Name: Ruth Tipping

Business name: Cakes By Ruth

Cakes By Ruth on Facebook.

When did you open your business and why?

I STARTED my business about a year ago, when I was 25. I was training to be a nurse, but unfortunately I had a heart attack, which meant I was unable to become a nurse. Since then I have had complex cardiac problems, which have meant that I can’t get a normal job. I started baking for my children’s birthdays and I then had people asking me to bake cakes for their children’s birthdays and so on, so it kind of grew from there.

One day I made a two-foot giant Olaf (children’s television character from the film Frozen) cake for my niece, and I got such a warm, amazing response from it, I thought I’d go for it and open my own business – and it seems to be starting to take off now.

Why in this location?

We USED to live in Hampshire but we were looking to move up to Shropshire. We looked at Oswestry and just fell in love with it. It’s quite unique and traditional and has a lot of old town values. In our old house we couldn’t let our children out of the front of our house without worrying, whereas here it’s more relaxed in that sense.

Tell us about your business

I’m A big experimenter with baking – I love experimenting with flavours and I am a true believer in taste over anything else. I have re-done cakes two or three times if I’ve not thought they are perfect.

I am always up for a challenge with baking cakes – people will often ask for quite different cakes and I will always do my best to make exactly what it is they want. I am happy to design cakes myself or to take inspiration from other cake makers on social media or other platforms. I like to work with clients to make ideas.

The cake-baking community is fantastic, we always help each other out if something isn’t quite working – there’s a science to cake baking, and if things go wrong they tend to do so in incredible fashion.

One of my favourite parts about baking is having an idea in my head and watching it come to life on the board in front of me. I love creating what I am imagining and what my clients are imagining.

I have done all sorts from children’s cakes to wedding cakes.

I find a lot of customers come back after I have baked for them once. I have a great relationship with my customers, and having a nursing background, I love people and want t put a smile on their faces – this is my way of doing that.

What is your proudest moment?

I REMEMBER baking a floating Guinness cake for my husband and that was one of the first times I have thought a cake I had made was perfect – annoyingly I am a perfectionist and I have been known to pull cakes apart if they’re not quite the way I want them to be, so that was a proud moment.

Any strange requests?

I HAVE had people ask for rude cakes before, those are the ones which tend to stand out the most.

My four children saw me making one in particular once, and I had to explain it was what the customer wanted!