Artistry on a plate is a piece of cake

"Most of our customers are between 20 and 30 years old. They love life and have a strong sense of ceremony," Wang says. "The cake itself may be secondary; what matters to them is its expression of emotion. Behind this, there may be a memory they cherish, or perhaps a place they desire to visit in the future. The quality of ingredients also matters to them."

She says that many of her customers generally regard traditional fondant cake as too sweet and heavy, so she has made a point of using soft chiffon cake layers and light whipped cream to make her cakes not just visually appealing, but also enjoyable to eat.

Micro-landscape cakes break away from the traditional round or square cake shape. A base is trimmed into a rough shape, and drizzled with chocolate ganache to give it initial form. Crumbled cookies are then used to create grass or snow, while green Sprite jelly is often used to fashion rivers, lakes and seas. Fine textures are well-crafted, and delicate fondant accessories are added layer by layer.

Wang got involved in the art as a result of special requests from colleagues at Alibaba, who constituted most of her clientele at the start of her baking career. She had been working at the Chinese technology company as a visual designer for four years. "I loved baking cakes in my spare time, and would share them with my colleagues, who were generous with their compliments," Wang recalls.

This encouragement kept her honing her skills and led to a sideline making cakes for colleagues. "It felt great whenever I delivered a cake to them," Wang says.