A cake connoisseur went from banking to baking in a shock career change and with clients including Gary Barlow and Google, it seems Robin Green made the right decision.
After being made redundant in the financial crisis of 2008, Ms Green got the push she needed to follow her dreams of owning her own business and Cakes by Robin was born.
Ms Green has always had a love for both baking and cooking and explained her choice to go professional in cake decorating.
She said: “I did want to be a chef when I was younger, but then I didn’t want to lose my love of cooking by doing it professionally, and then I decided, actually, I’m going to go into cakes.”
Cakes By Robin bakes for all occasions, from birthdays and weddings to companies like Cartier and Claridges, and takes any requests for themes and designs.
Ms Green said: “We get asked to do a lot of rude ones!
“We’ve been asked to do ones of people giving birth, that’s a bit weird! We’ve been asked to do cake in the shape of babies, people’s pets, literally all sorts of things.”
Four years ago, she had the honour of making Gary Barlow’s 40th birthday cake which reflected his interests, and was decorated with piano keys and a Liverpool football shirt and scarf.
She said: “I was most excited about doing Gary Barlow’s birthday cake because I was massive Take That fan!”
While working with celebrities and getting to use her creative flair for clients’ happy occasions, Ms Green admits the job does have its downsides.
She said: “The worst bit is probably that you have temptation around you all the time, so it’s a dangerous game, or a dangerous place to be if you’re on a diet or prone to weight gain!”
Being asked to bake for the most famous baking show of the moment, The Great British Bake Off, was definitely a career highlight for Ms Green, as she made a cake for each of the contestants as they left the show.
“That’s actually probably what I’m most proud of, that fact that we got asked by them to do that, it was a really, really cool commission. It was 12 cakes but collectively it was really amazing.”
Cakes by Robin has a baking boutique situated near Southfields station which you can visit to sample a range of her tasty treats, from miniature cakes and cupcakes to slices of patisserie cakes and cookies.
