Discover the Liverpool shop making amazing cheese wedding cakes

A Liverpool shop owner is saying ‘I do’ to couples across the country wanting a cheesy alternative to a traditional wedding cake.

Liverpool Cheese Company in Woolton Village creates amazing multi-tiered cheese wedding cakes for brides and grooms who prefer Cheddar or brie to the usual sponge or fruit cake as the centrepiece for their big day.

Vickie Anderson began making the speciality cakes not long after she opened the shop 18 years ago.

Back then it was a niche option and she was only asked to make a few a year but now Vickie says it’s become such a popular choice for couples that she makes around six every week at the height of wedding season.

They are delivered chilled and ready for guests to make their own mini cheeseboards, at the end of the wedding breakfast or during the evening reception.

“It used to be much more of a weird and wacky thing, but now we get orders from all over the UK so they leave our cheese room at about 4pm and get delivered the following morning,” says Vickie. “We put in 48-hour icepacks if necessary but cheese is quite robust, it doesn’t need very cold temperatures and actually a round of cheese will keep cool really well.”

Most customers are firmly savoury over sweet when it comes to their tastes, so they enjoy getting involved in the selection process too.

“Our couples are usually big cheese lovers so they get really excited about choosing their cheeses, they say it’s the best part of the wedding preparations because they get to come in and taste, we mock the cake up so they get an idea of what it’s going to look like and then they go home with some.

“It is nice to be part of someone’s big day and we get great feedback, the most common thing I get told is that their cake was the most talked-about thing from the wedding.

“I had someone come into the shop the other day who had one of our early cakes, about 14 years ago, and she said guests were still talking about it!”

The cakes are made with a firmer cheese at the bottom to give stability and, because the cheeses aren’t cut to fit, the order will tend to be dictated by the size of the wheels.

“The best-selling cake by far is called Here Comes The Sun and it actually has two cheeses on the bottom, it has two half rounds from the same mould, so you end up with five cheeses on your cheeseboard.

“The two on the bottom are flavoured cheeses so the bride and groom will choose which flavours they want – there’s chilli, smoked, cranberry, all sorts of varieties – then our best-selling strong Cheddar, then a blue and a special wow wedding cheese on top which is called Delice de Cremiers, that’s a triple cream cheese from Burgundy.”

The majority of couples opt for a three or four-tier, but Vickie says she did ‘an absolute whopper’ a few weeks ago which had 4kilos of farmhouse Cheddar as its base.

Vickie collaborates with Annetta florist in Woolton to decorate the cheese cakes to each couple’s scheme, or she picks flowers from her own cheesemonger’s garden.

With Here Comes the Sun serving at least 80-100 and costing around £250, Vickie says her cheese cakes have become popular for birthdays and retirement parties too.

“I made one couple’s wedding cake and they’ve since had christening cakes for both their children and have been looking for an anniversary cake.

“They make such a good centrepiece and a talking point for a party and if you get 100 people in the room I can guarantee so many of them will be ecstatic about eating cheese!”