Two Minutes with Wedding Cake Designer | Ruth Larwill from Bloom

The ever bubbly Ruth with her team

In a country where we don't get to see modernized cake designs, Bloom have been a very welcoming addition to the pastry scene in Cambodia. Bloom exists to provide jobs for Cambodian women and they operate as a social enterprise where all profits are sown back into training more Cambodian women.

We spend some time with the bubbly and cheerful Ruth Larwill - Director at Bloom Training and Cafe to talk about wedding cakes and all that jazz :)

Hi Ruth! Thanks for your time. So..... how long have you been in the business of creating and designing beautiful cakes for parties and weddings?

Bloom started training our highly specialised Cake Artists in October 2009.  We opened our doors in February 2010 and business just took off!! We now employ 34 staffs and can only just keep up with demand for our original WOW factor Bloom cakes!

Nice. Do tell us more about Bloom’s. Anything. Everything *smile*

We LOVE making your event special!!! We recently heard from a client that it’s not a party unless you’ve got a Bloom cake! *laugh*  
Since Bloom operates as a social enterprise where all profits are used to train more Cambodian women, we just love that Cambodians themselves have embraced Bloom Cakes so enthusiastically


What about future plans for Bloom’s?

Yes we are hoping to duplicate Bloom – we are researching viability in Siem Reap and Toul Kork at the moment! We’d be happy to hear from bleaders (blog readers!) what place they’d like to see the next Bloom!

Ahhh.... Cool. Let's hear from them then! Err.. hopefully *grin* You’re surrounded by all these flavours everyday. What is your absolute favourite?   

Oohhhh that’s a hard one! Our top seller is the Chocolate Hazelnut Sacher Torte filled with Belgium Chocolate and Nutella!  But my personal favourite is White Chocolate and Macadamia cake, or wait...  Coconut Cake with Passionfruit Cream Cheese or now you’ve got me thinking... maybe it’s actually our soft Coffee Cake with Bailey’s Cream! Oh this is way too hard since Bloom has 48 flavours!!!!!

Oh dear. You've got me so tempted!! But back to more serious questions... In your opinion, what is the learning curve for you as someone in the wedding industry in this country? 

Cambodia is entering an exciting time where our elite customers have been to weddings in the west and they now know that cake can taste good!! In fact it is plated and served as dessert at most weddings in the west. Whereas here in Cambodia, the wedding cake is not even eaten. Cambodians who say they hate cake just haven’t experienced delicious moist good quality cake –  It no longer has to be cheap sponge made of flour, egg, sugar and palm oil!
We love our customers at Bloom, because they want the BEST of the BEST – both in quality and design! We work with our clients to come up with amazing incredible fashion forward  designs that will have their guests gasping in awe!

Aye to that, Ruth! Before we part – can you share 5 Top Tips for the couple when choosing their Wedding Cake?

The wedding cake is often a design centrepiece for the whole wedding reception.  It should create an exciting ‘vibe’ for the event! We often see guests go and stand next to Bloom wedding cakes and have their photo taken. If you choose an original, personal design, it creates WOW factor and makes for a memorable day both for you and your guests.  

Choose your colors first and bring a color palette to your Wedding Cake design consultation. (It really does make a difference if everything looks co-ordinated... That’s why we LOVE Eileen and The Wedding Planner Team!)

It is much more modern to have a sugar-covered cake rather than the plastic tasting cream cakes of the past decade. It allows for so many more design options. If you don’t like the sugar covering – just don’t eat it! But many people prefer it to the fake plastic cream of the past... 

Order your wedding cake as soon as you can.  Bloom only takes a certain number of custom orders as we often need 10 sugar artists working on your order for 1-2 weeks.

Have fun with your wedding!   Bring your partner into Bloom and try all the different flavours of cake!  For most Grooms, this is their favourite part of planning a wedding! 

*Laugh* Take your wedding planner along for the tasting too! *grin*. Great, Ruth! Thanks for sharing! And here's to better weddings and wedding cakes!

For a peep at some of Bloom's creativity and creation........ see below!

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