By Claire Cooper
Lindfield’s Emma Wickens is a mum with a sense of adventure who loves a challenge.
     Over the years she’s been jet-skiing, parascending, run half marathons, abseiled down mountains and climbed waterfalls.
     But today some of Emma’s biggest challenges happen in her own kitchen as she painstakingly creates and ices cakes that are set to be the centrepiece of many special days.
     Emma launched WickyWooWoo cakes 18 months ago after a birthday cake she made for a friend’s daughter led to a flood of requests. “Everyone loved it, the orders started to come in and my feet haven’t touched the ground since.”
     Orders have ranged from Disney characters to fivetier cascading wedding cakes and even a curled up corn snake, but Emma takes it all in her stride.
     “On average I make two cakes a week, although a tiered wedding cake can take all week,” said Emma. “I’ve got customers all along the south coast as far as Cornwall, have created a wedding cake for a couple in Spain, made Tiffany boxes, an MG car, roulette wheel and sugar shoes in a size 6!”
     Emma moved to Lindfield eight years ago after marrying her childhood sweetheart. “We originally wanted to live in Cuckfield but then came across Lindfield and completely fell in love with the village,” she said. “We moved here and it’s been brilliant - we’ve never looked back!”

At the time Emma was working in HR. “After leaving school I studied Art and Design at College but jobs were really hard to come by so I ended up doing a variety of office jobs,” she said.
     Emma continued to work after the birth of her first child, Oliver, but when Jessica came along in 2011 she decided to take a break from part-time work. “My job in HR just didn’t fit around family life,” she said.
     “However, I soon realised that I needed to start earning money again, so I started restoring and painting wooden furniture and giving it a new lease of life.”
     With more time on her hands, Emma also started making cakes for family and friends.
     “Before long I had to get rid of the wood furniture to make way for cake decorating space,” said Emma.
     Since then Emma has created an array of celebration cakes, including a bride and groom driving a tractor, fairy castles, spaceships and a wedding cake of stacked suitcases!

Read full article on pages 22/23.