Fifi's Cakes

Fifi's Cakes is not a commercial enterprise. What goes on here is quite simply Cake Love and teaching. I am basically a simple soul and keep a firm balance between cakes, home and family. I don't enter competitions and although I will never stop striving to improve and learn new skills, I am content with where I am at.

I started cake decorating in 2009 aged 53. That was my introduction to any form of art. Everything is hand-modelled, hand-carved and hand-painted and whether they are traditional tiered or carved 3D, my cakes are all cake.

Alan Dunn's flower books introduced me to the idea of painting with cocoa butter and years ago when I used to attend flower lessons with the Cake Lady in Southampton, I learned how to mix powdered colours with vodka or gin to make a paste. I have stuck with these two methods always.

As an aside from cake, I have been making cold porcelain gifts, decorations, bouquets and clothing accessories since I began this journey in 2009.

I don't read books on cake decorating or art (of any description) with the exception of Alan Dunn's flowers. My reason for this is I like to work things out for myself, which is what my mother always encouraged me to do since childhood.

The people who have set me on the road with a paintbrush in my hand are: my sister Valerie, Nina Evans Williams, Jonathan Theuma, Siri Sherlock, Sally Milligan and my three sons. I had always been led to believe that art was not for me and so I have everything to thank them for.

Follow your heart and BELIEVE in yourself. Here is why: When I was shown a photo of the painting by Leonid Afremov 'Modest Girl' by a client who asked me to reproduce it on a cake, my instinctive reaction was 'I can't'. She convinced me that I could and I thank her forever for having that belief in me because I did something which until then I never believed possible. It was as a result of the success of that cake that I gained the confidence to attend an oil painting workshop for the first time.

Above everything ....

Be yourself. Be happy with your work. Be different. Ignore and Block the trolls. Don't follow the pack...

Fiona Evans

It always seems impossible until it is done ... Nelson Mandela