Selling like hot cakes

Their cupcakes were going down so well with friends and family that they decided to try selling them.

Bishy Bakes was the result and has been so successful the pair have hardly been away from the oven since.

Lizzie and Sara grew up watching their mother Fiona baking at the Aga in their Beckingham home.

Lizzie, 29, of Juniper Way, Gainsborough, said: “Our mum was always baking so it’s something we’re used to.”

“I love cooking as well as and I’m quite creative so I enjoy experimenting with new flavours and ideas.”

As well as straightforward flavours like vanilla, chocolate and lemon, Bishy Bakes has also produced combinations like carrot and orange, peanut butter frosting and chocolate orange.

“Mojito cocktails are my favourite drinks so I decided to give that a try using a lime base and it worked well and has been popular,” said Lizzie, who also works part-time in marketing and has a six-year-old daughter called Jaye.

Sara, 24, of Bells Court, Beckingham, continues to work full time as an inclusion support worker at Market Rasen’s De Aston School.

She said: “We tend to agree on most things and we work well together. I think because we’re sisters and already have that relationship, we can say things to each other which you might not say if you were working with someone else.”

Bishy Bakes is run from Lizzie’s home and her modest kitchen is where all the creativity happens.

They use an ordinary domestic oven for baking the cupcakes, managing to fit in 36 at a time, and Friday nights are normally the busiest time as they prepare for weekend events.They once made 500 cakes in 24 hours for the Clumber Park food fair.

“The most time consuming part is doing the sugar paste because you have to dye it and model it. We do individual designs for people so if it’s a birthday party we might be putting a name or a number on, or using a photo of them on a topper,” said Lizzie.

Cupcakes seem to have taken the world of fancy baking by storm, probably because they have gained an American name which makes them sound more glamorous than buns or fairy cakes, which they were traditionally called over here.

Lizzie said: “They get their name from America where ingredients are measured out in cups and they are about the size of a cup.”

“A tower of cupcakes is popular for weddings and other special events like birthdays and we’ve also been doing a lot of corporate events where we do cakes packed in individual pods.”

“We did a bouquet of roses as well which took a lot of practice to get right.”

They use only quality ingredients, like Madagascan vanilla, and buy their free range eggs from a Gainsborough farm shop.

Their regular cupcakes sell for £1.50 each, with custom-made prices varying.