In just a few years, Christie Howieson has grown from a self-taught baker to one of the most sought-after cake bakers in town.
The 28-year-old graduate of Dennistoun Art School uses her design and hand-painting skills along with her great-grandmother’s recipes to create bespoke cakes for all occasions – from birthdays, weddings and Eid celebrations.
Since starting her Cake Days A Week business nearly four years ago, Christie has grown into one of the most popular bakers in town – supported by a close team of friends and family – and even has a customer taxiing a cake all the way from Glasgow to London.
Her designs include everything from wedding cakes that look just like takeaway pizza to large sized dog heads and scenes from Disney’s Frozen, each a work of art in its own right.
One of her latest designs, a cake version of Celtic Park for Captain Scott Brown, drew thousands of likes and was featured in newspapers across the country.
Christie was chatting with Glasgow Live while she was making one of the eight cakes she’s working on this week.
“I started baking for my younger siblings while studying,” she says.
“I went to an art school where I did communication design, i.e. graphics, illustration and photography. I specialized in graphics, which is a computer based course, and I got into restaurant design and the like.
Christie and one of her bespoke birthday cake designs
(Image: cake days per week)
“I’m one of six and when my siblings were babies I started baking for everyone so I’m just self-taught.
“I took a year off from university to bake a lot for friends and family. So when I got out I pretty quickly jumped into a job at the Glasgow Collective in the East End, where I now have my kitchen.
“They were a start-up beverage company, so they were still in the same field, but they could only offer me three days. So I started working for them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and baking Thursday and Friday.
“I was living with my grandma at the time and when I was there I found her grandma’s recipe book and started using her recipes.
“It only started sporadically. I started baking more for myself, I guess, cakes I wanted to try and little things like that. After two and a half years, I went full-time and found a kitchen space right across from the collective – I just had to make the initial investment in an oven and refrigerator. I managed to get a head start on rent and to equip myself. “
All Christie’s cakes are sketched in advance to give the customer an idea of what they are going to get, with the baker taking pride in creating totally original designs.
One of her most popular designs is the “Favorite Cake,” where the customer sends a list of all of their favorite things and Christie puts them in a cake, complete with miniature models and decorations.
Each cake can take about a day and a half – with the exception of the huge Celtic Park, which lasted about three and a half days.
Says Christie, “I’m using a lot of different techniques now than when I started and can see where my skills have grown.
“In the beginning I made some sneakers that look like clown shoes today and a couple of christening cakes that I can’t believe people were happy with.
“I get a lot of messages from people asking how to start and how to improve, and I think it’s just because I’ve never said no to anything – I literally said no to anything.
“There are cakes that I was really unhappy with, but of course I accepted a request that the customer couldn’t get anywhere else and they were absolutely delighted with the end result as opposed to a perfectionist’s point of view.
Christie and one of her bespoke cake designs for Scott Brown
(Image: cake days per week)
“I’m working on eight cakes right now. Today I baked four and I’m starting with four, but I did all the preparation on Monday and Tuesday, all the small models and sculptures are pre-made. It takes about a day and a half from start to finish for every cake. “
As Cake Days A Week’s popularity grows with every Instagram post shared, Christie is keen to add to her team for the first time since launch. She is now looking for a baker to help her work with her constantly growing mountain of bookings.
“I have the best of friends and family. My grandma came in once or twice a week before Covid, she was basically my skivvy, she followed me and cleaned up,” she adds.
“My brother and his girlfriend come in, my best friend does my messages and correspondence, and my mother comes in too. I’m kind of expanding, but I’m just utterly scared. It’s hard when it’s your baby, I start at 7 and I’m mostly there by 7, but one day it will pay off – I keep telling myself that anyway.
“I’ve never let anyone bake, but I’ll start interviews on Monday to get a baker to come in. I’m trying to weigh what parts of the business I’m going to be needed for now. The recipe is my great-grandmother, that’s the part of the business that’s formulaic, that’s the part I’m going to give up.
Cake Days A Week grew primarily through word of mouth and repeat customers, with Christie not even having to promote her services. Her books are currently full through October.
“I’m really happy because it’s me who made the business what it is today, not because I have thousands of followers. The work speaks for itself.
“I’m originally from Cumbernauld so I have a lot of people out there. I baked a cake for a guy in London who paid a taxi to get the cake. He ordered two for his birthday and paid for two taxis, a Scot took it from here to Manchester and another taxi took it from there to London, and I actually had a request that took a cake on the ferry to Ireland . “
A pizza wedding cake design by Christie
(Image: cake days per week)
In just a few years of business, Christie and her helpers have created hundreds of cakes that make special occasions even more special for the revelers.
With another cake to be made right after leaving, there isn’t often time to appreciate the hard work that goes into a design, but there are some that stand out for Christie.
She explains: “Before Christmas there was an Islamic mosque for a wedding. It was based on a draft she sent me, I wasn’t afraid of it – I didn’t think much of it. I’m trying to tell to myself it’s just another person and another cake to try and feel more relaxed, but I held back from this one and was very happy with the result. The simplicity of it, I’m used to doing a lot of hand-painting, but this spoke for itself, which was nice. It was one of those who you think, ‘oh that’s pretty good’ and I recently did a smaller one for oath and a floral design for a wedding that I’m really happy with. “
See more of the Cake Days A Week designs on Instagram and Facebook.