Vintage Cakes Melbourne: Lambeth Piping, Hearts and Bows

Hand-piped vintage cakes, made to order in our Burwood East studio and delivered across Melbourne.

Vintage cake is the style people ask us for most often and name least confidently. They send a photo of a small round cake with ruffled borders, a ribbon of piping around the base, a few pearls and a short message in looping script, and they ask whether we do "that kind". We do. It is the vintage edit, and there are eight of them.

What makes a cake vintage

The look borrows from Lambeth piping — an English technique from the early 1900s where buttercream is layered over itself in rows of shells, scrolls and drop strings until the surface has real depth. Done properly it is slow work, and it is done freehand. There is no mould and no shortcut, which is why a vintage cake costs more than a smooth-sided one of the same size.

Alongside the piping, the things that make a cake read as vintage are usually the colour and the restraint: one muted shade rather than three bright ones, a contrast border, and a short handwritten message instead of a crowded topper.

The vintage edit, and what each one costs

Every cake below is a real design from our catalogue, with its real starting price. Prices are for the smallest size; the same design scales up.

• penny — from $200. Soft piped borders and a hand-written message. The one most people mean when they say "vintage".
• betty's biscuit tin — from $200. Warm and nostalgic, styled after an old kitchen tin.
• valentina — from $235. A heart cake with ruffled edges and pearls.
• lola — from $235. Tonal piping, bows, and a lot of small detail for her size.
• colette — from $235. Structured, symmetrical piping in a single muted shade.
• clementine — from $255. Citrus tones with a heavier Lambeth border.
• isolde — from $275. The most intricate of the round cakes, close to fully covered in piping.
• elowen — from $275. Piping plus buttercream florals, sitting between the vintage and floral edits.

Heart cakes and bow cakes

Two requests come up constantly. Heart-shaped vintage cakes — valentina is the one to start from — and cakes finished with a buttercream or fondant bow. Both are available on any design in the edit; a bow is a small addition to the quoted price rather than a different cake. If you have seen a heart cake on Instagram and want the same thing in a different colour, send us the photo and the colour. That is a normal request, not a difficult one.

Sizes and what they feed

Our custom cakes start at $220 for a 6-inch, which is the size most people order and serves 15 to 25. A 5-inch from $165 serves 10 to 15. A 7-inch is from $260, an 8-inch from $350, and an 8-inch tall from $395. Two tiers start at $450 and three tiers at $800. The full price guide breaks down what pushes a cake up the range.

How much notice we need

Two days is the minimum for anything. For a weekend cake, order by Thursday 10pm. A genuinely custom vintage design — new colours, a specific shape, a lot of piping — wants two to four weeks, because the piping is the slow part and it cannot be rushed without showing.

Delivery and pickup

Pickup is from the Burwood East studio, seven days, 7am to 10pm. Delivery covers greater Melbourne and is free within ten kilometres — which takes in Box Hill, Glen Waverley, Mount Waverley, Blackburn, Forest Hill, Vermont and Nunawading. Past that it runs in bands from $30 to $85 depending on distance, with a $90 minimum order. The eastern suburbs delivery guide has the bands in full.

Vintage cakes travel well. The piping is buttercream and sets firm in the fridge, so it holds its edges in a car far better than fresh flowers do.

Flavours

Three sponges: Classic Vanilla, Classic Chocolate, and Chocolate Coffee. Vanilla and chocolate fillings are included. Raspberry compote, fresh strawberry, salted caramel, chocolate ganache, cookies and cream and Biscoff are premium fillings, adding $15 to $30. More detail on our flavours page.

What we do not make

We do not make eggless, gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan cakes. We would rather say so plainly than take an order we cannot do well. Nuts are not a listed ingredient in any of our cakes, but the studio is not nut-free and traces are possible.

Keep reading

• Birthday cake ideas in Melbourne, with real prices
• How much a wedding cake costs in Melbourne
• Kids birthday cakes and the floral edit
• Why Bakeology — how she works, and why the cakes look the way they do

Tell us the date

If you know the date and roughly what you want, send it through the custom enquiry form and we will come back with a quote. If you would rather just order something already designed, the vintage edit is ready to go. Questions about sizes, notice or delivery are answered on the FAQ page.