Hi ho, hi ho - it's into the New Year we go!

I hope you all had a wonderful start to 2011 with family and friends. It was a quiet one for us on the home front - struggling to keep our eyes open for the New Year fireworks. Whatever happened to partying all night long?

  Mind you, it was probably because I had been up since 4am finishing off last orders for 2010. Xmas week flew by and cakes went out as quickly as the orders kept coming in.
  The thing is that most people don't think further ahead - the amount of clients calling for last minute orders because they hadn't considered that most cake deocrators would close for a Xnas break is amazing. Or that most of my suppliers close down for this period too so orders need to be well planned out and placed ahead of the normal time consideration.

  Between the gingerbread orders, fruit cakes and then the additional ordinary birthday orders, there was little time for sleeping. I'm sure I heard Santa's sleigh pass by in the middle of the night!

 With birthday cakes for those families who need to extend party invitations to the next level - celebrating not one, not two but three events at this time of year...and we thought the rest of us had lots to do!

  Kids cakes, teenagers' and parents. Even my partners' family has three late birthdays just prior to the Xmas festivities.

   

With Summer bringing on the butterfly cakes - birthdays and Christenings for the little girls....

 

teacups for high tea celebrating a young lady's kitchen tea...

and white chocolate slats for the weddings are always fashionable. They provide a happy compromise for the couple who believe the cake is less edible if it is covered in fondant.

  A Brazilian lady who works at Mundo (Bardon: http://www.mundochurrasco.com.au/) - a wonderful churrasco style restaurant ordered the one below on the right and the reports from guests on how wonderful the cake tasted and looked were fabulous.

 Then on the other side of town - the Manager of Chumley Warner's in Birkdale (http://www.chumleywarners.com.au/) came to see me with his fiance to order this lovely black and white creation. He was nice enough to take time out the day after the wedding to ring and let me know what a big hit the cake was. I always appreciate feedback.

   For my landlady - she ordered this cake to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday. A lady who seems to have done just about everything!

 Having seen the last Twilight movie and anxiously awaiting the last: reportedly not coming out until next November!) a client requested this cake for her friend who is also a bit of a 'twi-hard' like me!

Then last but not least...was the above cake. A take on a Julie Whitehead design. Unfortunately, she was not available to make the cake for Boxing Day and so I took on the job. The cake was delivered to Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast. With all the rain that came down during the drive, it was a cake to be prayed over to make sure it got there all in one piece...A single drop of rain on the hand-painted flowers would have streaked the cake design. The room looked extremely impressive with the cake to match.

So let's hope the New Year continues along this vein and we all remain healthy and happy. Think of all the towns that have been flooded out and keep our general safety and good luck with us.

Speak soon.

A.



Back to School

Yes, yes, I know most of you out there are thinking...what? It's Christmas holiday time not January - back to school. Sorry to confuse but I actually meant that some of us cake decorators got together during last weekend in Toowoomba to hold a workshop class.
  Mary Reid of "Merivale Cakes & Crafts"  (http://www.merivalecakesandcrafts.com.au/) organised for us to come out to Toowoomba for a visit and we were graced by the presence of John Quai Hoi - "My Cake Delights" (http://mycakedelights.com.au) , Melbourne. It was an honour to have Mr. Quai Hoi show us how to create extra large flowers on wedding cakes for which he is known, world-wide.Preston
  It wasn't all business of course and we had an absolute ball, socialising, hanging out and talking shop.

  Within the group there were over 12 ladies within the industry both from Brisbane and Toowoomba businesses'.

  I think the class was fun and considering how much of what I have created over the years has been sel-taught through trial and error, it was great to see new methods and see the creationary process through a new perspective.

 To make it in time many of us were running around trying to make sure cake orders were finished and delivered on time.

 Clean, simple cake designs with large embellishment - flowers, diamates or ribbon are really coming into their own at the moment.  Some of the cakes even have absolutely no other colour on them except for a single flower to enliven the room.  Interesting to see after making so many with all sorts of piping and appliqued work.

The cake to the left was a strange but beautiful design picked out by a young bride from a wedding cake magazine. It was definitely different. Covered in beatiful lace and gathered around each tier with a diamante strand, ribbon and buckle. I felt like a dressmaker putting it together!

 The end result was definitely worth the time as once I place it onto the table at the venue - it looked fantastic! The mirrored table added to the effect making the cake seem extremely tall. It's good to see a venue that thinks about where the cake is going!

Between these and the novelty cake work which is always so diverse, the job is keeping me busy. I have clients who ring up asking for cakes or cake ideas they have seen on Foxtel television shows such as "Ace of Cakes" or "The Cake Boss". This following cake spurred on the idea of having a cake when you find out a family member is going to have a new baby.

  You've got to love television and technology for moments like these.

  "MasterChef" brought on a whole new load of 'requests'. Suddenly everyone wanted croquembouche (chantilly filled profiteroles coated in toffee). The trouble with that is, I live in Brisbane...not necessarily the most humid free environment around. It's supposed to be like the tropics here! And let me tell you, toffee does not react well with humidity!

  So here's my version of the same cake - coated in chocolate this time so the client can either store it in a coolroom or an air-conditioned room until time for their event! Chocolate dipped strawberries and chocolate filigree on top are always winners'.



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.