Amelia’s Magazine | Tata Naka: London Fashion Week A/W 2013 Presentation Review

Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Daniel Alexander
Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Daniel Alexander.

Since Tata Naka returned to London Fashion Week it has become customary for Tamara and Natasha Surguladze to create a wonderful set that they photograph live for their upcoming season’s look book: it’s a great concept and always a lot of fun to watch from the sidelines: the whole experience more akin to voyeurism than the traditional catwalk show. This season the Georgian twins were inspired by American High School movies and the multitude of references that underpin these down the decades. So here we had very preppy 50s styles abutting up against the big bouffant hair of the 1980s, a very direct reference to which was found in the graffiti wall that provided the backdrop to one set up, ‘Breakfast Club‘ written in bubble writing above a heart. Sugary coloured tweeds were layered over stripes and trademark graphic prints that merged Mondrian blocks with Pop Art faces, the illustrative elements of which were inspired by iconic scenes from key 80s movies. As we milled around we were served cocktails in milk cartons by ‘dinner ladies’ courtesy of Bompas & Parr.

Tata Naka AW 2013-photo by Amelia Gregory
Tata Naka AW 2013-photo by Amelia Gregory
Tata Naka AW 2013-photo by Amelia Gregory
Tata Naka AW 2013-photo by Amelia Gregory
Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Rebecca French
Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Rebecca French.

In the locker room sweethearts covered a simple pencil dress, the detail echoed in a cute cut out back. An A-line skirt was worn with a baseball jacket: other girls wore big quiffs and pastel blocks, both tapered trousers and pencil skirts given sheer mesh slices at the hemlines. Sets were changed with alarming speed and confidence, but the downside of this way of showing is that unless you have an hour or so free you will only manage to see a small portion of the collection. I managed to see two set changes by Chameleon Visual: Jenny Robins took photos of the cheerleaders at the bleachers, and there was also a Prom shoot, where sweethearts emerged yet again as a major theme. The talented Tata Naka twins once more showcased their inventive A/W 2013 collection in wonderfully inimitable style. I have come to expect nothing less.

Tata Naka AW 2013-photo by Amelia Gregory
Tata Naka AW 2013-photo by Amelia Gregory
Tata Naka AW 2013-photo by Amelia Gregory
Tata Naka AW 2013-photo by Amelia Gregory
Tata Naka A/W 2013. Photography by Amelia Gregory.

Tata Naka by Jenny Robins
Tata Naka by Jenny Robins
Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Jenny Robins.

Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Cissy Hu
Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Cissy Hu.

Tata_Naka by_Daniel_Alexander
Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Daniel Alexander
Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Daniel Alexander
Tata Naka A/W 2013 by Daniel Alexander.

Categories ,1980s, ,50s, ,A/W 2013, ,American High School movies, ,Bompas & Parr, ,Breakfast Club, ,Chameleon Visual, ,Cheerleaders, ,Cissy Hu, ,Daniel Alexander, ,Georgian, ,Jenny Robins, ,London Fashion Week, ,Mondrian, ,Movies, ,Pop Art, ,Prom, ,Rebecca French, ,Tamara and Natasha Surguladze, ,Tata Naka

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Amelia’s Magazine | Dispatches: Fashion’s Dirty Secret


Illustration by Antonia Parker

Saying you work in fashion normally garners one of two reactions: awe with a smidgen of jealousy on the presumption all you do is swan around with fabrics and making swishy type movements before dashing off to an exotic shoot/party/event of the year, more about ambulance or utter contempt.

On arriving at a friend’s boyfriend’s drinks it was the second reaction I received. He and his friends were doing a masters degree in ethical business, seek and had I arrived dressed as Cruella DeVil with a baby’s head on a silver platter I possible would have got a warmer reception. As allegedly glamorous as fashion is, medicine it is also many people’s favourite whipping boy. Neither picture is entirely true.

Channel 4’s Dispatches programme exposed the vile, undeniably horrific and illegal working conditions of UK based sweatshops. Showing the secret film to a sweatshop surveyor, he stated these compared to some of the worst conditions he’s seen in the Far East. The conditions in the sweatshop should never be allowed to happen regardless of where it is in the world: Leicester or Laos it really doesn’t matter.


Illustration by Karolina Burdon

The UK High Street actually has some very high standards when it comes to treatment of labourers. The retailers featured, including New Look, Peacocks and Jane Norman stated their supply chains were SEDEX approved. SEDEX allows retailers to independently demonstrate their commitment to ethics. Obviously this self regulation had failed. Each retailer appeared to take on board the facts and launch appropriate investigations into sub-contracting. If only they had been more proactive in the first place.

One retailer leading the way in the UK is ASOS. In the last few months they have built on the successes of Fashion Enter, a not-for-profit enterprise, specialising in garment sampling and helped them open a dedicated ASOS factory. Having a UK based factory will not only cut transport costs, carbon footprints, and lower turnaround times for ASOS but also boost the local economy.

It’s thanks to programmes like Dispatches that public awareness of poor working conditions is being raised. This is undeniably a good thing. Sweatshops like this should not be allowed to exist.

Let’s look at the facts for a moment. The story doesn’t end there and Dispatches, to their credit, touched on it. The existence of fast fashion and super cheap clothes has a huge role to play in the existence of sweatshops. In yesteryear clothes were luxury items, to be worn over and over; to be mended and repaired, to be recycled into new garments. Not so anymore.  Some of the responsibility must inevitably fall on the heads of all of us. How often have you bought a cheap top, or bargain basement jeans, or a £15 dress that was such a steal it’d be rude not to buy it? I know I have (not the dress, but you get the picture). How often do you really think about where that has come from? The Dispatches vox pop revealed that few people actually do.


Illustration by Willa Gebbie

The fact is until UK consumers begin to demand better working conditions and simultaneously agree to pay for them little will change. When asked why UK retailers rarely manufacture in the UK anymore, the answer is simple. The UK consumer won’t pay the necessary price. Why do these sweatshops exist? Because on ever dwindling profit margins short cuts will happen. Blind eyes will be turned – a feeling echoed by both Mary Portas and Melanie Rickey in their tweets after the show. Such things are, again, totally unacceptable.

I used to get asked to make outfits for people. When I gave honest rock bottom quotes, I found most of these requests vanished. Why pay £100 for a shirt when you can go down town and get one for a tenner? Scales of economy and an essentially bespoke service aside, it’s the same thing. Regardless of who does it, every piece has to be cut, every seam sewn, and every feature, rhinestone, embellishment and sequin attached. A suit has over 140 separate pieces, a zipper five, a shirt cuff six or more including buttons and buttonholes.

A lot of work goes into the shirt on your back. Those making it deserve to get paid a living wage, and work in safe conditions. Those manufacturing deserve to make a profit. The consumer deserves quality goods at the right price. At some point someone is going to lose out. Nine times out of ten this will be the person we can’t directly see.


Illustration by Karolina Burdon

So what do we do? A little bit of research goes a long way. Check out responsible manufacturers, check out your local boutiques (a small designer is often more likely to be ethical and more importantly the chance of bumping into someone in the same outfit is greatly reduced), check out eco-fashion labels (for instance in Amelia’s new book) or places like Traid, and check out ASOS’ own brand.Your t-shirt may cost £25 instead of £5, your jeans £40 instead of £15, but in each tiny way it’ll help stop sweatshops.

As one of the members of the public on the programme stated, ‘we each have to buy within our means, but that doesn’t mean buying irresponsibly.’

To watch the documentary on Channel 4′s 4oD, click here.

Categories ,Antonia Parker, ,ASOS, ,Channel 4, ,designers, ,Dispatches, ,ethical, ,Far East, ,fashion, ,Fashion Enter, ,High Street, ,Jane Norman, ,Laos, ,Leicester, ,Mary Portas, ,Melanie Rickey, ,New Look, ,Peacocks, ,SEDEX, ,Sweatshops, ,traid, ,Willa Gebbie

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Amelia’s Magazine | Animal Vegetable Mineral: an interview with food events entrepreneur Tasha Marks

Animal Vegetable Mineral Edible Art Class - Photo Paul Singer
Animal Vegetable Mineral’s Edible Art Class. All photography unless otherwise stated by Paul Singer.

Animal Vegetable Mineral, also known as AVM Curiosities, was set up by young entrepreneur Tasha Marks, who left university with an insatiable appetite for combining food and art. Having interned at Bompas & Parr she was ideally placed to set up her own company, which now creates bespoke food based events such as the Edible Art Class taking place at The Book Club on Tuesday 9th April (full listing information here) I was fascinated to hear about the unique career that she has forged for herself so caught up for a quick Q&A. Read on…

Animal Vegetable Mineral Tasha Marks - Photo Paul Mitchell
Tasha Marks – Photo by Paul Mitchell.

You set up AVM shortly after leaving your degree. What first attracted you to first study food history and do you feel this is a much neglected area?
I was lucky enough to specialise in food history in the final year of my Art History degree at Sussex University, which is partnered with the V&A in London. I signed up to the 3rd year course not knowing what it was, as they had yet to confirm which curator would be available. I knew I wanted to study with the V&A so I took a risk. The year before it had been Chinese ceramics so I’m thrilled that I got silverware curator Ann Eatwell, who taught me the material culture of dining from 1300s to present. Although I had always been interested in food, my passion was ignited in those ten weeks, but I have no doubt it will last a lifetime. I think that food history is very much in vogue at the moment, but there are ‘food history superstars’ like Ivan Day and Peter Brears who constantly inspire new enthusiasts. Though it may have been neglected at one point in time, food is timeless, and we’ll always be interested in what we used to, are and will be eating in the future.

Animal Vegetable Mineral Edible Art Class - Photo Paul Singer (12)
You recently created some ‘Toxic Treats’, exploring not so edible confectionary: what did you make for this event and who was it for?
The event was an exploration of adulteration in 19th century foodstuffs; specifically sweets, which have a particularly sinister history. I felt that our prevailing image of the 1800s was a little one-dimensional, culminating in a Mrs Beeton-esque scene of copper jelly moulds and fancy cakes. But northing could have been further from the truth for the average London household. From children’s sweets dyed with copper, to wine sweetened with lead; we have a chronicle of counterfeit confectionary and falsified foodstuffs. Complimenting the lecture was a series of associated edibles; Fake Coffee Beans (made from chocolate and chicory), Milk Sherbet (with a Bakewell tart lolly), Toxic Tonic Sweets (which glowed in UV light) and an edible print of the Lozenge Maker. I could go on and on, but to understand the true nature of this horrible history you’ll have to come along to the next talk, happening later in the year…

Animal Vegetable Mineral Toxic Toffee (UV Sweets) - Photo Paul Singer
Animal Vegetable Mineral’s Toxic Toffee (UV Sweets).

Do you create all of the food that appears at your events (for instance at Eat Your Heart Out) or do you work with other people, and if so who?
I create all the AVM edibles myself, though I have a very supportive partner and a lovely younger brother (who is a chef) who will get involved to assist and execute events. Unfortunately I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I’m very bossy in the kitchen. I’ll regularly work to 2/3am on a project because I want it a certain way and I completely lose track of time. In the case of Eat Your Heart Out, however, the event was a collaboration between me and more than 20 other bakers and makers. We all worked on our separate creations under the wonderful theme of the ‘anatomically correct cake shop’.

Animal Vegetable Mineral Edible Art Class - Photo Paul Singer (4)
How does it work if you attend one of your classes as a guest?
Every event is wildly different but they all aim to create a curious experience: a moment of wonder and edible excitement… both silly and cerebral in equal measure.

What prompted you to set up your company so soon after graduating? What have been the highlights so far?
Well I wrote my dissertation on jelly, so naturally I went on to intern at Bompas & Parr after I graduated (us jelly experts like to stick together!). I had a wonderful three months there, but felt like I should get a “proper” job so went to work for a children’s publishing agency. This was a terrible decision, as after nine months in an office I felt like completely drained. I realized then that I was someone who learnt through trial and error, and the best way of doing that was to start my own company. Animal Vegetable Mineral had been on the to do list since it university but only as a vague idea. So I started by working on projects that I was interested in and the company organically evolved as I went on. Two years later and I feel like AVM has a really strong identity, but I wouldn’t be where I am today without the wonderful collaborators I met along the way. Working with Pertwee, Anderson & Gold Gallery, The Robin Collective and Rambling Restaurant have led to some of my favourite projects, however I think that accidentally using a 2500-year-old Etruscan bowl to serve popcorn at the Museum of Curiosity has to be one of the most memorable moments!

Animal Vegetable Mineral Christ - Photo Paul Singer (1)
What next for AVM?
In the near future I’ll be contributing to another exciting group show at St Bart’s Pathology Museum; Sacred Tarts. Celebrating the sweeter side of religion through this more ecclesiastical of emporiums, amongst other exciting edibles I’ll be preparing Christ Cameos (made with church wine) and an edible Shroud of Turin. I’m also preparing for a solo art exhibition at the Herrick Gallery later in the summer, which is top secret for now but check the website for details. Plus in the meantime there’s some good old-fashioned messy, arty fun in the form of the Edible Art Class at The Book Club in Shoreditch, where I’ll be holding workshops in Chocolate Model-Making, Lickable Lifedrawing and Edible Painting-By-Numbers.

Categories ,Animal Vegetable Mineral, ,Ann Eatwell, ,AVM, ,AVM Curiosities, ,Bompas & Parr, ,Chocolate Model-Making, ,Christ Cameos, ,Eat Your Heart Out, ,Edible Art Class, ,Edible Painting-By-Numbers, ,Entrepreneur, ,Fake Coffee Beans, ,Food, ,Herrick Gallery, ,interview, ,Ivan Day, ,Jelly, ,Lickable Lifedrawing, ,Lozenge Maker, ,Milk Sherbet, ,Mrs Beeton, ,Museum of Curiosity, ,Paul Mitchell, ,Paul Singer, ,Pertwee Anderson & Gold Gallery, ,Peter Brears, ,Rambling Restaurant, ,Sacred Tarts, ,shoreditch, ,Shroud of Turin, ,St Bart’s Pathology Museum, ,Sussex University, ,Tasha Marks, ,The Book Club, ,The Robin Collective, ,Toxic Tonic Sweets, ,Toxic Treats, ,va

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with cake designer and alternative baker Lily Vanilli, a.k.a. Lily Jones

Photography courtesy of Michael Clements

I first heard of Lily Vanilli last year when I read an article in The Observer Magazine about the candidates who made the shortlist for Courvoisier The Future 500 (2009). The graphic designer-turned-bespoke cake designer was listed in the top five and cited as one of the rising stars to watch for her innovative approach to cake baking.

Turning the cupcake business on its head, try Lily’s delicious cakes are the antithesis of the conventional, story cutesy cupcake with their unusual and macabre themes. Her fabulous creations are essentially mini edible sculptures (e.g marzipan beetles, decease morbid meringue bones, etc), an aesthetic delight, which are all crafted by hand in Lily’s kitchen in East London. This, combined with unusual ingredients such as bacon and avocado and a killer melt-in-the mouth sponge recipe, makes for a thrilling culinary experience. Speaking as a dessert fiend and as someone who has sampled Lily’s gourmet cakes, I have never been happier to move over to the dark side of cake!

Lily’s imaginative style to cake baking and kooky creations have earned her somewhat of a cult status within the industry and her decadent cupcakes, which are tailored specifically for each occasion, have featured at parties for Elton John, Henry Holland, Sadie Frost, Hello Kitty, Downing Street, Saatchi Gallery, Levi’s and The Sunday Times. Not bad for someone who only started baking as a hobby.


Photography courtesy of Cico Books

Last month saw the launch of Lily’s first ever book, ‘A Zombie Ate My Cupcake’, in which she shares her secret recipes for the first time ever. Guaranteed to be unlike any cake baking book you already own, ‘A Zombie Ate My Cupcake!’ is a graphic horror novel/cookbook comic featuring 25 gory recipes ranging from Sweeney Todd’s Surprise, a chocolate cupcake which looks like a pie with a severed bloodied finger poking out of it, to Bleeding Hearts, which, well, looks like squashed bleeding hearts with arteries and veins attached ‘n’ all.

Featuring other sweet treats aptly named ‘Eerie Eyeballs’, ‘Shattered Glass’ and ‘Marzipan Beetles’, the book is a visual feast, fusing the worlds of art and cuisine. With quirky detailed comic illustrations provided by up-and-coming illustrator Paul Parker, ‘A Zombie Ate My Cupcake!’ is a must for any cupcake enthusiast who is ready to take on the challenge of some slightly more sinister baking.

To celebrate the launch of Lily’s new book and her cupcake range at Harrods, Amelia’s Magazine caught up with the alternative cake designer and baker to talk about experimental food movements, taking on the cupcake world and crowd surfing with Nick Griffin’s head…

Photography courtesy of Cico Books

Your background is as a graphic designer – do you think the skills you picked up during your training have helped you in your cake baking career at all?
I was a self-taught designer and I’m a self-taught baker so I never had any training for either! I definitely think there are transferable skills though and it’s valuable to learn how to apply yourself and your creativity to different things; design skills are always useful these days.

What excites you most about being in the cake baking industry?
I think it is a really exciting time for food in the UK; take a look at the Experimental Food Society of which I am a member. There are lots of young and creative people pushing boundaries in food. I think this is just the beginning and it’s going to get really fun. 

What sparked off the idea of going against the conventional cutesy cupcake?
It was a backlash. I was accidentally thrust into the world of the ‘cupcake’ which was never my intention as a baker, and I found it saturated with style-over-substance, overly sweet cakes, iced in glitter and sprinkles and sold at inflated prices. I wanted to bring it back to quality and play with preconceptions of appearance, for example, baking things that were ugly to look at but using quality ingredients.


Photography courtesy of Cico Books

How did you come up with the ideas for the different recipes in your book?
It didn’t take much! I love horror and the macabre and I always had a fascination with things like insects and dark stories like Sweeney Todd. I just played around for a few hours and that was it.

On average, how long does it take you to perfect a recipe including the design?
Most of my recipes are works-in-progress that I have been developing for years. It starts with a flavour or an idea about a perfect cake – texture, smell, flavour, etc – and then I develop it from there. None of my recipes are ever finished. I’m always tweaking and improving things, or adding a new twist. I have one cake, it was the first one I developed, which I have been working on for years – it always gets better. It’s a very wintry cake so I’ll be making it again soon. I can’t wait!

How did you end up working with Paul Parker on the illustrations in your book?
I originally got in touch with an artist I really admire called Richard ‘French’ Sayer. He makes these very beautiful dark and twisted black and white drawings, we had a few meetings about the project and he loved the idea, but once we got started it turned out it wasn’t a perfect fit for the book so he recommended Paul and straight away he completely nailed it. Paul’s work is much more colourful and the comic book/graphic horror novel style was exactly what I wanted. Everything I described to him he produced perfectly. He’s really young and just getting started but I think he’s going to do great things!

Photography courtesy of Cico Books

Have you had any cake baking disasters?
I once made a sculpture of Nick Griffin’s head for an event called ‘ The British Internationalists Party’. I spent about eight hours on it but it died (due to structural issues). We used it anyway and it crowd surfed at a gig, completely deformed by then. People were biting chunks out of it on the sweaty dance floor and marzipan ears were flying around – it was all pretty crazy! The worst part of it was that I had to look at images of Nick Griffin for a full day.

What’s the best cupcake you’ve ever had?
Definitely the best cupcake I’ve ever had is my vanilla with passionfruit, coconut & toasted almond. It really is just the perfect cake – so light and fluffy with a slight chewy texture at the top and beautiful vanilla flavours with gentle creamy buttercream and the sharpness and flavour of the passionfruit balances any sweetness. I made it the perfect cupcake for me, so I definitely say that’s the best one I’ve had…

Who do you most admire in the cake baking industry and why?
There are some really talented cake sculptors, such as Michelle Wibowo and Louise from Love to Cake, but the really exciting people for me in food are people like Bompas & Parr who bring art and science into food creation and push boundaries with everything they do.

What’s next for Lily Vanilli?
I’m launching at Harrods at the moment! This is a huge step for me as they are my first supplier. We will keep it seasonal and creative with new flavours each month. This month sees a special ‘Bonfire night’ cupcake. It’s a warm, wintery spiced cake, with a light lemon frosting and a popping candy chocolate disk with caremelised biscuit. It explodes in your mouth and tastes delicious! I think it’s a real sign of progress for foods in the UK that one of the worlds most visited and prestigious food halls would take a chance on an artisan baker from East London… I’m very excited!

Lily’s new book ‘A Zombie Ate My Cupcake!’ is published by Cico Books and can be purchased here. 

Categories ,A Zombie Ate My Cupcake, ,Bompas & Parr, ,Downing Street, ,Elton John, ,Experimental Food Society, ,Harrods, ,Hello Kitty, ,Henry Holland, ,Kat Phan, ,Levi’s, ,Lily Jones, ,Lily Vanilli, ,Michelle Wibowo, ,Nick Griffin, ,Paul Parker, ,Richard ‘French’ Sayer, ,Saatchi Gallery, ,Sadie Frost, ,Sweeney Todd, ,The Courvoisier Future 500, ,The Observer Magazine, ,The Sunday Times

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with cake designer and alternative baker Lily Vanilli, a.k.a. Lily Jones

Photography courtesy of Michael Clements

I first heard of Lily Vanilli last year when I read an article in The Observer Magazine about the candidates who made the shortlist for Courvoisier The Future 500 (2009). The graphic designer-turned-bespoke cake designer was listed in the top five and cited as one of the rising stars to watch for her innovative approach to cake baking.

Turning the cupcake business on its head, Lily’s delicious cakes are the antithesis of the conventional, cutesy cupcake with their unusual and macabre themes. Her fabulous creations are essentially mini edible sculptures (e.g marzipan beetles, morbid meringue bones, etc), an aesthetic delight, which are all crafted by hand in Lily’s kitchen in East London. This, combined with unusual ingredients such as bacon and avocado and a killer melt-in-the mouth sponge recipe, makes for a thrilling culinary experience. Speaking as a dessert fiend and as someone who has sampled Lily’s gourmet cakes, I have never been happier to move over to the dark side of cake!

Lily’s imaginative style to cake baking and kooky creations have earned her somewhat of a cult status within the industry and her decadent cupcakes, which are tailored specifically for each occasion, have featured at parties for Elton John, Henry Holland, Sadie Frost, Hello Kitty, Downing Street, Saatchi Gallery, Levi’s and The Sunday Times. Not bad for someone who only started baking as a hobby.


Photography courtesy of Cico Books

Last month saw the launch of Lily’s first ever book, ‘A Zombie Ate My Cupcake’, in which she shares her secret recipes for the first time ever. Guaranteed to be unlike any cake baking book you already own, ‘A Zombie Ate My Cupcake!’ is a graphic horror novel/cookbook comic featuring 25 gory recipes ranging from Sweeney Todd’s Surprise, a chocolate cupcake which looks like a pie with a severed bloodied finger poking out of it, to Bleeding Hearts, which, well, looks like squashed bleeding hearts with arteries and veins attached ‘n’ all.

Featuring other sweet treats aptly named ‘Eerie Eyeballs’, ‘Shattered Glass’ and ‘Marzipan Beetles’, the book is a visual feast, fusing the worlds of art and cuisine. With quirky detailed comic illustrations provided by up-and-coming illustrator Paul Parker, ‘A Zombie Ate My Cupcake!’ is a must for any cupcake enthusiast who is ready to take on the challenge of some slightly more sinister baking.

To celebrate the launch of Lily’s new book and her cupcake range at Harrods, Amelia’s Magazine caught up with the alternative cake designer and baker to talk about experimental food movements, taking on the cupcake world and crowd surfing with Nick Griffin’s head…

Photography courtesy of Cico Books

Your background is as a graphic designer – do you think the skills you picked up during your training have helped you in your cake baking career at all?
I was a self-taught designer and I’m a self-taught baker so I never had any training for either! I definitely think there are transferable skills though and it’s valuable to learn how to apply yourself and your creativity to different things; design skills are always useful these days.

What excites you most about being in the cake baking industry?
I think it is a really exciting time for food in the UK; take a look at the Experimental Food Society of which I am a member. There are lots of young and creative people pushing boundaries in food. I think this is just the beginning and it’s going to get really fun. 

What sparked off the idea of going against the conventional cutesy cupcake?
It was a backlash. I was accidentally thrust into the world of the ‘cupcake’ which was never my intention as a baker, and I found it saturated with style-over-substance, overly sweet cakes, iced in glitter and sprinkles and sold at inflated prices. I wanted to bring it back to quality and play with preconceptions of appearance, for example, baking things that were ugly to look at but using quality ingredients.


Photography courtesy of Cico Books

How did you come up with the ideas for the different recipes in your book?
It didn’t take much! I love horror and the macabre and I always had a fascination with things like insects and dark stories like Sweeney Todd. I just played around for a few hours and that was it.

On average, how long does it take you to perfect a recipe including the design?
Most of my recipes are works-in-progress that I have been developing for years. It starts with a flavour or an idea about a perfect cake – texture, smell, flavour, etc – and then I develop it from there. None of my recipes are ever finished. I’m always tweaking and improving things, or adding a new twist. I have one cake, it was the first one I developed, which I have been working on for years – it always gets better. It’s a very wintry cake so I’ll be making it again soon. I can’t wait!

How did you end up working with Paul Parker on the illustrations in your book?
I originally got in touch with an artist I really admire called Richard ‘French’ Sayer. He makes these very beautiful dark and twisted black and white drawings, we had a few meetings about the project and he loved the idea, but once we got started it turned out it wasn’t a perfect fit for the book so he recommended Paul and straight away he completely nailed it. Paul’s work is much more colourful and the comic book/graphic horror novel style was exactly what I wanted. Everything I described to him he produced perfectly. He’s really young and just getting started but I think he’s going to do great things!

Photography courtesy of Cico Books

Have you had any cake baking disasters?
I once made a sculpture of Nick Griffin’s head for an event called ‘ The British Internationalists Party’. I spent about eight hours on it but it died (due to structural issues). We used it anyway and it crowd surfed at a gig, completely deformed by then. People were biting chunks out of it on the sweaty dance floor and marzipan ears were flying around – it was all pretty crazy! The worst part of it was that I had to look at images of Nick Griffin for a full day.

What’s the best cupcake you’ve ever had?
Definitely the best cupcake I’ve ever had is my vanilla with passionfruit, coconut & toasted almond. It really is just the perfect cake – so light and fluffy with a slight chewy texture at the top and beautiful vanilla flavours with gentle creamy buttercream and the sharpness and flavour of the passionfruit balances any sweetness. I made it the perfect cupcake for me, so I definitely say that’s the best one I’ve had…

Who do you most admire in the cake baking industry and why?
There are some really talented cake sculptors, such as Michelle Wibowo and Louise from Love to Cake, but the really exciting people for me in food are people like Bompas & Parr who bring art and science into food creation and push boundaries with everything they do.

What’s next for Lily Vanilli?
I’m launching at Harrods at the moment! This is a huge step for me as they are my first supplier. We will keep it seasonal and creative with new flavours each month. This month sees a special ‘Bonfire night’ cupcake. It’s a warm, wintery spiced cake, with a light lemon frosting and a popping candy chocolate disk with caremelised biscuit. It explodes in your mouth and tastes delicious! I think it’s a real sign of progress for foods in the UK that one of the worlds most visited and prestigious food halls would take a chance on an artisan baker from East London… I’m very excited!

Lily’s new book ‘A Zombie Ate My Cupcake!’ is published by Cico Books and can be purchased here. 

Categories ,A Zombie Ate My Cupcake, ,Bompas & Parr, ,Downing Street, ,Elton John, ,Experimental Food Society, ,Harrods, ,Hello Kitty, ,Henry Holland, ,Kat Phan, ,Levi’s, ,Lily Jones, ,Lily Vanilli, ,Michelle Wibowo, ,Nick Griffin, ,Paul Parker, ,Richard ‘French’ Sayer, ,Saatchi Gallery, ,Sadie Frost, ,Sweeney Todd, ,The Courvoisier Future 500, ,The Observer Magazine, ,The Sunday Times

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