Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network August 2017 | Page 54

Tell us about your most memorable
cake request.
The most memorable cake I’ve done
was one that happened earlier this
year. We had some wedding clients
that came us wanting a WOW cake and
budget was of no concern.
Their family owned a very well known
casino here in the Vegas area and
they were having the wedding of the
century. They wanted to go big with lots
of bling. I designed a 7-foot tall blinged
out design that took me 60 hours to
make 1500 sugar flowers. The entire
cake took two weeks and 120 hours to
complete. The crowning jewel was that
it was filmed for a cable TV network
and was coincidental that we had this
cake on the books when they called us.
Do you have a ‘cake bucket list’?
I don’t have a formal bucket list but
generally I like to do anything geek
related and I love making flowers. I’m
basically doing that here in Vegas.
What do you know now that you wish
you’d known when you first began your
business?
I wish I realized just how much
overhead and hidden costs there are
in owning and operating a business
and how more many hours per week
I would have to work. I often work
double the amount of hours I did as an
employee. Starting a business is not
for the faint of heart or ill prepared.
You proudly bake all of your cakes
from scratch. What’s your most popular
flavour?
Unfortunately people in the USA are
not very adventurous and they go for
our strawberry shortcake or our double
down chocolate. Our most popular
specialty flavour is our Guava Lava,
and The 9th Island.
Who do you consider to be your cake
mentor/s?
Elin Katz (now retired from Rosebud
Cakes in Beverly Hills), Annie Welch
(formerly of Great Cakes in the Seattle
area) and Joan Spitler of Cake Divas
in Los Angeles. Rosebud Cakes and
Colette Peters inspired me to get into
cake design. I saw their work featured
in In Style magazine while I was doing
pastries in Los Angeles. That moment I
decided to apply with Rosebud Cakes
and the rest is history.
more information
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