A: It’s just sugar, eggs & flour right? Not exactly. Add the rest of the ingredients including good quality extract and chocolate (for both cake and ganache), butter and cream, chocolate, fondant, all the speciality colours, wires, decorations, cake cards & boards, ribbons, boxes and dowels just to name a few. Now add the indirect components like gas, electricity, insurance, air con and any other utilities required to get this cake made. Don’t forget the time spent, not just decorating, but before that – time spent in consultation & design, emails and messages back and forth, purchasing ingredients and product, preparing & baking cake, preparing frostings/ganache and colouring fondant and then cleaning up after all of that. Now we are at the ‘decorating stage” where you can add another 3hrs minimum for a basic cake, 3 to 10hrs for a standard cake and 10+hrs for a wedding or more intricate design. Finally that ‘sugar, eggs & flour’ is baked and decorated and ready to go out the door. Custom cakes are a labour of love, but love doesn’t pay the bills. A custom cake is a luxury, not a necessity. A necessity cake is found at supermarkets and bakeries and you will find plenty of these frozen, mass produced or basic cakes well under your $50 budget.

A: How long is a piece of string? You are ordering a custom cake, therefore you will have a price customised to the cake you order. There are just too many variables to list every price for every size and every design….it is physically impossible. Each cake is totally different in size, design, finish etc. Some cakes will feed a mountain of people, other cakes are small and intimate and feed just two, there is going to be a massive difference in prices. I have listed a ‘Price Guide’ on here but this is simply a ‘starting from’ guide. You will need to contact me via my contact form for a quote The more information you can give me, the quicker I can get you a quote.

A: Maybe you should. A supermarket or bakery cake is inexpensive, convenient, great for last minute and taste pretty good. I can’t compete with a supermarket or bakery. My cakes are ‘one off’s’ baked from scratch, edible works of art – not a mass produced, frozen or basic cake mix product. If your budget is under $50 of course you would be better off buying a cake from a supermarket or bakery. When you do need a cake that is extra special and your budget allows for it, you know where to find me.

A: Yes! Depending on where the cake needs to go and my availability to deliver (of course you would check all this with me at the time of ordering, not spring it on me 5 minutes before the cake is due for collection). There are a few venues locally where delivery is a MUST i.e no delivery from me, then no cakey for you. This is due to some terrible roads around these parts – on these occasions I will take the cake in sections and assemble on site. This is mainly for weddings and tiered cakes. There is an extra charge for delivery. Contact me for a quote.

A: Short answer – NO! Long answer – no I won’t. Picture your guests eating the cake at your wedding. Your granny made her special fruit cake (nice sentiment) and Vanilla Lane decorated the cake. The cake turns out to be a bit burnt, or dry, or there is a bit of wire in it, or someone gets sick or maybe granny was too heavy handed with the brandy and the guests go wild and wreck the venue and the venue wants to sue, etc. But all the guests know, is that the ‘finished cake’ is from Vanilla Lane. Highly unlikely that you would mention in your speech “Sorry about the sh*t cake everyone, granny actually made that….Hi Granny (waves*) but a special mention to Vanilla Lane for making it look that pretty we could ALMOST eat it”……. See what I mean? It looks bad on me and I don’t want you to upset granny at the same time.

A: Ummmm – nope. For starters, I don’t actually make fruit cake (sorry dad) and I only use my own recipes that I have tweaked until I am happy with them. My recipes are tried and tested and my customers love them. Sorry Granny, I am sure your recipe is lovely, maybe I could get one off you for my dad 😉

A: I will do these on occasions but you must be aware I will be making a gluten free product but it is being prepared in a kitchen that prepares products with gluten (gluten is airborne). The chance for cross contamination is there. If your allegy is severe, I do not recommend you get a GF product from me.

A: No, no, nope, not really and ummmm no. If you have an allergy, it’s best to steer clear, it’s not worth risking your health! Unfortunately Vanilla Lane does not specialise in Allergen-free cakes. Our kitchen prepares products that uses or may come in contact with peanuts, tree nuts, soy, sulphites, eggs, dairy and gluten cereals.

A: Probably not, but I do my best to remind them of this EVERY DAY. My spoilt children have no idea that it is quite normal to have a birthday cake with just ‘sprinkles’. They think all cakes should either spin, light up, be a trio and not just a single, and/or be a lifesized dinosaur in cake form (ok, I may have made that last one up – I don’t think they would expect it life sized, maybe just a baby dinosaur).