To buy or make your Christmas Cake

It comes round every year Christmas and you are faced with that dilemma, buy or make your own Christmas cake, it would be much more satisfying to bake you own and decorate at, but busy mums sometimes just don’t have the time.

Buying pre-made Christmas cakes

Buying a Christmas cake already made from your local supermarket is probably the easiest and quickest option. Although the choice is limited and the cakes small where more time is spent on the packaging rather than the cake, and it is always worth checking the ingredients list for E numbers and shelf live preserving additions as they are not usually made fresh.

Buying from a baker or specialist cake shop such as Leigh Cakes gives you more control over design and ingredients and are made fresh on the premises not in some where house somewhere up the M1

Pros and cons

1. Saves you time
2. Cheap
3. Hidden ingredients
4. Lack of choice

Baking your own Christmas Cake

Baking and decorating your own Christmas cake is not difficult when following cook book recipes or old family ones, and you can tailor your Christmas cake to fit your dietary needs, and although baking and decorating your own cake takes more time it does give you satisfaction and if your children help you will have a cake to remember.

Pros and cons

1. Takes time
2. Makes a mess
3. Not cheap
4. Can control the ingredients
5. Satisfaction

Whilst local shops will have most ingredients to bake your Christmas cake, specialist cake shops such as Leigh Cakes will carry marzipan's, icing ribbons and Christmas decorations for you to make that perfect cake

HAPPY BAKING!

Thinking of buying your Wedding Cake from a supermarket?

So you are thinking of purchasing your cake from a supermarket? Most supermarkets do wedding cakes, but there range is limited to a basic range with very little colour options, and are sold to you by staff who do not make cakes and have no experience of cake making and what actually goes into making a cake.

The customers are presented in a very nice glossy leaflet or book though, which the big supermarket chain has spend thousands producing, but do you really get the personal touch also do not forget with the right marketing strategy and…..money thrown into producing a booklet I am sure that you can make any cake look good on paper! But will it really look as nice in practice?

Generally the cakes they produce are a lot thinner than cakes made in a bakery or the cakes we make (Wedding Cakes) also the pillars they supply are often not the right ones which involve cutting to size, and they are defiantly no cheaper that a local cake specialist like us Leigh Cakes where the choice is endless with all the colours imaginable and made to your exact specifications, a choice of fillings and delivered to your venue!

Thinking of buying your Wedding Cake from a bakers?

Buying direct from your local baker is a good option but again choice and availability may be an issue, not many bakers employ full time decorators, and bakers often make cakes at the end of there shift or they may only have one part time cake decorator, who may take two weeks holiday, be sick or is unable to work during school holidays due commitments at home.

Buying from your Local Cake Specialist

Local cake specialists shops such as ourselves (Leigh Cakes) are normally family run and offer that personal service and are the best choice to go for your cakes as they specialise in that area only, you want to make sure your wedding cake is in good hands don’t you?

The largest wedding cake supplier in the Essex, UK

Having been making cakes for the wholesale sector for the past 15 years and not getting the credit that we deserve for all of those thousands of cakes that we’ve made, thought it about time we did some advertising to the retail market, so the Wedding Guide was duly summoned (a must have booklet for all brides).

Did you know that last year 6400 brides registered in Essex to get married and Leigh Cakes produced 1200 Wedding Cakes within Essex with 800 to the wholesale market, i.e. bakers and caterers and around 400 through showroom in Eastwood, which totals around 18.75% of the market we also produced some 16,000 birthday cakes and celebration cakes making us the largest cake bakers in Essex.

We are sure you or a member of your family could well have had one of our cakes without knowing it, our team of experts can recreate any cake at a fraction of the cost.

We produce high quantities of cakes which we guarantee are to a very high standard. The quantity does not affect the quality.

Is it a good idea to buy from Home Cake Makers?

Everybody knows somebody that makes cakes, and it sounds like a good idea that the time when they suggest to make the cake for you at a “cheaper” cost.

But….buying your cake from a home cake maker there is no guarantee that you will get your cake on the day, and often cost more that if you went to a specialists cake shop like Leigh Cakes or your local bakers, as we are able to buy the ingredients in bulk and have several members of qualified staff making the cake so it does not become a long drawn out process.

Often have to make an appointment that is not always at your convenience to go to someone’s house of someone to come to you, which is great if you and your partner have the time, which is often in the evening or some odd time over the weekend and what if it goes wrong?

• Do they have insurance?
• Do local heath authorities inspect them? Are they really clean?
• Do they have pets (cats), which might walk on the worktops?
• Do they have children who may be sick and pass on illnesses?

Reputable bakers and specialists cake shops cover all the problems highlighted above.

• They have public liability insurance.
• Local heath authorities inspect them regularly.
• Staff is not aloud to work or handle food if they have had an illness with 24 hours.
• Do not have pets in there premises
• And like us at Leigh Cakes, always have back up transport.