Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network May 2016 | Page 82

Jacinta Perkins
interview with

When my partner Aaron (affectionately
known as Az) of fourteen years and
I decided to get married my mind
naturally turned to thoughts of the
cake. I had no idea about design
but I knew almost immediately that I
wanted my cake friends to be a part of
it. Since I started decorating my cake
friends have become second family.
They’ve seen me through great days
and tough ones, supported me and
make me laugh until my sides hurt. I
knew it would be impossible to have
them here on the day but I also knew
with certainty that I wanted a small
part of them to be here on the day
through our wedding cake.
Initially we thought about including
them via sugar flowers but a friend
sent a sugar flower in the post and
unfortunately it was destroyed even
with a lot of packaging, so we needed
a plan B. Alyssa Hall’s “Starry Nights”
collaboration came to mind and I
wondered if people would be willing
to send hand-painted tiles in lieu of
flowers. As I’d been a part of Starry
Nights I saw how she had cleverly
gridded up Van Gogh’s painting and

make all the flowers for the cake.
Which meant not just hours (and in
some cases weeks) of their time but
also learning a whole new medium
(cold porcelain) as the flowers had to
be strong enough to travel from other
parts of Australia and internationally.
Right before the wedding I was
surprised with an amazing package
from Faye Cahill and also one from
Kate Wagner with flowers that I wasn’t
expecting but that tied in perfectly
and really finished the cake. It was
such an amazingly generous surprise.

assigned each person a tile. The
major difference was that our tiles
would be made of gumpaste, while the
Starry nights collaboration was digital.
I hoped the tiles would arrive intact!
I asked my closest cake friends (those
that I had had personal interactions
with or had been lucky enough to
meet) if they would be a part of this for
us. They said they would be honoured,
and I was amazed by their kindness.
I set up a Facebook group to make
it easier to organise and set about
thinking of a design. The bottom tier
really designed the whole cake for
me. I chose a watercolour painting
I loved and thought would translate
well as it was fairly loose with the
contrast between flowers and sky
tiles. The cake ended up being huge
as I wanted the bottom squares big
enough for everyone’s tiles to be an
artwork in themselves. I then had to
work upwards and ended up with a
five tier towering cake!
Robin Apted, Calli Hopper, Raewyn
Read and Isabelle Payne offered to

With instructions on size, width and
even a discussion about what gel
colours would be used for the tiles
everyone got started. Months before
the wedding I started to get tiles
in the mail and they surpassed all
expectations. They really were mini
artworks in themselves and I was
amazed by the love and talent that
had gone into them. Everyone had put
so much effort in and it showed. Jay
Rolfe (bless her) even did 20+ tiles
and sent them all so I could pick my
favourite and which one tied in best.