her business full-time in January 2020. The pandemic put things immediately on hold, but ever since societal restrictions were lifted, Cake Fantastique business has been booming, and if you’ve ever met Samantha, it’s not difficult to see why.
Samantha is so friendly, lively, optimistic, and interesting to talk to. She also cares deeply about what she does and her customers, who return to her time and again. To Samantha, a cake isn’t just a cake. It’s a gift, a memory, a story, and something deeply personal for the person who is ordering it and for the person who is receiving it. A quick glance at her customer reviews enables you to understand just how much it means to receive a cake so uniquely crafted and tailored to an individual.
Cake Fantastique provides bespoke wedding and celebration cakes, and corporate gifts for companies. In any week Samantha is fulfilling between 15-20 orders. Experience tells her how many cakes she can make in one week, and it all depends on the type and complexity of the orders she receives. Quality, care and a personal touch runs through the heart of Cake Fantastique so Samantha won’t take on more than she can manage in a week if it risks compromising on any of these principles.
Whilst Cake Fantastique will accommodate last minute requests if there is capacity, usually 3-4 weeks’ notice is ideal, and with wedding cakes, the lead in time is usually much longer. Before Samantha can begin to apply her artistic flair, the first questions for any job focus on when the occasion is, the number of portions required, the preferred flavour, and any dietary requirements that need to be considered. When the basics have been covered, it’s time to get to the creative brief. Some customers will already have a set idea or design in mind, with others, the ideas for the design result from a conversation with Samantha about who the cake is for, their passions, interests, hobbies, the things that are important to them. From there, Samantha will design a cake that is tailored perfectly to that individual, event or company depending on who is placing the order. And design is truly the word. Samantha acknowledges she isn’t just a cake-maker, she is a fashion designer, a structural engineer, a landscape gardener…there isn’t any challenge she won’t take on, and judging from the mesmerising photographs on her website, she hasn’t failed yet!
Samantha loves seeing the reaction and expression on her customers’ faces when they see the final product. The delight and sometimes raw emotion that it draws out of people is down to the care and love that Samantha puts into the cakes she makes, the attention to detail, and uniqueness of each product. It isn’t unknown for people to put off the cutting of the cake so that they can admire it for a little longer!
The same care and attention goes into the large complex, multi-tiered cakes as it does with the smaller cupcakes that Samantha makes for customers to offer as thank you presents, or other corporate gifts.
Also, just as the design of a cake is tailored, so are the ingredients. If you have even just a few people at your wedding or birthday party who have different dietary requirements, Samantha will create a separate cake just for them, but which looks just like the main cake, so that everyone gets the same experience and can enjoy the moment together.
So, if you only want a cake, pop down to your local supermarket and pick one up for £10. But if you want a centre-piece for your day, a stunning and uniquely designed gift, something that your guests or clients will rave about and post pictures all over Instagram of, something touching, unique and memorable, go to Cake Fantastique.
Hi Samantha, just wanted to say a huge thank you for the cake you made for my best friend’s birthday. It looked amazing and tasted fabulous. Everyone at the party thought it was fantastic. My friend cried happy tears, so sweet! Thank you for taking the time to talk through options and for sending ideas to me too. It is obvious how passionate you are about your work. I would highly recommend you to anyone. Thanks again Sam xx
I am a pianist, and just like Samantha, I love making sure that my music is uniquely tailored to my clients to help create the perfect atmosphere and lasting memories. We all work closely with other local wedding suppliers and know just how much care, dedication and quality you can only get from local businesses. Samantha particularly works closely with, and highly recommends the following local businesses, so if you want the perfect collection of wedding or party services from a tight-knit and mutually supportive group of local suppliers, you can’t go far wrong with these people:
- Hair and Make-Up Trust Salons
- Honeymoons and holidays Not Just Travel
- Magician Neil Edwards
- Pianist Robbie Roberts Wedding Pianist
- Photographer Sarah Haywood
- Videographer One Day Film Productions
- Wedding Stylist White Violet
This article was written by Robbie Roberts