An Ipswich cake makers’ amazing working cakes - including a remote controlled car - are proving a hit with YouTube viewers.
Cake maker Angie Scott, of Angie Scott Cakes, is pushing the boundaries with her baking, and her creations really are true party pieces.
She has just put the finishing touches to a cake to celebrate the 80th birthday of an Essex beer drinker.
It is in the shape of an Adnams beer barrel - and will actually dispense beer at his birthday party.
The barrel comes with a pub sign, beer mat and a birthday banner designed by her husband.
Angie set up the business three years ago while on maternity leave from her role as a veterinary nurse.
Like most new parents, she found herself re-evaluating her life after the arrival of her first child and decided it was time for a change in direction.
Angie said: “I loved my job, working with animals, but I also loved making cakes.
“Whenever I made cakes for family celebrations, people used to say `you should do it for a living’. When I did my dad’s birthday cake I had a lot of compliments. It was an old English sheepdog.
“So I thought I would give it a go. When I had Jake, he is three now, instead of going back to animal nursing, I started doing this.
“It has gone from strength to strength.”
Husband Stuart, who runs his own graphic design business, helps with the technical side of her animated cakes.
“It is a wife and husband business,” he laughed. “Our cakes are something different from shop-bought cakes, really individual. We try and come up with something unique, and different.
“I enjoy the challenge of making something work. I look after the branding and the social media too.”
His wife added: “Our two businesses work well together.”
Their working remote controlled car cake and Harry Potter themed cakes, and others have had millions of hits on social media sites, including Youtube.
The couple met six years ago, Stuart took his dog to the vets where Angie was working but they actually first got talking at a Blues Brothers tribute concert at the Colchester United Stadium.
Stuart said: “I think she wanted some business cards and advice on branding. I suggested we discuss it over dinner and a glass of wine.
“That was six years-ago. It is amazing how time flies.”
They got married last year and, yes, Angie made their wedding cake.
“It was Christmas themed and it had working lights on it.”
Among their other creations have been a working coffee machine for the Macmillan Coffee Morning, and a working air conditioner cake for a corporate client.
“Whatever people want, we will try and do it for them,” added Angie.
“We have had requests from as far as the USA, Hungary, France and Germany for working radio controlled car cakes, but unfortunately the cost of delivery was too much,” explained Stuart.
In the order book for the weeks ahead there are dinosaur cakes, a boxing glove and a fishing cake - with icing maggots on it, of course.
And a few surprises too for other customers.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here