This month, River-Blue visited Sam Centenera, whose business Bakes by Sam creates luxury cupcake bouquets. River interviewed Sam in her Oxted kitchen, putting into practice her tips on creating beautiful designs with icing, while finding out more about her baking habits .
R: What inspired you to make such beautiful cakes?
S: I have always loved gorgeous cakes and patisserie and so I started to teach myself how to make them by watching videos and seeing how other bakers created beautiful flower cupcakes. I adore flowers and they make me very happy: I always have flowers in my house!
R: What’s your favourite cupcake to make?
I love piping mini roses on cupcakes and I also really enjoy coming up with new flavours like toffee apple.
R: What is the trickiest part of making and decorating a cupcake?
S: Sometimes it can take a while to get the colours right
R: Do you often eat your own cupcakes?
S: I love cake but I don’t really eat mine anymore because I’ve tried and tested them so much! I do eat them when it’s a new flavour, though!
R: What is the most unusual coloured flower which you have made?
S: It has to be a bluey purple colour which I make: it looks fabulous in a bouquet. Blue isn’t a colour which is normally associated with flowers, although I did recently also make a unique halloween bouquet which was made up of black roses!
R: What’s the most unusual cupcake flavour which you have made?
S: I have made biscoff cupcakes and have been recently testing Oreo ones!
R: Can I be a taste tester please?! Would you like to write a book and have your own baking channel?
S: Yes, I’d love to write a book about cupcake baking, and all types of patisserie. I would love my own channel too! It would be amazing to be able to get lots of comments and feedback from people about my cakes.
Find more of River’s recipes and interviews here.
