The Chilli Cake Behind Lulah & Rich’s Ibiza Wedding
How a playful idea from a creative DJ couple became one of our most memorable wedding cakes
Featured in British Vogue
I have a habit of thinking everything is going to be easy.
A client will show me something completely unexpected and my first thought is usually, “Oh, that should be easy enough.”
This is often how I get myself into trouble — but, more often than not, it is also how some of my most memorable creations begin.
In late 2025, Peachy Keane came to me for a tasting and told me that the couple wanted their wedding cake to look as though it was covered in chillies.
I loved the idea immediately.
At the time, I had been seeing quite a few food-inspired towers and arrangements appearing online, including towers made from real chillies. But that was different. If you are using real chillies, you can simply pile them up.
This couple wanted the cake itself to be covered in “sugar chillies”.
And, as usual, my first thought was: “Yes, I can do that.”
The Chilli Test
Before I could confidently say yes to the couple, I needed to know whether I could make a sugar chilli that actually looked like a real chilli.
The first challenge was colour.
Fondant red tends to be a very bright, clean, cheerful red. Real chillies have much more depth and variation to them, so I spent some time experimenting with colour until I was happy with the result.
For the tasting, I brought several sugar chillies along with some real ones and mixed them together.
Then I asked the couple to guess which were real.They couldn’t.
That was probably one of my favourite tasting moments ever.
But it also told me something about the couple. They were incredibly creative, playful and completely unafraid of doing something unexpected. By the end of the tasting, I was even more excited about the idea.
Making the Cake Feel Like Theirs
Tallulah and Rich are both DJs, and their wedding had such a strong personality: deep red roses, gold jewellery, dramatic details, food, cocktails and, eventually, a secret pop-up nightclub at the venue.
Tallulah herself later described the cake to British Vogue as being covered in chillies, with a little reference to their love of spicy margaritas.
So the chilli felt like a very natural part of their wedding.
The Technical Challenge
Once the design was decided, there were a few practical things to figure out.
Every chilli was shaped individually in sugar paste. They needed the right colour, but also the natural shine of a real chilli. A little shortening helped create that glossy surface, while keeping the sugar paste smooth and free from cracks was essential. Real chillies don’t have fondant cracks to give the game away.
And then there was the cake itself.
The tiers started life as perfectly ordinary cylindrical cakes.
Once they were stacked, the whole cake was carved into one large cone before the chillies could be added across the surface.
After that came the slightly ridiculous task of covering the entire thing with all those individual sugar chillies.
There was also a chilli inside the cake.
The couple chose a chilli chocolate flavour, so I wanted the heat to be noticeable without making the cake unpleasant to eat. It needed enough chilli to make you pause and notice it, but still make you want another bite.
And, because this was Ibiza, the finished cake then had to make its way to a beautiful villa Can Sakhara, which is always something to think about when you are transporting a delicate cake covered in hundreds of small sugar decorations.
The Wedding Cake Moment
The best part of designing a wedding cake is seeing it outside the studio.
When I arrived at the wedding, everything suddenly made much more sense.
The reception was set around the pool, with the tables beautifully arranged for dinner. The flowers had that wonderful combination of elegance and warmth, with vibrant colours and unexpected details such as tomatoes woven into the tablescape. The food, cocktails and setting all felt like part of the same visual story.
It was sophisticated, but never too serious, which felt exactly right for Tallulah and Rich.
And I have to give a lot of credit to the whole creative team. Seeing everything they had created on the day made me realise how much thought had gone into making every part of the wedding feel connected to the couple.
That was when the cake made complete sense to me too.
Looking back, I think that is what I enjoy most about designing wedding cakes.
The brief might start with something that sounds slightly ridiculous — “Can you make a wedding cake covered in chillies?” — but the more you understand the couple, the more the idea starts to make sense.
And somehow, the things that initially sound the simplest are often the ones that become the most memorable.
This wedding was recently featured in British Vogue, and I was especially happy to see our chilli cake included in the story. In Tallulah’s own words, it was the “most epic wedding cake”.
Read the full wedding feature in British Vogue: https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/lulah-francs-demi-riquisimo-wedding
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