Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network Sept 2019 Cake! Magazine | Page 66

Cake Chat
Cake Chat with Amber Comadira-Smith
from Commie’s Cupcakes
Amber shares her design & cake expertise
so that you can become the master cake
decorator you’ve always wanted to be.
I’m trying to steer away from
cake trends and have a go at
designing my own cakes.
But I hate what I’m creating
and I tend to get stumped for
ideas. Can you help?
Ahh...love this question! And it’s a
relatively easy fix.
Before you even think about
turning on your oven, you need to
take a deep dive into pre-planning
(and designing!) your cakes. Trust
me, it’s the only solution that’ll
combat your indecisiveness, lack of
ideas AND your harsh self
critiquing.
What’s the pre-planning process
involve?
Well, it starts with brainstorming,
gathering inspiration and then
drafting your ideas into rough cake
concepts. It’s such an easy way to
visually process your ideas, and
ultimately, give you a clear direction
for your final design.
Unfortunately people tend to skip this pre-planning process altogether because they see it as ‘boring’,
but what they don’t realise is that:
1. It sparks your creativity and gets your ideas following
2. Refines your ideas so you can create a stunning, professional and visually engaging cake
3. Gives you a clear direction for your end cake design, so that you won’t be stressing or guessing your
way through the decorating process.
So that’s my advice. Get into the habit of pre-planning and pre-designing and you’ll find this whole
cake-design-thing will become alot more enjoyable and successful for you.
I’m scared to try any new cake tech-
niques on my cakes in case it turns
out to be a massive fail and I can’t
fix it. What can I do to avoid a cake
fail? Or do you have any advice if I
find myself in an unfixable
situation? - Taylor
I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been holding
yourself back due to fear of failure. I get
why you’re apprehensive (I’ve been through
the same thing), but unfortunately there isn’t
any full proof way to totally avoid a cake fail.
However there are ways that you can help
prevent cake fails from happening in the
first place:
1. Research and practice your new cake
styles and techniques
The more you know and learn about this
new cake technique, the easier it will be to
execute and fix any mistakes that may arise.
Knowledge is power!
2. Plan ahead
Plan your time thoroughly in advance to
give yourself enough time to get everything
done. This also allows you a bit of
‘breathing room’ to fix any issues that may
crop up in the cake making process.
But what SHOULD you do when you find yourself in this ‘cake
fail’ situation?
Firstly, take a step back and breathe. When times are stress-
ful, you need to step away, clear your head and come back
with a ‘can do’ attitude (yeah I know, easier said than done!).
If you have time to fix your mistakes - like re-baking a cake or
making more sugar flowers - then go for it. But if your situation
is time sensitive (eg. the cake is due in 2 hours), then it’s just
one of those ‘you have to make it work’ situations.
Focus on what you CAN do. There is always a solution, even
though it may not be the solution you want or hope for. Most of
the time, you can turn a disaster into a win.
Just know that you’re not alone - cake fails happen to EVERY-
ONE. Please don’t let fear hold you back from your amazing
talent - we create our best cakes when we free ourselves from
that fear and let ourselves explore.
MORE INFORMATION
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