A Cumbrian cake company set up last October already has a two-year waiting list.

Mama Cakes is run by Claire Houghton-Byres and specialises in producing personalised wedding cakes.

She set up the business after she began baking birthday cakes for friends and family following her dissatisfaction with products which were on sale in shops.

Her success has surprised her and she is now set to move to new premises and is also looking for a member of staff to help her.

Mrs Houghton-Byres, 37, lives on a farm near Corby Hill, outside Carlisle.

She is a former member of Dubai-based airline Emirates’ cabin crew and said the high standards of customer service there have influenced her approach to this work.

She said: “I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old and when my five-year-old started having birthday parties I started buying birthday cakes and by the time you got them home they had broken or they tasted like cardboard.”

Her father-in-law suggested that she should try to bake cakes which were to her liking. She began doing this and they quickly became popular with her children and their friends, which led her to set up her own business.

“The name Mama Cakes was born when my younger daughter looked into the kitchen one day, saw a load of fairy cakes I had just baked, and shouted ‘Mama, Cakes!’,” Mrs Houghton-Byres said.

The success of the business has amazed her.

“I had to stop doing birthday cakes in January just so I could concentrate on wedding cakes,” she said.

Bookings need to be made up to two years in advance if the wedding is taking place in a busy season and people have even been in touch about cakes for 2019.

She said: “I just think everything should be perfect.”

One of her recent commissions saw her create a wedding cake for two Disney fans, which featured Winnie the Pooh and some Marvel characters.

“That is what it is all about for me, it is about thinking outside of the box and getting something really personal,” she said.