Star baker making a business from cakes - The Jewish Chronicle

Georgia Green left JFS with three As in her A levels and a place to read architecture at Nottingham University. But, just eight years later, she has a very different career.

The 26-year-old from north London doesn’t go to work in an office or sit at a desk like the majority of her friends. Instead, she works in an industrial kitchen in a unit off a car park under a housing estate.

Her apron securely fastened, she is getting ready to create a work of art.

For that’s the only way to describe Georgia’s celebration cakes. Her cakes are elaborately designed, fun and colourful. Icing usually drips artfully down the sides and they are often covered in additional confectionery, be it home made macarons, edible flowers, fruit or your favourite chocolate bar.

Architecture’s loss was a boost to parties thrown by the rich and famous, because you have to be well-heeled to afford one of Green’s confections, which can cost £1000.

Green is currently taking the world of baking by storm, having secured an exclusive contract to bake for Harrods and amassed an Instagram following of more than 90,000. Her business, Georgia’s Cakes, launched officially in 2015, and is valued at more than £250,000. She’s been championed by Lorraine Pascale and Cara Delevingne , bills herself as “Mary Berry for the younger generation,” and would love to get more exposure on television.

So, how did she get to this point? “I went to JFS. I was studying maths, art and photography. I got three A’s and then got a place to study architecture at Nottingham University,” she tells me while preparing a four tiered wedding cake.

“I felt lost. I was dreading it and just wasn’t ready for university, so I declined the place — I just didn’t want to go.”

Green was about to turn 18. Her mother vetoed her plans to go traveling alone, so she decided to take a year out and get a job.

“I did a few art courses and looked at an art foundation course,” she tells me as she whisks butter and sugar for icing. On that course that she discovered she loved animation and secured a place to study at the London College of Communication. “There were loads of computers, five girls, and 25 boys into video games. The girls were nice and very arty, but as the months went on I was not really enjoying it.”

She came across an advert for a Cordon Bleu cooking show and having always enjoyed food — eating and cooking — she decided to look into it. “I was meant to be in college but instead I went to the show. It was insane, it was heaven — chefs cooking in chef whites, making beautiful food and explaining how it works.

“After negotiating with my parents I agreed to finish the year and tell the college I was leaving.”

She enrolled onto the Cordon Bleu course, moved out of her parents’ home and got herself a job in a café to fund her studies and her rent.

“I loved it. Lectures were watching chefs cook,” she says, showing me the fancy thermometer she uses for her baking. “The job in the cafe was not cordon bleu level but it was the real world — a coffee shop that did good food like Victoria sponges and brownies. I was learning how to cook in bulk and how to run a business.”

After six months she was working at the café full time and she decided she wanted a change. She joined kosher bakery Carmelli in Golders Green.

“When I walked in I said, I can turn this place around, but then I joined the production line on the first day.

“I was making biscuits but wanted to make ‘wow’ things like celebration cakes.”

She only lasted there for two months but says the experience was worthwhile. “I learnt to use huge cake trays. It was insane, both good and bad and I learnt so much.”

What Carmellis really taught her was that she wanted to be creative in her baking.

At just 23, Green applied to be the head chef at the Black Truffle café in Belsize Park, north London and was successful. “I was there for two years, which is a long time in the food world. Chefs chop and change quite quickly.”

Green enjoyed being allowed to make what she wanted. “Flapjacks and gluten free brownies were the clients’ favourites. Customers started commenting on my food and I started making my own specials.”

How did it feel to be in a full time job when her peers were still making up their minds about what they were going to do? “I am independent and mature and take responsibility for what I do. I used the kitchen in the café after hours making my own cakes. It was a good agreement— the café loved it.”

Her big break came when she was asked to make a cake to present to model Cara Delevingne. It turned her into an overnight baking celebrity.

“I am not fazed by famous people, they used to come into the café all the time —David Beckham and Helena Bonham Carter were regulars.

“I gave Cara the cake at a launch party and she asked ‘Did you make this?’ She has about six million followers on Instagram and my sister told me I had to get her to tag me on Instagram.

“She did and I went up to 6500 followers that day.”

Suddenly Green was inundated with orders and was finding it hard to manage them and run the café.

“I left the café. The rest is history.”

She quickly went from baking in her flat to renting a modest kitchen in Kentish Town, north London. Her most extravagant design is the candyland wedding cake — a four tier cake covered in sweets.

She is under no illusion that her creations cost more than the average person might want to spend on a wedding cake. “Mine aren’t cheap but people who come to me want something special. It is artistic.”

She says her cakes are priced competitively based on the time it takes her to bake and decorate them. “Pricing was really difficult. I spend three days on a cake. It is a lot more technical than most. ”

Her care extends to the delivery. She tells me how she suffered agonies when she had to deliver a wedding cake to the House of Lords.

“ The parents picked me up and drove me to the wedding venue in their car and the cake had to go through security. I hated being separated from it. I treat them like a baby when I am delivering them.”

Green has made more than 400 cakes in two and half years and plans to grow her business and, ideally, become a TV regular. “I would like to teach like Nigella.”

She had her first glimpse of fame when she was asked to bake a cake on the BBC ‘s revamped Generation Game, which she found “nerve wracking.” But she enjoys the recognition that comes from YouTube and Instagram. “I love it. The other day a girl my age came up to me a said, ‘You’re the girl from Instagram.’ It is amazing knowing people connect and love what you do.”

Green has clearly found her happy place in her kitchen surrounded by chocolate drops, edible flowers and gigantic cake tins. But what is the hardest thing about going it alone?

“The business side,” she says without hesitation. “Luckily my boyfriend helps me with that. It has been a learning curve. I have had to learn about tax laws and employment of staff.

“That is the only area where I need to build my confidence.”

www.georgiascakes.com