Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network May 2017 | Page 93

Was it a tough decision to solely focus
on sculpted cakes?
Not for me. My boyfriend and I used
to have actual arguments about this.
He insisted I should do any and every
cake request that came my way, but
I knew that if I wanted to stand out
in this overcrowded field I needed to
focus on what I did best .Obviously
I won that argument and I do enjoy
bringing this up to him on occasion!
Every cake you create is designed
specifically for your client. Tell us
about your design process.
my first cake. I can’t even imagine
what it looked like now. Thankfully
there were no camera phones then.
These were basic buttercream cakes,
but even from my early days I was
experimenting with more intricate work,
like lots of hand drawing and a few
crude sculptures.
You’re a published author, and have
appeared on television programs such
as Food Network Challenge, yet we
don’t see a lot of you in the media. Do
you enjoy the notion of ‘fame’, or do
you prefer to focus on your cakes?
That is true and I think it’s because
I don’t participate much in cake related
events and groups. While I’m certainly
[not] alone as a cake sculptor, there
are very few who focus exclusively on
sculpted cakes so not a lot is relevant
to what I’m doing. As for the general
public I’ve enjoyed an enormous
amount of press. My cakes have been
in magazines and newspapers, literally
all over the world. I’ve had quite a few
cakes go viral, as well, which always
brings about a flurry of press interest.
I’ve been approached by dozens of
production companies but I never
put too much stock in it. As a person
who works alone, it’s hard to make
interesting TV in this drama-focused
landscape. I’m open to possibilities,
however. I’m currently under a
development contract for a major
network but, again, not holding my
breath. It’s really not important to me
to be ‘famous’. My focus has always
been to do my best for my customers,
to always try to be improving, and to
hopefully keep making enough money
to be self-employed.
Most customers come to me with a
very loose idea of what they want.
I then set out researching. When I’m
making any cake, I try to avoid even
seeing other cakes in that theme.
I prefer to work using real images of
the items I am replicating. I work with
reference objects whenever possible.
I’ll experiment with new techniques
if a particular aspect of the design is
challenging. Finally, I pull all of these
elements together when doing the final
assembly. I’m fortunate that, generally,
my customers trust me and prefer to
be surprised. This allows me to have
the freedom to make changes and/ or
additions whenever inspiration strike.
You’ve become well-known for creating
faux food cakes. Are these the types of
cakes you love to create the most?
I do love them and certainly get a
lot of orders for them. They’re fun to
make and fun for the customers, too.
Who doesn’t love food? I often play
around with scale, too – a giant, yet
realistic version of some food is a great
conversation piece.
You’ve created cakes for a huge range
of corporate clients, including Google,
Yahoo, Nissan and Playstation. What
cakes stand out in your mind?
As much I complain about cars
(because they are VERY hard!) I was
really excited about the first cake
I made for Nissan. When you’ve spent
literally 12 hours staring at a cake
it’s hard to appreciate your work.
When I came into my kitchen the
next morning for delivery, even I was
surprised at how much it looked like
a giant toy car. They loved it too, so it
was a great experience.
Have you had any cake disasters?
O.M.G. Many! In the early days of
Debbie Does Cakes I worked almost
exclusively with buttercream. I learned
quickly that buttercream iced sculpted
cakes and Bay Area traffic were a bad
combination. I had a lot of hairline
fractures. It was simply unacceptable
so I made the transition to fondant.
Since then, I’ve had very few issues.
Do you experiment with current cake
trends, or do you solely prefer to work
on realistic-looking pieces?
I don’t follow trends at all. There are so
many cake businesses in my area who
offer these things and can do a great
job, so I always refer this work out.
Believe me, I do get the requests for
them, though.
Where do you see your business in five
years?
That’s a great question, and one that
I don’t have a clear answer to. So
much changes all the time for my
business, unexpected things like the
book, for instance. I’ve been extremely
fortunate to have opportunities come
to me rather than having to seek
them out. All I can say is I am open to
whatever my business may evolve into,
hopefully that’s doing fewer customer
cakes and more chances to focus on
more projects like the book. Earning
a living, one cake at a time, I think we
can all agree, is challenging.
Do you have any plans to teach
overseas?
I’ve taught only a few classes and that
really comes down to scheduling. As
a person whose business is customer
cakes, it’s tough to find a swath of time
that isn’t spoken for with orders. But,
I’m not ruling it out.