Previously a business and law journalist, Emma has been operating a wedding cake business since discovering the versatility of buttercream 10 years ago. Realising that the local celebration cake business was saturated and rates very low, she jumped straight into selling wedding cakes, which were decorated with piped buttercream flowers and tapestry stitching. 

While seeking a technique that would enable her to decorate the sides of a cake as well as the ledges and the top (piped buttercream flowers are heavy and prone to fall off) Emma came across a group of Russian artists who were sculpting flowers with plaster to decorate plaques and clocks, using palette knives.

Delighted with the results when using technique to create buttercream flowers, Emma stopped offering piped buttercream cakes and focussed on palette knife decoration instead, firstly with buttercream and then ganache. “I’m absolutely passionate about this technique,” she explains. “It enables cake makers to pursue work that is creatively fulfilling and requires no fancy or expensive equipment. Every palette knife decorator has a different style and this is what you need to build a winning brand.”

Over the last 18 months, Emma as focussed on building a huge online course - Floral Cake Revolution, which combines  comprehensive lessons in sculpting buttercream and ganache, with a business programme.