My Friday Night Off

It's a Friday night and it's one of the first few I've had in a long time to myself. Usually I'm finishing off cakes, cleaning up my cake related mess, doing admin work or going to volleyball training. But today, thanks to me being super organised this week and my sore finger (volleyball not cake related!) plus deciding to give myself the night off, I find myself a little lost. 

I don't know where to start! Maybe shopping for cake related stuff? Or maybe online Christmas shopping? Read my book? Go to bed and get some extra sleep? iPhone games? For now, I choose to blog :) 

Sometimes on Friday nights, I wonder what my clients are doing in anticipation of their event (and my cake) the next day. Mothers must be busily gathering their baby's clothes in preparation for their christenings tomorrow and brides must have butterflies in their stomach as they gather their accessories and go through their mental checklist for the biggest day of their lives. I imagine everyone (mums, brides, event planners, caters, florists...etc) running around in a mad rush while I am sitting here with my finished cake :) I'm sure that is not the case, but my imagination tends to get carried away sometimes ;)

For now I leave you with some of this week's cakes... I'm off to do some online cake shopping while the US exchange rate is still good!

This one was not my design, the bride brought it to me so if you know who it belongs to, let me know so I can give them credit for it.

What happens after the plunge?

In the last few months I have made a lifestyle changing decision. Those of you who know me or who have been following my blog will know that for the last 5 years or so, I was a marketing professional. However, recently I made the decision to resign from my job at a multi-national company to focus on my real passion - Sugar art.

Cake decorating started out as a hobby for me and I never expected for it to turn into a business. But now here I am, taking the plunge to focus on my business full time. I thought making the decision to hand in my resignation was hard and that it'll be great once I can have more free time to myself and actually start decorating my cakes during the day instead of during the wee hours of the night.

So what happens after the plunge? The first couple of weeks were weird - I didn't have a set routine or anyone to report to :) But it also does seem that I am now working much longer hours then I ever did at work! Have I just lost my time management skills or do I really have more to do now that I can focus all my time on my sugar art?

 I'm teaching how to create this cake next year at Couture Cake Classes :)

It constantly feels like I have a million ideas and thoughts racing through my head all the time and it's hard deciding where to start! Mostly the hardest thing I have to face now is knowing when to stop. Would you believe that yesterday after answering emails,  baking cookies all day and ganaching 7 cakes in a row, I still felt guilty about sitting and relaxing. I always feel like there is always more to do!

I'm probably still very excited about this new adventure and hopefully I'll find a balance sometime soon :)

Falling in Love with Wedding Cakes

When I first started decorating, I was always really cautious about making wedding cakes. The thought of dealing with demanding bridezillas and the fact that the cake is for one of the biggest days in someone's life really intimidated me.

I had more fun making novelty cakes. Cakes that don't look like cake and getting down and dirty with carving the shapes. I loved the organic and fun process of a 3D cake and always thought wedding cakes with their standard round and square shapes were boring.

But this year I have really started to fall in love with wedding cakes. Maybe I've just started meeting some lovely brides and their excitement and enthusiasm has just rubbed off on me? Or maybe it's the journey of meeting the couple and designing a cake that reflects their story and wedding theme? 

The cake below is such a unique one, the lovely bridesmaids came to see me a couple of months ago and they were given the task to design this cake as the bride didn't want to be involved because it was going to be a surprise. How lovely to give your closest friends creative freedom! :)

The design concept presented to the client.

 The final creation :)

In any case, wedding season is here and with a whole stack of wedding cakes coming up, I am extremely excited! So please excuse my blogging absence and slow responses to emails because these days I'm usually covered in chocolate or sugar paste. The other day I actually found chocolate stains on the bottom of my laptop!

Oh and here is a really recent one... delivered just tonight this cake has over 200 dimontes and is one of my favourites. Black and white is still really popular at the moment and it is just so elegant and classic. I must admit though, this cake is not as easy as it looks. I had to pay extra attention to everything I did on this cake... there was simply no where to hide any boo boos so the pressure was on!