AMATEUR and more advanced bakers can go back to school with the launch of a new cake academy.

Windsor Cake Craft, on Europa Boulevard, has opened the doors of the Windsor Cake Academy this week.

The launch comes as the store, which is Europe’s largest cake craft store, looks to expand its offering.

And the world of baking has seen an explosion of amateur cooks wanting to up their game with the likes of the Great British Bake Off making the hobby become more mainstream.

Manager Olivia Blackmore said: “We have been going since 2004 and we have been here for two years and since we moved here we have seen a big increase in regular people coming whereas before we were for specialist sugar craft and baking.

“Quite a few years ago we did hold classes at our old shop but we never had the space.

“Since the move we had people coming in saying do we do classses and we knew there was a demand for it.”

The school will be holding sessions from internationally renowned cake makers and will include courses on how to decorate entire cakes with special events like Mothers Day in mind.

With the high profile TV baking programmes Olivia also says the change in baking products has also helped the skill reach a wider audience.

Now there are many different products available which offer simple ways to make professional looking designs and with the popularity of cupcakes it has also made baking not as daunting a prospect for would-be Mary Berry’s.

The cake academy will launch this weekend with an open day on Saturday for all to see the new facilities and find out more about the classes.

“We are going to have a lot of demonstrations and its aimed at bakers who want to do cake designs but wouldn’t know where to start,” added Olivia.

To find out more about the academy visit windsorcakecraft.co.uk.