Lily Vanilli is one of London’s
premier artisan bakers, offering quality cakes with innovative flavours and
sumptuously creative designs. She opened her first bakery on Columbia Road in
East London in 2011, and a star-studded client list, two books and a cake and
cocktail private members club swiftly followed.
All this success sprang from humble beginnings.
Lily (real name Lily Jones) initially started baking as a way to make ends meet
after a change in career, selling her delectable wares at a local market. Today,
however, her recipes feature in broadsheet newspapers, and her cakes can be
found at events held by the likes of the V&A Museum, Lulu Guinness, Hello
Kitty and Elton John.
Part of the draw of Lily Vanilli’s creations
can clearly be attributed to their beauty and visual intrigue. Towers of sponge
are enveloped in perfect icing, and decorated with a wave of fruit, flowers and
glitter. Slabs of chocolate are piled high and sprayed with gold (or painted with leopard prints!) to create some
intimidatingly perfect cocoa castle. Equally vital in the notability of
these cakes, however, is the unusual, curious and innovative mix of flavours,
and the perfection of her recipes. Alongside perfectly crumbly pasty and
feather-light sponge is the fusion of alcohol (see her chocolate hot toddy
tarts), shards of sugar glass and crystallised flowers, all utterly faultless
and incredibly well-honed. All this success is particularly impressive when one
considers that Lily has had no formal culinary training.
As well as all this, Lily has also published
two books, both of which offer real insight into how to be more creative and
accurate with baking. Sweet Tooth, her
most recent book, really goes into
the science of baking – why you should have a clean dry bowl when making
meringues, the difference using bicarbonate of soda and baking powder has on
baking, and how long exactly you should leave a cake in the tin while it is
cooling, for example. The book also looks deeply into the history and culture
of baking, as well as offering a wide range of interesting technique and
flavour combinations to experiment with at home. Lily’s first book, A Zombie Ate My Cupcake, is conversely more
fun and quirky, offering B-movie themed baking, with severed finger and bullet
wound cupcakes the order of the day.
Lily Vanilli offers a refreshingly
creative, accurate and ballsy spin on baking in a world where chintz, simplicity
and the British Bake Off reign supreme.
Book her bespoke cake design service or cake canapés for occasions and events,
or try out her recipes for yourself by purchasing one of her books. For the quintessential
Lily Vanilli experience, however,
get yourself down to her teeny bakery, with its rustic charm, small courtyard
and exquisite sugary delights.