The Utterly Sexy Cafe ~ Dramatically Gorgeous Sugary Delights!

I'm feeling very privileged of late.  I've gotten to meet some amazing people through writing for Love My Dress, and more recently, through attending the Absolutely Beautiful Weddings event.  So many wonderful people in one place, including the most brilliant of all cake makers, Amanda Baird.

Amanda is a Designer, Artist, Stylist, Caterer and founder of The Utterly Sexy Café.  Ive you've never heard of them, let us be the first to tell you that The Utterly Sexy Café offer a dramatically gorgeous and individual style for the discerning bride via a highly original, full service catering and event Company.

From drinks and canapés, starters, mains and puddings or even a Marie Antoinette style pudding station to a fabulously elegant afternoon tea, all edible produce is lovingly and beautifully prepared, creatively decorated and elegantly served with a certain vintage look.  Amanda and her team of charming waiting staff (all dressed in retro outfits) will plan, organise and style your event to give you a breathtakingly sensational wedding reception with a unique, elegant vintage look that your guests will talk about for years to come for all the right reasons.  Even the atmospheric settings are taking into account, from the lighting to the music from a live band or a DJ, to ensure that all your senses are totally indulged.

I was lucky enough to speak with Amanda recently and get to know more about her fabulous company…  

"The Utterly Sexy Café was formed in 1996 at Glastonbury festival where we were catering in style from our beautiful marquee adorned and bedecked with artificial flowers and twinkly lights. Jamie Theakston said it was the best café at the festival. We cooked mostly vegetarian dishes and home baked cakes each day to the sound of kicking choones from our in house DJ. “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” by Roy Ayres became an anthem for us that Summer."

Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Love My Dress, unless watermarked with 'Utterly Sexy Cafe'

The Utterly Sexy Cafe...


So where did it all start?

"I have always been interested in fashion ~ in clothes, food and interiors and music.  I started buying Vogue Magazine when I was 14 years old. I have also had a long time passion for vintage cloths and decorative items and started my collection in 1968.   I've been an artist, trompe l’oeil painter, muralist, stylist and caterer for most of my life – and I have learned much from my Mother, also an artist, who was very creative and had her own catering company.

Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog - The Utterly Sexy Cafe...

"Not wishing to get bored with one 9 to 5 job I indulged in many various projects from catering to oil painting, interior designing and predominantly as a trompe l’oeil artist and muralist. I found painting walls and ceilings a very solitary job and allowed my very vivid imagination to wander whilst listening to Radio 4. I wondered if I could run a catering company in my own way with the look and feel that I liked. I felt sure there were people who would love to have delicious home cooked food served in style using my collection of antique and vintage china as opposed to the ubiquitous plain thick white china and stainless steel salvers."

The Utterly Sexy Cafe...

….and why the sexy choice of name? 🙂

"I developed my initial idea and began to cater for friend’s parties and weddings. The Utterly Sexy Café was reborn in 2003 as predominantly a wedding catering company (but of course we cater for any event). A most misleading name I know as it is not a cafe any more apart from when we might cater for the odd festival during the Summer but it was named so after a friend described my food as "utterly sexy" and there we are, it was born!"

Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog - The Utterly Sexy Cafe... Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog - The Utterly Sexy Cafe...

"I must say back then I was a little hesitant at using such a risqué name but we have all got so used to using the word sexy as an adjective~ even the BBC have used it affectionately to describe food."

What services do you offer?

"As a catering company we offer canapés and drinks, starters, mains, puddings, BBQs and buffets using as much locally reared and grown food as possible.

Best of all are our "Quintessential Afternoon Tea" receptions, which are our most popular ~ a spectacular affair with all the teatime food displayed and served on glistening Victorian glass cake stands, pretty vintage china teapots, cups and saucers and silverware. Our “Magnificent Table Centres” are 3 tiers of sweet smelling, seasonal, locally grown flowers, foliage and herbs fresh from our cutting garden. The marquee poles are adorned with artificial flowers and birdies as is the drinks table. I also love to design and decorate hand painted wedding cakes."

Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog - The Utterly Sexy Cafe... 6a0120a65f64b9970c012875dadb57970c-300wi

"In January 2004 we catered for a shop launch party in London where we served hand-decorated fairy cakes on glass stemmed cake stands. A lot of press were there including You Magazine and shortly after ran a lovely editorial about my hand made and hand decorated fairy cakes, with hand sculpted roses, flowers and leaves. I quickly designed and produced a presentation box and started my mail order cup cakes by post just in time for Mothers Day. This was, it has to be said at the very beginning of the "cup cake craze" there were simply no cup cake shops around at all, as we see today, apart from Magnolia in New York. My wedding cake designs appeared in the Bridal Magazines that year and the business really took off."

The Utterly Sexy Café evolved as an event organising and catering company for weddings full time in 2004 collecting a lovely loyal team to help along the way."

The Utterly Sexy Cafe... Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog - The Utterly Sexy Cafe... 

By this time, Amanda and her team were the first and only company offering vintage china for hire.

"I chose to set up The Utterly Sexy Café with the emphasis on the look, the style, and the decoration. It’s all very visual ~ the display and presentation of the food being just as important as the taste. So as an alternative to the one dimensional plain white plates, chunky cups and navy blue napkins, we were so used to, I set about finding additional pieces of china from charity shops to add to my collection and quickly had over 500 place settings." 

The Utterly Sexy Cafe...

"I had started my collection of vintage finds in 1968 from Brick Lane and other junk shops it quickly became a passion and it still thrills me today when I find a beautiful old object which costs so little. I truly believe I was put here on earth to rescue lovely old finds from previous generations ~ not only to stop them from being thrown away but to use them, ware them and have them around to adorn my home. I have a collection of vintage cloths and love wearing old 50’s earrings and jewellery (even in the ‘80’s when earrings were so enormous I could only bring myself to wear ‘50’s clip ons!!!!)"

Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog - The Utterly Sexy Cafe...

"I consider myself extremely lucky as I have a lovely team of local people, to help me, mostly from my village or the surrounding areas who I undoubtedly could not do without.  I love running my own catering business although it is jolly hard work but I am a born party organiser and love to give my brides just the look they want and to make their wildest dreams come true."

Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog - The Utterly Sexy Cafe... Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog - The Utterly Sexy Cafe...

Oh Amanda, it's been an utterly delicious delight to get to know you a little better! And yes, your cakes really are the sexiest sugary sweet things in the world. Ever. Fact!

To contact Amanda, email [email protected], telephone +44(0)1747 870 812 or +44(0)7968 868 860, or visit the Utterly Sexy Cafe website

Oh, and if you're planning a Hen Party, look no further!  The Utterly Sexy Café are offering Hen party days and weekends, where the day is spent enjoying Master Classes, serious pampering, party games and eating and drinking in style.  The Utterly Sexy Café will also be exhibiting at the Luella's Boudoir at One Marylebone on April 21st, The Dorset Food & Wine Festival in September and The Designer Wedding Show in February 2010.

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

Close
Top