'More people want speciality cakes these days. They want to impress and are looking for something special that can generate a 'wow' factor. There's more appreciation of the work that goes into making them as well.'

Customers come to him armed with their own ideas for cakes. Rolex watches, Ferraris, Porsches and designer handbags are just a few of the fantasies he has fulfilled. But some designs just can't be done, Matthey says - mainly because of the humidity. Dry, sturdy foundations such as almond and fruit cakes with brandy last longer than lighter cakes.

Matthey, who heads a team of 30 - one of the largest hotel pastry departments in Asia - is the only pastry chef at the Mandarin Oriental with the skills to oversee every stage of making a speciality cake.

It's an art not all bakers can master. 'You need to have artistic talent to do this kind of work,' he says. 'You need to have an understanding of size, dimensions and colours and how these things work with ingredients. I've taught some of my guys aspects of this and you can see quickly whether they get it or not.'

Making a cake requires hours of sketching, colouring, measuring, moulding and sculpting until it's exactly right. Drying individual decorative pieces, often made of a hard edible substance called pastillage, can take days.

No wonder Matthey's impressive creations, which can take up to three weeks to make, can cost as much as a designer handbag. Prices for five-pound (2.27kg) cakes start at HK$4,000 and have to be ordered at least two weeks in advance.

Although edible artwork may just be taking off in Hong Kong, it's well established in the US, where people happily open their wallets for imaginative cakes, says Elayna Berean, who started a custom cake business in San Francisco in 2004. A former business consultant at Tiffany's jewellers in New York, Berean discovered her love of crafting cakes in 2002 when she made her own two-tier wedding cake. Before starting her own business, she took a six-month pastry course at San Francisco's Tante Marie Cooking School and worked in hotel and restaurant pastry kitchens.

When she moved to Hong Kong last year, the market was undeveloped. 'A lot of people choose from pictures of my work and say, 'I like this and want it in blue'. There still needs to be education about what custom cakes are,' she says. 'People need to understand they can create something from their own ideas.'

In the US, speciality cakes are regarded 'as a way of completing a theme or mood that you're trying to capture for your event', Berean says.

The work that goes into her creations - whether an intricate Marie Antoinette- inspired wedding cake or a delicate carousel for a child's party - involves the skills of both painting and sculpture. Her cakes are known for the attention to detail she lavishes on them.

Cheekay Chow's bakery offers a more traditional range of cakes, but her wedding cakes are something else. 'There's a misconception about wedding cakes,' Chow says. 'People don't expect them to taste good, which there's no reason for.'

In fact, for years, Hong Kong weddings featured cakes made of decorated polystyrene. 'I think wedding cakes went out of fashion because people followed tradition and used fruit cake, which they didn't like the taste or texture of. So they just shifted to dummy cakes.'

This market for tasty, classic cakes prompted Chow to open the city's first wedding cake shop, Phoebe's Designer Bakery (named after her dog), last December after she resigned from her job at the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and took a course at the Culinary Institute of America.

She got interested in speciality cakes when she made a three-tiered fruit cake for the 300 guests at a friend's wedding. 'People were really impressed and I started getting requests to make more,' she says.

Chow's range is based on traditional fruit cakes, as well as chocolate, lemon, almond and vanilla flavours, with a choice of fillings that includes chocolate truffle, chocolate orange, lemon curd and hazelnut praline. They're decorated with rolled fondant and intricate icing details.

Her cakes start at HK$3,380 and are baked by pastry chef Tsui Ming-sai, who worked at the Peninsula hotel for 18 years.

Custom-made cakes have long been a feature of children's birthday parties. Sally Krantz, who owns Saffron Bakery, has been making cakes for years featuring Thomas the Tank Engine, Tweety Bird and castles and princesses. 'Kids always want a cake of their latest favourite cartoon character,' she says. 'But the perception is that most decorated cakes don't taste good. That's why people are always pleasantly surprised when they do. They recognise that I can do both.'

Krantz says orders for ordinary, round birthday cakes are dwindling. 'The absence of a custom birthday cake is like having a party with no decoration,' she says. Speciality cake orders account for about one-fifth of Krantz's business in Tai Tam. She has another store in Quarry Bay.

There's also a market for cakes with more adult themes. Freelance cake decorator Hilary Hutchinson was once commissioned to create a cake of a 38DD bust in a red and black lace bra for a rugby player's birthday party.

Hutchinson, whose background is in hotel and catering management, has a penchant for whimsical and provocative edibles and has been working with caterers Gingers for the past year.