About us
We are Oliver and Helen Zurek
And we have been making cakes professionally since 2008. We met at the Norwich School of Art and Design back in 2000, Helen studying Fine Art and Ollie, Graphic Design, specialising in Animation. After moving back to Eastbourne (for Ollie; it was all new to Helen), Helen started the ball rolling, making cakes from home in 2008 as "Helen Brown Cakes".
As the business grew, Ollie was helping out more and more, yet all the praise went to Helen as the named cake maker! So in 2016 we finally made it official and changed the business name to "The Incredible Cake Company". The name was initally conceived of, more as in "The incredible Hulk" and less as a massive boast about our cakes! But so many people do actually use the word "incredible" when describing our cakes that we thought it was actually justified!
So when, just a year later, the opportunity to open a shop arose, we jumped at the chance. And it's been absolutely manic ever since!
Open since 2017
Welcome to our shop where we design, bake and ice all our Incredible creations. We opened in April 2017 and it has been a whirlwind of cake and customers ever since!
We have a small seating area and a gorgeous little garden where you can enjoy a lovely tea or coffee and a sweet reat from our counter. But the main reason for the shop is a place to create our cakes to order. We have made all sorts of cakes for all kinds of different people. From dragons and castles, to fidgit spinners and Fortnite cakes. We've made the seven sisters, Michelham Priory, the Gherkin and even a scale model of the Towner Art Gallery.
The shop gives us an opportunity to meet and chat with guests in an informal setting. Customers can try out our sweet treats and get an idea of the high quality of our baking before placing an order, view examples of our work inside the shop and in the window displays and watch us as we create cakes of all kinds in our open kitchen.
Something from the counter?
We offer an ever changing selection of sweet treats in our counter to enjoy.
Firm favourites are chocolate pecan brownies, butter flapjacks and cranberry flapjacks, buttermilk scones, fruit cake, cherry bakewell muffins, lemon and poppyseed cake and orange almond and star anise cake to name abut a few.
We usually have at least one layered cake; Victoria sponge, lemon, coffee and walnut and may more flavours. And we usually have at least one type of cupcake: chocolate ganache, mint choc chip, Victoria sponge and many more.
These are also available to take away. If you'd like something specific, the best way to guarantee we have it, is to pre-order. Everything we offer is made here in our shop so we will need at least 3 days notice.
And please don't be offended if we can't fit you in, there's only so much we can do in a day and if we are booked up with celebration cakes, we may not have time to bake any extras. But we will always fit you in if we can!
Click here to view our counter cakes to order.
Tea or coffee?
Our coffee is a Nicaraguan bean which is "bright, crisp and clean with a rich aroma and a long, plesant finish" or so say Rye Bay Coffee Co. We just think it's a lovely cup of coffee! The tea we serve is Birchall's, offering a great range from English breakfast through to Lemongrass and Ginger and Viranga Chai.
The best Cream Tea in Eastbourne!
Or so we have been told- many times! Try one of our famous buttermilk scones with a generous helping of strawberry jam and Rodda's clotted cream. Served with any tea or coffee.
A nod to the savoury side
We don't, as a rule, do savoury. But what we do do is the best cheese scone you've ever tasted! Over lockdown we spent a lot of time trying out recipe ideas and we came up with, what we believe to be, the perfect cheese scone. And happily our customers agree!
Sweet things to order
You can order cupcakes in boxes of 6 or 12, whole cakes, batches of scones, trays of brownies, virtually anythiung we regularly make, you can order. We need at least 3 days (not including Sundays as we aren't open) to bake a fresh batch of whatever you like. We do book up though, so the earlier you book, the more likely we are to be able to fulfill your request.
Go to the plain cakes page to see what's available to order.
Classes and Parties
We are currently reviewing our classes for 2026. We will post more information when we have decided on the times and dates etc.
All our classes and parties are run at the shop, either in quiet times or when we are closed.
Contact us to find out more.
Garden
We have a little garden hidden out the back of our shop - "hidden" as much as many people don't even realise it's there! It's a quiet, sheltered little spot where you can enjoy your coffee and cake in peace. It's also dog friendly. We don't allow dogs in the shop as a rule, as we are making wedding cakes and other large expensive cakes, in which a few stray dog hairs would not be welcome! But out the back is a different matter!
Our shop, at 24 South Street
Pre January 2017
This is how the shop used to look when we took it over. It had previously been a hairdressers and then left empty for about 3 years. After 3 months, a LOT of hard work and one skip later and we got it looking just the way we wanted!
Rennovation
It was an empty shell when we moved in, a shabby, peach coloured, empty shell! We had a kitchen to build, a map to hang, walls to paint, a garden to clear, sinks to plumb in, glass counter to have made, floors to sand, vinal to lay; just to list a few jobs!
And finally...
We wouldn't have been able to do it without a lot of help from our family and friends. An especially big thank you has to go to Helen's mum and step father, Sylvia and Ray, who worked tirelessly to help us get the shop ready to open. But we are eternally grateful to everyone who helped out; we couldn't have done it without you all!
So we've been open for 8 years now, and we are bussier than ever. We work really hard to make sure that every cake is even more impressive than the last. We are creative people, and create is what we do, from sugar, from cake, from ideas and imagination. Sometimes, it's stressful. Sometimes it's exhausting. Sometimes it's frustrating, but it's always interesting!
We are Oliver and Helen Zurek and we look forward to meeting you!