A Bury baker is turning the everyday cookie and cupcake into very special personalised creations - decorated with handbags, gaming consoles and even Sunday roasts.
Joanne Booth, from Walmersley, has been making sweet treats for more than 10 years, particularly honing her craft on miniature fondant creations.
She embarked on a change of career after attending Bury Adult Learning Centre to do a course in fondant making.
Since then, Joanne, 41, has baked cupcakes and cookies for hundreds of people.
Her particular niche is turning food items into fondant miniatures which are then added to cupcakes or cookies, this includes mini Sunday roasts, hot dogs, beans on toast and more.
These are then sold on Joanne’s Facebook page Jojams Cravings, where she also takes requests.
Joanne said: “I have been making and creating cupcakes and cookies for many years.
“At first I started off by doing a Level 1 course at the Bury Adult Learning Centre, where I was taught how to work with fondant and ever since then I have just not stopped for about 10 years.
“And since then, I have just self-taught – teaching myself how to do different designs from tools to Sunday roasts on top of cupcakes and cookies.
“I was always making cupcakes and cakes and my miniature creations business idea started off by making a birthday cake for my daughter.
“Some people charge £120 for a big cake, and I thought well I could do that with cupcakes and cookies and do personalised creations of them for a smaller price.”
Joanne said despite baking for several years, she only started advertising her skills last year and since then the response has been amazing.
She said: “Last year I knew I wanted to make this a big deal and I thought you know what I’m going to do it.
“I was a level three teaching assistant before I decided I wanted to do cupcakes and cookies full time.
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“When I posted it on a Bury Facebook page people were saying the cupcakes and cookies were incredible, I can’t believe you can do that, and one customer said I am an artist.
“When people see them they say you’ve not made that, that’s not real, that’s not a cupcake, they think they look so realistic.
“I have lots of people who follow my Facebook page, I think there is more than 2,500 people on there now and people from out of Bury are always buying from me, so now I want to also let people from Bury know I am here.”
She said: “How long it takes to make the cupcakes and cookies depends on if somebody asks for something really creative, they can take up to two hours just for the detail but stuff like the miniature foods can take between 20 minutes and an hour.
“It just depends on all the detail that needs to be put into them.”
Joanne said she receives all sorts of requests.
She said: “People go crazy for the drill ones, so like little tools and people go mad over those ones, and they also go crazy for the mini food creations, like the hot dogs and I’ve done a Sunday dinner.
“I do get people requesting for certain miniature creations so anything from food and animals all the way to rude fondant, I get all sorts of requests.”
To buy personalised cupcakes or cookies from Joanne, visit her Jojams Cravings Facebook page.
If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at chloe.wilson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on X @chloewjourno.
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