A CAKE designer from Cornwall has seen one of her most intricate creations take centre stage on the front cover of an internationally respected cake decorating magazine.

Niki Lowe, from Liskeard, has been named the cover star of the latest edition of D’licious Magazine after producing an elaborate illusion cake for her first ever step-by-step tutorial feature.

Her design, titled Tales from Spellbound & Co, recreates an old-world Victorian shop on a cobbled street – complete with tiny window panes, textured brickwork and magical details – all crafted from sponge cake, buttercream and sugar artistry in her Cornwall studio.

The cake took around five days to complete and required Niki to carefully document every stage of the process for readers, something she had never attempted before.

The opportunity came after the magazine’s editor, Kelly Jane, spotted one of her illusion cakes on social media – a hyper-realistic salmon design – and repeatedly encouraged her to produce a tutorial.

“At first I said no because I didn’t think I was good enough,” Niki explained. “But she kept asking and eventually I thought, ‘what the hell’, and decided to give it a go.”

Each issue of the magazine works around a yearly set of 12 themes. Contributors can choose the one that inspires them most, and Niki quickly gravitated toward a design that would allow her to build a miniature structure.

“I quite like building buildings,” she said. “It’s still cake, but this one probably took about a week once you include documenting everything. Every photo has to be on a clear surface with a clean background — which isn’t always how my workbench looks!”

The finished cake features subtle Harry Potter-like references, including an owl perched on the roof and a broom store tucked beside the shop, nodding to the wizarding world that inspired the piece.

To achieve the illusion of age and realism, Niki used a range of techniques, including tiny crumbs of cake to create moss effects around the building and ganache, fondant and moulds to form intricate architectural details.

The self-taught baker said seeing the design chosen for the magazine’s cover was a proud moment, particularly because it means work produced in Cornwall is now being seen by cake artists and enthusiasts around the world.

“It’s an internationally distributed magazine, so to have something I made here featured on the cover is really special.”

Niki’s profile has been rising steadily following recent media exposure, including a television appearance where she created a realistic Christmas dinner made entirely from cake to prank presenters on the BBC programme Gone Fishing.

Despite the growing attention, she remains busy with local commissions, including a cake for a building company celebrating its 250th home and a large creation for a charity lunch at the Eden Project.

With wedding cakes also filling her schedule, she says the coming months are shaping up to be rather busy, but she still encourages aspiring bakers to give creative cake decorating a try.

“The most important thing is just to have a go,” she says.