Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network November 2016 | Page 97

Your cakes are often beautifully
accompanied by incredible event
styling. Do you outsource any of this or
do you love styling events too?

and the outstanding and precise craft
they create. 2016 is going to be just as
great! Watch this space!

I have always “styled” my events.
From even before the cakes. My OCD
on details ensures that I always want
things to look good so that I can
remember that special moment in
time. So when I have my kids’ birthday
parties, [I use] this time to be creative
and make the party come to life. My
boys love it and become involved
too. I do not outsource much at all.
All my graphic design and paperie is
outsourced after I found my graphic
guru Nicole from Pretty and Print. I now
only have to dream an idea and Nicole
brings my vision to life in paper! But
apart from that - no I do not outsource.
I make my own desserts and cakes
obviously, but I love to create props
and different ways to display things.
This is the most fun thing. I have used
some custom racing car props for a
recent party because they were too
fabulous to not use from Tiny Tots Toy
Hire.

What Christmas traditions do you and
your family have?

Tell us about your design process.
It mainly is locked up in my head.
Haha. But it usually obviously starts
with the client and any specifics they
give me. About 90% of my clients just
give me a theme and let me run with
it, and I also have other clients who
want something more specific. Both
are great and give me a good starting
point. Sometimes I know exactly what I
want to do and I do a rough sketch to
go by. Other times, I search Pinterest
and find lots of different images and
after I collate all these images, I start
thinking of a concept. It usually has
one main design element and then I
see what I want to add to that element
to create the final design. I love
layering elements, creating a mash of
things that go together so beautifully in
a really unique and cohesive design.
It really is bespoke cake creation. No
standard cake leaves my door!
You’re well known for your annual
collaboration, the ‘12 Sweet Blessings
of Christmas’. What inspired you to
begin this wonderful cake tradition?
My love of Christmas and the whole
meaning behind the season inspired
it. I love everything around the season
and I know that everyone has different
ways to celebrate it and I wanted to
showcase this in cake! I also wanted
to showcase Australian cake artists

We always go to Mass on Christmas
Eve. Always. There is nothing more
special or important. Every morning,
the kids wake up and we have
breakfast together and hubby and I
love to watch how fast they eat so that
they can do and raid the loot under
the tree! The presents are then always
opened in a rush and the excitement
is electric. For as long as I can
remember, Christmas is at my place.
Which I love. I get to make a feast for
all our family and we all sit together
and eat and swim and just enjoy the
day. At the end of the day we discuss
the peaks and troughs of the year that
has been, and our dreams for the year
to come!
Tell us about your favourite cake.
OMG - how can I? It is like trying to
pick a favourite child! Some days
that is very hard though! My favourite
cakes are usually the ones that are
the most fun cakes. No pink, frilly,
frou frou cakes for me and definitely
nothing naked! Give me a unique and
heavily detailed cake and I am in my
element. Some do stand out though
- every single one of my kids cakes,
a standing, sculpted Cat in the Hat
cake, a severed head cake and my
‘Cake is Art, Art is Cake’ array of cakes
[I created] for Australia’s Sweetest
Morning Tea a few years back.
Which other cake artists are you
inspired by?
Everyone. Let me think – RBI (Ron
Ben Israel), because the precision is
just perfection and because it is RBI!
Avalon Yarnes - a true artist in every
sense of the word. Karen Stack with
her mind-blowing cakes of precision.
Calli Hopper for her god given painting
skills. Australian Artists like Vincent
Goh, Helena Kastanis, Lisa Grech because they are artists, not just cake
makers! There are so many more, but I
just can’t think straight now!
If you weren’t caking, what would you
be doing?
Probably still what I was doing before.
Marketing and Events Management in
the finance sector. But I am a mummy

- so that is what I would always be
doing!
What tools could you not live without?
My Agbay, my airbrush, my edible art
paints, cutters, moulds. Everything
else can be found and made
differently. These to me are the real
essentials!