Somersham woman makes baking sexy with burlesque-inspired cookery book
Charlotte White and her cakes. - Credit: Archant
A book full of burlesque beauties has been published by a Somersham woman with a passion for “indulgence and decadence”.
However, the tantalising pictures in the 64-page book are not of scantily-clad ladies but tempting cakes, whose jaw-dropping decorations were inspired by burlesque performers.
Charlotte White, who grew up in the Huntingdonshire village, now lives in London where for the past five years she has run Restoration Cake, designing and making bespoke cakes for clients – including the flamboyant interior designer Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen and Dame Vera Lynn.
It has taken a year for Burlesque Baking to hit the shelves but Charlotte is thrilled.
“People keep sending me nice messages and pictures of the cakes they have made,” she said.
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“I had my first meeting with the publisher on Valentine’s Day last year and it was published on February 13. It’s been a year of hard work but such fantastic fun.”
Former PA Charlotte said: “I spent a long time working behind a desk and I would come home and make cakes. It was a creative outlet.
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“I have always baked, my whole life – my nan taught me.
“A couple of friends of mine were getting married and said they weren’t going to have a cake but I made them a tower of cupcakes. They were impressed and said ‘You should be doing this as a job.”
Charlotte enrolled on an evening class and she said: “I was absolutely hooked.
“People at work started asking if I would make them cakes and in 2009 I set up Restoration Cake while I was still working as a PA.
“I found myself doing more cakes each year and I went full-time in 2011. I was given a bit of a push because I was made redundant.
“For years I had been saying to myself ‘I can’t wait to leave this job’ but I was waiting until I was comfortable, for the recession to end – it was all in the future. Sometimes you just need that little push.”
