Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network February 2018 | Page 84

cakes – multiple tiers, cascades of sugar flowers, moulding, textures, mediums, products, lights, automation etc. The bigger, the better, the more I love it. Written by Kellie Rudland We spoke to Monica Cavallaro of Moreish Cakes about how she managed to build a successful business, develop a media profile and become one of Sydney’s most sought- after cake designers, all in the space of just a few years. Many of your wedding cakes feature beautiful handcrafted flowers. Do you have a favourite type of flower to create? Aww thank you! I love making sugar flowers, it’s how I started all those years ago. My absolute favourites are anemone, wafer flowers and fantasy flowers. I could do it all day. Your business’ success really skyrocketed after your appearance on the 2016 season of The Great Australian Bake Off. What drew you to apply for the show? Bake Off is one of my favourite shows. It’s supportive, it’s just about the bakes, no drama… just perfect for me! I was at a point where I had been very unwell and wanted to test myself and see if I could do more, if my bakes were any good (because your friends and family are awesome but are they just being nice?) Never thinking for a second when I applied I would make it on there! Boy was that phone call a shock! Cake decorating is such a specialised area; how comfortable did you feel undertaking such varied bakes on GABO? It was way outside of my comfort zone! Of the 30+ bakes that we did across the 10 weeks, I had probably only ever made five before! ‘You never know what you are really capable of until you try’ is what I tell everyone now. Even my husband last week, out of the blue says ‘I still can’t believe the things you made, I would have never thought you were capable of it’. And neither did I! What was the most surprising thing you came across while filming? The most surprising is to learn how many people are truly involved in production of your favourite shows. How well they all work together in crazy conditions, for the longest hours. TV makes it all nice and pretty - a bit like a duck on a pond, calm above water and bedlam below! All of them, just wonderful. Over the past two years you’ve become the go-to cake supplier for the Sydney weddings on Married At First Sight. How did this opportunity present itself? One of the gorgeous crew from Bake Off gave me a call asking if I could What lies ahead for Moreish Cakes? make a cake or two for the show, and the next thing I knew it was six. I really appreciated the trust they put in me. Let’s be honest, I was a nobody and had only made four or five wedding cakes before it. I was super flattered when I received a call for the second year. The crew at Channel Nine and the supporting networks are all so engaging and wonderful to work with. I love weddings. I can’t tell you how awesome the crew are, and the work that they do to pull these weddings together is truly awe-inspiring to be a part of. You and your work have appeared in many media outlets, including print and television. Do you have any plans to explore these avenues further? 2018 is set to be an interesting year, just watch this space is all I can say for now... You have a very varied portfolio of cakes - weddings, birthdays, religious celebrations and more. What’s your favourite type of cake to design? I just love creating things. It’s the art that appeals. I wanted to be an art or music teacher growing up. The mixed mediums of baking and caking gives me so much scope to play. My fav cakes are the over-the-top wedding There are big plans for Moreish, which involve diversifying the business further. I have some goals scoped out to hit over the next couple of years.                                     How did your cake decorating journey begin? How long have you got? Like everyone else, I started to make cakes when my son was born in 2009 as I couldn’t really afford the birthday cake I wanted and stupidly thought ‘how hard could it be?’ I learnt my lesson the hard way – I re-baked a sitting Wilton bear cake three times, and piped, scraped off and re-piped buttercream for six hours. It was a hot mess. At 3am, I would have thrown $1000 at anyone to just hand me a cake by that stage. I continued for a couple of years making his cakes and then my daughter came along in 2012. Things then went downhill and I got very ill. 15 months at home and I became very creative with my time making flowers in front of the TV. A friend asked me to make a cake for their son and I said ok. I returned back to work 1 to 2 days a week in 2013 and was thinking about starting a little something on the side. Someone said to me, don’t bother, there isn’t any money in it and I believed them for the majority of that year. But by the time 2013 was coming to a close, I decided to do what my heart told me to do and I registered Moreish Cakes and launched it December. As a business manager, I set goals for myself and the business (I can hear [cake business coach] Michelle Green nodding very proudly at that comment). I was aiming for one cake a month and to be on 200 likers by the end of 2014. By April 2014 I had one cake a week and was up to 1000 likers! Fast forward four years and here we are. What trends do you see continuing throughout 2018? On the same token, before saying yes to your friend, aunty etc offering to make the wedding cake as the gift, consider that the cake will be on front and centre display for the entire function. Will it be w