I have often thought about that because like most things in my life, cake decorating just sort of fell into my lap.
I was working at SBS Sport sitting in the pod and Lyddies, Zorby, Nico and I were having one of our many discussions on life. Was taking a breath and looked at one of our 57 tellys and saw a feature story on cake decorating. From that moment on I was quiet (well for at least 3.2 mins).
You gotta understand, everyone in my family has a talent and I have grown up wondering what mine was ... Mum and Auntie with their Shop were and still are very arty and crafty (they can sew, knit, paint, cook etc), our fathers were the financially ones, Matthew was the smart one, Ben was the practical one, Cousin Kylie was the all rounder and then there was me who I suppose was very good at making noise as I was always being told to be quiet from my jewellery jingling, to talking too loudly on the phone or most of all distracting people in the classroom.
So for me to discover cake decorating in 2007 was a blessing. I loved the look of the kneading of the fondant, the smoothing of the ganache, the painting of the colours, the bedazzles, ribbons etc etc.
Working on the 2007 Tour De France, I devoured hours of 'you tube' watching video after video of anything to do with cake decorating and then in Sept 2007 I booked into my first Planet Cake course and the rest as they say is history.
So last Thursday I did my annual cake expo on the Northern Beaches. We have just come off a (very successful) hugely majorly busy time in Telly World and I knew I was being too optimistic with the date of the expo and how much time I would be able to put into the cakes. I was aiming for at least 3 days prep but due to a few bumps in the road last week, I got 6.5 hours to prepare 4 cakes + cupcakes.
Suse, Darren and the whole Beyond Action Production team (you know who you all are) have just come back from 16.5 days (yes I was counting) in Adelaide for the Santos Tour Down Under cycling. What we achieved this year was incredible being LIVE for all Stages. There was alot of laughter, few tears, few dummy spits, but overall very AWESOME!! Some of the situations that Suse and I handled on a daily basis I think back now and wonder how the flip we did it but we did.
So I laugh when there is a cake I just can't get right. Seems like such a small dilemma compared to the last few weeks but I think it was my built up emotions ..... so one of the cakes didn't make it up to the bench and the whole 4 tiers went straight to the bin. Was a bit disappointed as this new design was going to be the cake of the year!!!
Anyway here are the cakes that made the selection ...
Now it was time for their new baby boy Boston's christening - so when Kristen asked me to design and bake a cake ... of course I was going to. I love the designing and planning aspect and took my time with this one.
Kristen had the thought of an elephant so was going to plan with that in mind.
Enjoy the pics ... just for something different this time .. like the Cold Play music video The Scientist when the clip goes from the finish to beginning ... so are these pics ....
Just a side note: one of my favourite movie quotes from The Castle .... ''That'll go straight to the pool room''. This cake came very close as its final resting place was the pool table. Very proud!!
And so now its that time of year again for the planning of the 2013 Royal Easter Show cake. Have got my idea in mind ... its going to be brilliant and I cant wait to show you the progress and the end result!!!
Lets just hope the cake judge Mrs hyphen hyphen has a kinder heart with her critics this year. .....
