Located just to the right-hand side of Grove’s DIY Shop in the West Oxfordshire village of Milton-under-Wychwood, you will find Sugarboo, home to incredible and creative cakes made by the exceptionally talented Lyanda Alder.
Having made her first celebration masterpiece just eight years ago to celebrate her daughter’s 21st birthday, Lyanda’s passion for all things created in icing and cake was ignited. These are not your traditional wedding or celebration cakes, however, but extraordinarily beautiful and sometimes wild and wacky cake creations which have been recognised by judges at the world-famous NEC Cake International competition.
With a previous career in fashion footwear design and retail, Lyanda has a natural creative talent. Having chosen an overly ambitiously decorated cake as her first project, she has over the subsequent years taught herself a range of cake-making and sugar paste skills, entering her first international-level competition in 2019. “Competing inspires, challenges and keeps me pushing to develop new ideas, skills and techniques,” Lyanda explains. “In 2019, I won two bronze awards at Cake International in the ’Celebration Cake’ and ‘Sculptured Cake’ categories. In 2021, my entry into the ‘Celebration Cake’ category won gold and first place in the class. I was also awarded two silvers and a Merit award for three other entries. In November 2022, my ‘Sleeping Fox’ won silver for the ‘Unsupported Sculpted Cake’ category and my ‘Circus Teddy’ won gold for the ‘Single Tier Celebration Cake’ category. To achieve such results when you are competing against high-quality celebration cake creators from around the world, makes all the time and effort I spend creating the cakes worthwhile.”
Sugarboo’s carved cake masterpieces are made from a base of vanilla Madeira cake which has a suitable texture to be carved. The structure is then covered with sugar paste with the adornments made using a variety of sugar icing techniques. Colour is applied using an airbrush to spray the cakes with edible colouring, dusted with lustre dust. As in the case of the award-winning ‘Circus Teddy’, the painted drum panels were hand painted onto edible icing panels. Everything is created in-house and the whole process is time-consuming.
The business Sugarboo was established during the COVID pandemic when Lyanda started baking chocolate brownies from her home kitchen. Having realised that she could run her own cake creation business, Lyanda with the support of her family, looking for suitable premises. Her cake-baking premises opened in Milton-under-Wychwood in April 2022 and her cake studio is the perfect place not only for her to make her amazing cake structures, but visitors can observe the ‘back of house’ creativity which goes into every cake and bake as her kitchen studio is open plan. Customers can also purchase a range of sweet treats from the old-fashioned pick ‘n mix sweets to freshly baked brownies which are sold on Thursdays to Saturdays.
“All my cakes and bakes are produced with the utmost love, care, and attention to detail using some of the finest local produce. We have recently teamed up with Matthews’ Cotswold Flour and Billy’s Eggs in order to continue our ethos of supporting independent and local suppliers. Sugarboo offers a national and local delivery service too.”
For customers who have developed a passion for Sugarboo’s chocolate brownies, Lyanda has been working with London’s Caliendo’s Gelato, a family-run Italian ice cream company with over 130 years of expertise, to create a Sugarboo gelato. This will be sold alongside other flavours of Caliendo’s Gelato in the Milton under Wychwood premises. Lyanda will also be stocking a gelato suitable for dogs as she considers them equally important members of the family.
“I am proud to say that Sugarboo continues to grow and expand, and I look forward to creating many more extraordinary cakes. After many years in the fashion, retail, and design industry, I can honestly say that the world of creative cakes is where I want to be.”
To find out more and commission a celebration cake visit sugarboocakes.co.uk or Instagram at instagram.com/sugarboo.cakes and Facebook @Sugarboocakeart.
