With a kiss & a hug on St.Valentines' Day

Having made deliveries all around Brisbane of late: sometimes all in the one day - it's good to see the city getting back to normal and underway again. With the floods making such an impact on business' everywhere and the price of flour and sugar rising with the waters, we're finally starting to see things level out.

Between cakes for functions on the north side and then dropping and setting cakes up down the coast, I've felt like a veritable yo-yo.

Found the above photo on the Internet whilst perousing through photos of flood affected areas... says it all really.



 Parties did still take place. I think a lot of Brisbane saw the chance to lift their spirits with family get-togethers and festive occasions. Just a way to forget their circumstances I suppose.
  There were a couple of cancellations and I hope that those families were able to get back on their feet as quickly as possible.
  It was great to see the way Brisbane supported it's fellow countrymen in this time of need.
  I made a trip down to West End to see if they could use a hand down there and took 2 cakes with me which were devoured within moments.
  But the thing that struck me the most was that whilst working and cleaning, people talked with each other and smiled and swapped stories.
  It's moments like these that I'm glad we moved to Brisbane.

  The Barbie convertible on the right was a surprise birthday cake for a lady from a friend who wanted to remain incognito... I delivered the cake to the lady's office in town where it received many a grin from colleagues. 

 These two little girl cakes were a pleasure to make with Strawberry Shortcake making a comeback and Tinkerbell being the belle of the ball.

 This was definitely a first - I've done divorce cakes in the past but never something so risque!

  There's always a new theme for a cake. I even dream about them!

 

   All the details on this cake were hand-painted to recognise the voyage of a lifetime the clients' father had taken to start his new life here in Australia so long ago. The client found passport and birthda certificate photos alonmg with newspaper clippings of the boat he travelled on for me to use as reference for this cake.

 Childrens' cakes always keep me going - what with new themes and old ones which have both parents and children in awe of the cake.

  Then there's moments like this 'bread tag' cake...WTF? I say in jest!

  I was completely thrown with this concept. A lovely girl turning 21 with a collectible hobby for bread tags...yes, I repeat again bread tags.

  She collected them from bread bought for home originally but has since expanded her reportoire to now include bread tags from elsewhere.

 Keeping it simple is always a plus. Repeat customers of mine Carly and Michael were celebrating their daughters Christening. Using wire swirls with iced baubles on the end modernised the theme for this cake and made it stand out more than usual while still incorporating the invitations filigree work.

  Last of all I would love to say a HUUUGGEEE thank-you to all my clients who find the time after their big event to write back to me regarding their cake.

  Whether it's a quick line to say 'thank-you' or a lovely sentiment with photo included, it is always appreciated. It means that I'm doing something right and that I'm making their day that extra-little bit special.

 

 

 

 

Cake Trends

  You know - it's different for every person. Whether you like black in comparison to white, contemporary in relation to traditional, tall to short or elaborate versus simplicity. But when you take orders for cakes on a daily basis you start to notice small comparisons.
  A couple will all call for a super hero cake or a Batman cake...  

 

  Cars or vehicles for the fellas? Dad, son or best mate?

 

   More than once on a particular weekend will you recieve an order comparitive to another either in style, colour or filling. Maybe one weekend is full of pink flower orders, on another there will be an influx of difficult cakes with lots of filigree work or simple iced cakes with iced flowers. It's like all the brides for that weekend had a secret meeting and decided to choose cakes with similar designs. Why is it so?

Then again, there are times when I recieve an order which I have never made and probably will never again - they're the one-off's...originals...the strange requests for people who like the strange, macabre and just plain crazy.

 From the Eiffel Tower, to a 'Companion Cube' for a computer geek or as per below: the weekend bird watcher!

 Like I always say - it's the creativity of this job that makes it so interesting. It's never the same - constantly changing.

 
  Some of them require research - I jump on the 'net and find photos of related items. For the Eiffel tower, I printed photos of the front, side and top views.
  For the 'Companion Cube', I looked into the game. I wanted to write "the cake is fake" on the board because I thought the idea of placing a placebo cake with real recipe into a game was brilliant. The client didn't think so. When my partner brought it up with her son upon pick-up, the birthday boy exclaimed that it would have been 'the ultimate!'

Sometimes a little background makes the cake far more interesting!

 

 A Little Difference is A Good Thing...

  It's being allowed to give the cake an extra touch that really makes my day. Not necessarily from the clients who want you to do everything for free but from the ones who are happy to pay, give you inspiration and then let you play a little.

  The couple from the cake above sent me a copy of their wedding invitation rather than just an email. It was exquisite. They had thought of the presentation of the invitation down to the beautiful beading hanging from the centre of the embossed card.

  I couldn't help myself. When they told me what they wanted with the mad hatter design and the floral filigree, they told me I could have card'blanche to do what I wanted further that this.

  It was in the following weeks, I found myself down at my bead supplier sourcing the same coloured beads and crystals from their invitation. It was like I was possessed. I sat in the evening threading the beads as per their design and attaching them to the wires exploding from their cake. I was so happy with the final result.