BJ's Cake Décor has been baking and decorating cakes, and supplying decorators with all the equipment and decorations required, for over 30 years, Shirley James has been operating the business for most of that time.
Styles and techniques have changed and BJ's Cake Décor have kept up with the fashions as well as starting some new ones.
One of the major changes has been the choice of cake flavour - chocolate is now by far the most popular where it used to be fruit cake for all occasions when Shirley started. "If our customers have fruit cake at all it may just be the top tier of a wedding cake, so grandma can have a piece or to save for the first anniversary or christening," she says.
Styles have changed to allow for the late baking of chocolate cakes - where fruit cakes could be baked weeks beforehand and decorated early, chocolate cakes are baked and decorated in just a few days. Styles are bolder and brighter with bold use of colours and texture; flowers and decorations tend to be large and oversized rather than small, fussy and delicate.
BJ's Cake Décor bakes all cakes from scratch, using real eggs and butter - no artificial premixes.
"Anything goes," Shirley says. "We try to work with the colour scheme of the wedding or party. If there is a theme we will try and incorporate it to make the cake more personal.
"Cup cakes are a popular choice for birthdays and weddings and can also be decorated to suit the occasion. We have a vast assortment of baking cases and edible decorations for cup cakes. They are ideal as an entertainment for children's parties - get them to decorate their own cup cake. For people who are new to cake decorating cup cakes are ideal to start with as they are small and not as daunting as a large cake."
If you wish to make your own celebration or wedding cake BJ's Cake Décor have for sale all the decorations and equipment that you could require, icings, boards, ribbons, flowers, colours, candles, figurines, mottoes and numbers.
They also hire cake baking tins and have over 300 to choose from. This is a very popular option as it allows you the chance to bake a cake in whatever size or shape you require; there are novelty tins in the shape of animals, people, cars, sports and others.
For those who wish to learn cake decorating, Shirley teaches Adult Community Education classes at Hamilton's Fraser High School both beginner and advanced courses.
"We try to make it as easy as possible for customers to get the cake they desire," Shirley says.