Hi! I'm Ollie,

When I was in secondary school, my mother gave me a Stork Baking Book that she found at a jumble sale. The first cake I baked was a chocolate cake. Everyone loved it. As a result, I began making cakes for friends and family functions. 

Years later, I realised that the amount of sponge outweighed the filling, so I needed to make the sponge layers thinner. I attempted to bake thinner sponges but the texture varied and the height of the baked layers were inconsistent!

I then started cutting the sponges with a knife to achieve a thinner layer but the results were often uneven. I began searching for a tool online that could cut level sponges. Unfortunately, the reviews of the products I found online were mixed. 

In my attempts to find a solution, I used sellotaped jam jar lids as spacers to stabilise the knife and obtain the right height. However, this method did not work because the heights I needed varied.

I then started experimenting with a large bolt and nuts, using the thread of the bolt to offer the adjustable height I needed. I placed a jigsaw blade between two nuts with washers on the bolt and secured it in place. This setup allowed me to mark the outer edge of the sponge evenly, at set heights. I then used a knife to cut along the marks I had made with the jigsaw blade. I was able to achieve more uniform layers. This improvement, combined with additional filling, enhanced the overall appearance of the cake.

I later thought of combining the marking and cutting processes. While watching television, I saw cheese being cut with a cheese wire. I attached a thin line to the bolt above the jigsaw blade so it could follow the blade as I marked the sponge. Pulling the line through the sponge after marking it worked well, and cut the sponge smoothly.

With additional help and further development, I managed to connect the line to the end of the blade, leading to the creation of the Adjustable Layer Cake Leveller. After that, I launched my business, Precision Layer Cake Slicer Ltd.