Mansfield Park is an one-woman business focused on creating custom wedding cakes and other celebration cakes made with 'butter'cream. It is a solely online-based vegan cake studio in Berlin, which means that there is no café nor bakery you can visit. This is it. Therefore, I try to give you the best impression of what Mansfield Park is all about.

 

The person behind Mansfield Park is Gabrielle. I have a Master's degree in Art History, English Literature and Archeology, but came to understand that finding a job in that field is not going to happen. So, after years of working in a vegan restaurant and café, I figured that my own company was the best way to create my baked goods for all of Berlin. Years of iteration brought me to where Mansfield Park is now - an online-based bakery that makes pretty tasty cakes, but also cares about the environment. Because - let's be open about it - catering isn't a very sustainable business. A single cake board was wrapped in plastic, so was the cake box. Famous chocolate brands are expensive, but their product isn't ethical if you dig deeper. That's why I spend a lot of time researching, spending more money and even going further - I don't have a car, I use public transportation for cake deliveries if possible and electric cars for everything else. That's dedication to the cause, to make a difference.

 

It is my top priority to create a cake that not only looks appealing, but will be fully devoured. Every recipe has been tweaked until satisfactory. A single tier consists of four plant-based cake layers and you can select from a variety of fruity homemade compote, airy mousse or luscious crèmes pâtissières for inbetween.

 

On the outside, I prefer to keep it minimalistic - a clean and elegant finish with a fresh flower decor, highlights of food colouring, sugar pearls or gold leaf. When using fresh flowers, every single stem is wrapped in florist tape so that none of the flowers' fluid, which are most commonly sprayed with toxic insecticides, can get into the cake.

 

My cakes are vegan. Most of my customers aren't. That's because my creations are simply convincing, regardless of the ingredients. However, those are carefully selected, such as the high quality vanilla paste from a small business in England that guarantees fair prices for the vanilla growers. The chocolate for ganache and cakes is from Paccari, who make single-origin, tree-to-bar chocolate in Ecuador. The soy products, which are being used at Mansfield Park, are made from beans grown in Europe. When using fresh fruit, it has to be seasonal. This is also why I came up with the seasonal special, which guarantees you the best available fruits. Many of the ingredients are organic, but not all of them. That's because vegan ingredients are more pricey and I don't want my cakes to be too expensive for my customers. They shouldn't be discouraged from buying a vegan cake just because their budget doesn't allow it. Mansfield Park invests where it makes a difference and I hope my customers do too. You will find cakes at fair prices, affordable for you and doable for me. Looking forward to making your cake!