Rachel Whiting Artist, designer and the person we always turn to for ridiculously stylish cakes, Cressida Bell set up her company in 1984 on leaving the Royal College of Art. Her work - uncompromisingly decorative and happily independent of mainstream fashion - bears the hallmarks of her Bloomsbury Group forebears (Quentin Bell was her father and Vanessa Bell her grandmother). In 2001 she moved into her current premises at 24 Clarence Mews, a bucolic enclave in the heart of Hackney, where she holds open studios every November. If you can't make it down, here is a crash course in cake decorati...