Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network August 2016 | Page 75

Your designs often feature a
combination of colours, techniques
and textures. What is your favourite
medium to work with?
I most prefer using fondant appliqués
to create patterns, textures or designs.
There are SO many ways of doing this
so the options and ideas are literally
limitless. You can use cutters to cut
them out, moulded pieces, extruded
pieces, hand cut or hand shaped
pieces, quilled pieces and so on. You
can even manipulate cut outs to create
new patterns or designs just by cutting
or arranging them differently.
Where do you find your inspiration?
Most of my inspiration comes from
home decor trends. I am also highly
inspired by architecture, fashion,
textiles and graphics. Almost anything
can be made into cake form so
inspiration is everywhere.
What are your top three cake
decorating tools?
One, would be a strip cutter which is
perfect for quilling or applying textural
stripes to a design. Two, would be a
fondant smoother which I use not only
when I cover my cakes but to also
quickly roll out fondant ropes or make
something straighter or to flatten a
piece. Three, would be a craft knife.
What is your design process? Do your
customers give you creative control or
do you tweak their ideas?
Most clients leave the final design
up to me but they all have their
requirements of course, based on the
occasion or things they’d like to see
on the cake. I will first think about what
size the client needs for the cake, next
what elements they want included, and
finally any colours they specifically
want. I come up with a quick idea in
my head of what I want to do, then
I will give them a description of the
general idea of what it will look like
and quote a price. When the order is
confirmed, I sketch up my idea for my
own reference. I do not colour it so I
can make changes if necessary and I
do not show it to the client either as the
final design could change drastically.
Some clients will ask for a sketch but
I will only share it if not much is likely
to change and only after they have
secured their order with a deposit.
Every client is different so this is just
my general process when making
cakes to order. When I make a cake for

a personal project, it will follow along
the same lines but with my ideas in
place of the client’s, and is a lot looser
in terms of the concept and is more
likely to change more often because I
tend to have lots of ideas and need to
edit myself and determine what makes
it on the final cake. Colours change a
lot too unless colour is the main focus
of the design.
What are your top tips for someone
starting out in the cake industry?
My tips and advice would depend
on why they are getting into this
industry in the first place. If they
just enjoy creating cakes that make
other people happy, then they
should strive to always try new
things and learn new techniques
so they can keep things fresh and
create all kinds of awe-inspiring
pieces. If they enjoy the creative
side of the industry and thrive on
the personal satisfaction of seeing a
vision come to life, then my advice
would be to try and always maintain
creative control over the design
and infuse your own aesthetic in
every piece you do. Most clients
are open to some changes so long
as the key elements are included.
One can lose their passion in this
industry because some clients are
so specific about what they want
on their cake, or will even send
you pictures of the exact cake
they want so if you’re in it for the
personal artistic satisfaction, you
might have to turn down some of
these requests or keep them to a
minimum.
What style of cake is your favourite to
decorate?
My favourite style of cake to decorate
are ones with a nice play on textures,
patterns and colour, accented with
some simple sugar flowers. I like
taking achievable techniques, and
adding interest with the colours or
the patterns used. Most of what I do,
anyone can do...I just do them in a
slightly unexpected way.
Tell us about becoming a Satin Ice
Artist of Excellence.
Well, I have to say I was incredibly
surprised, delighted, flattered and
dumbfounded when I got the email
from their Brand Ambassador asking
if I would consider being one of their
Artists of Excellence! I felt a bit like

I was dreaming because so many of
my idols were Artists of Excellence
and I never thought I’d ever be on
their radar because I am quite a small
fish in the big scheme of things. I’d
never been on TV, never published a
book nor entered any competitions. I
hadn’t even finish filming my Craftsy
class at the time. In fact, my husband
and I both laughed at the prospect
that I would be in the same exclusive
circle as Ron Ben-Israel, Mich Turner,
Debbie Brown, Betty Van Norstrand
and (at the time AoE) Buddy Valastro.
And of course I had to say yes! It
has been great so far since they are
wonderful at promoting their AoEs on
social media and I have been provided
opportunities to do demos which is
helping to improve my visibility. They
even used one of my cakes as their
Spotlight Cake on the main banner for
The Americas Cake and Sugarcraft
Fair in Orlando last September.