Newcastle, NSW, Australia
I’m a former industrial chemist, and after deciding on a career change while at home with my two young children, I’m now a qualified pastry chef and cake decorating enthusiast. In 2009 I started taking some classes in cake decorating and other pastry-related cookery, and taught myself many more decorating techniques from books and internet resources. In 2010 I started a pastry apprenticeship, studying Retail Baking (Cake & Pastry) Certificate III at TAFE, which I completed with Distinction in 2012. I completed my apprenticeship in December 2013, and as of 2018 I am now working as a Cake Decorator at Designer Delights in Charlestown, NSW.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Let Down Your Hair!

And finally, Rebecca's "Rapunzel" (from Disney's "Tangled") cake! There were delays in getting her together due to some unforseen family circumstances, but it was worth the wait to hear the squeals of delight from my darling 4 year old daughter when she was finally finished.



I found this tutorial about a month before Rebecca's birthday, which was a HUGE help. The only doll cake I've done before was a fairly simple buttercream job, but for this one I pulled out all the stops... as I tend to do when I make my own kids birthday cakes! When I'm only paying ingredient costs and my time is my own, I love to take the opportunity to challenge myself and try out some different techniques where possible. I've mostly shied away from decorative piping and working on the sides of cakes... for Rapunzel, I piped a freehand lace pattern on her underskirt and the border and corset strings on her dress.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Butterfly Cupcakes

My beautiful daughter Rebecca is every bit the "girly" girl... she loves fairies and butterflies. And she loves pink. And purple. So these are the cupcakes I made for her to take to day care on her 4th birthday... chocolate cupcakes with piped Italian buttercream and modelling paste butterfly cut-outs.


I can actually thank Rebecca for finding the piping technique I used on these cupcakes. The week before her birthday, I was watching random decorating tutorials on youtube, my little girl wanted to sit on my lap, then after each video she started picking which one she wanted me to watch next.  One of them happened to be a clip showing a few different ways to pipe on cupcakes, including this technique... it uses a zig-zag motion with a petal nozzle to create the ruffle effect.