Fiona Cairns – Royal Baker
Fiona Cairns Ltd is a local business based in Fleckney making many thousands of luxury cakes each year. The business has grown from its humble origins at a kitchen table in Mowsley.
Fiona Cairns originally trained both as a graphic designer and as a pastry chef, working for several years at Hambleton Hall in Rutland.
Fiona’s husband Kishore Patel is the present chairman of the company. He saw Fiona’s cakes as she created them at home and realised there was a potential for a business. He spotted a gap in the market for a luxury cake brand and had a vision to fill it.
Aiming for the luxury end of the market, Fiona Cairns was fortunate to gain Harrods as the first regular customer in those early days back in the 1980’s. Harrods has remained a loyal customer throughout the years and currently stocks a wide range of delicious products.
Many long hours of work and with the help of part time staff, one domestic Neff oven further orders were gained and the business began to take off-all under Kishore’s expert guidance.
Celebrity clients
Over the years the business grew, more full time staff joined. Cake production moved out of the kitchen and into a small bakery converted from an outbuilding in the garden. The vision of developing a luxury cake brand grew. Fortnum and Mason, The Ritz Hotel, Selfridges and Waitrose all became regular customers.
Bespoke cakes for many famous names were commissioned including for Simply Red, Pink Floyd and each year a special cake for Paul McCartney. Throughout the years the business has supported many charities both nationally and locally, most specifically Rainbows, the Leicestershire children’s hospice.
In 2000 it was time to move to a larger premises and Fiona Cairns relocated out of the domestic setting to half a single unit on the Churchill Industrial Estate in Fleckney.
Twenty years on the company now occupies seven units. It employs over one hundred staff, continuing to supply their original customers as well as more recent ones.
Royal Wedding
In 2011 the company was greatly honoured to be invited to make the Royal Wedding Cake for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. As we will all recall the wedding was a huge global event and the company received enormous international media attention. The cake was created behind closed doors and great secrecy in Fleckney!
Known for making the most delicious fruit cake, Fiona Cairns and a small expert team drawn from the staff, baked and decorated the multi tiered cake following the brief and guidance from the Royal couple.
Embellished with hundreds and hundreds of hand crafted sugar flowers and fine piped details. All following a list supplied by the Duchess.
On the evening of the Royal Wedding the message was sent through that the Royal Cake was “beyond the couple’s expectations”. There was great relief all round and all those weeks of team work and sleepless nights was worthwhile!
The company has since baked cakes for several members of the Royal Family. Namely, the Queen’s 90th birthday, Prince Charles’s 70th as well as Christening cakes for all three of the Duke and Duchess’s children.
Job opportunities at Fiona Cairns
The pandemic has been and continues to be very challenging for the business . Nevertheless Fiona Cairns received exceptionally high Christmas orders and took on extra staff locally to help with the demand. Fiona Cairns continues to grow and is keen to provide further employment for people locally.
Training is given by the company, but hard work, dedication and a willingness to work as a member of a team are key requirements . If interested in full time or part time work then please contact the bakery on (0116) 240 2888 or email on contactme@fionacairns.com
The Well April 2021 update
