When Joanne Thackray launched her celebration cake shop in Milnsbridge six years ago her long-term aim was to teach sugar craft to others - an ambition that she has just realised by setting up a sugar craft school for all ages. Hilarie Stelfox went along to meet students and the teachers

JOANNE THACKRAY says she took a risk when opening a shop entirely devoted to celebration cakes that she made and iced herself.

But her gamble paid off and six years later her tiny outlet, Cakes by Joanne, is still doing well in the village of Milnsbridge.

She’s even had a celebrity order – for the recent 70th birthday party of screen star Sir Patrick Stewart at the University of Huddersfield.

And now, despite the recession, the 47-year-old self-taught cake decorator is taking another risk by launching a sugar craft school to teach others the skills she has been practising for more than 20 years.

Joanne, who lives in Netherton, is relying on the fact that cakes have a universal appeal and the demand for absorbing, stress-busting hobbies is on the increase.

She has teamed up with Sue Foster, a fellow member of The British Sugar Craft Guild, Huddersfield Branch, to run the school, which opened a month ago in Oakes Mill and offers classes two evenings a week.

The two cake enthusiasts met through Joanne’s daughter Lydia, eight, who is a member of the Guild’s junior section, the Cygnets, of which Sue is the leader.

The women believe that sugar craft is a relatively low-cost, pleasurable, useful and satisfying hobby.

“And,” says Sue, “you can eat your rejects!”

She added: “I started six years ago because I enjoyed baking but never did anything much with the cakes I made. I work full time in housing management and find cake decorating very relaxing.”

Joanne says sugar craft can be a way to put problems to one side. “It’s a form of therapy,” she explained.

Student Sheena Miller, 38, from Outlane, is a part-time lecturer in nursing at Huddersfield University and joined the sugar craft class after seeking Joanne’s advice on how to make a second birthday cake for her son Wilson.

“I didn’t know where to start,” said Sheena, “when I was a child I used to do all sorts of crafts with my grandma and I’ve rediscovered my crafty side. I find it relaxing.

“You are doing something creative. It works on two levels – you have the satisfaction of having created something and you also enjoy the process.”

Teenager Miriam Robinson, from Paddock, says she was looking for a hobby when she saw a sign in Joanne’s shop advertising the new school.