Naked granny cakes!!

Oh, um, hi again! You may be slightly confused about the title of this post...let me shed some light - naked cakes: cakes without traditional thick icing or frosting, even without any frosting at all. I had real trouble explaining this to people 6 months ago when planning a wedding cake buffet. People would nod along but you know how you can see it in someone's face when they think they're doing really well hiding their smirk?? Yeah. I saw alot of that. 

Truth is, naked cakes as a trend are brand new to little old Tassie, and really, as far as I can tell, all of Australia. I've only seen them prolifically (hopefully that's an actual word) on Google and in European & US wedding magazines & blogs. This is why, when Kate at Pure Bride saw a picture of one of my naked cakes for a friend's wedding, she wanted to track me down. Pure Bride are all about bringing new exciting stuff to Tasmanian weddings, getting them out of this traditional rut we've been happily existing in. This is where the 'granny' part comes in - Kate loved the idea of this lemon yogurt cake as it reminded her of cakes her grandmother made - and she suggested marketing them as granny cakes. She thinks Tassie is ready for naked cakes - and now so do we at LoveCake!!

 The naked cake we had on display at the expo was a real hit, too. Obviously when I was explaining to those others last year, I should've carried one around with me and let it do the talking! I love that people can see the rustic beauty in it, and let's face it - at least half the population hates fondant and picks it off - why waste good money on that?! (and from my perspective - a naked cake takes literally hours less than a fondant-covered cake)

Honestly, I haven't got a whole lot more to say about these cakes, but I do have a TON of pretty pictures for you to see! I love love LOVE some of the flower arrangements on these cakes - they make me wish you could just have a cake sitting on your coffee table with fresh flowers, you know...just for show, part of the room decor! ;)

(that last one - anyone else suddenly craving Oreos?? No? Just me?) Ok - that's all from me this time folks, got a fun Up-inspired engagement cake to finish!

Cheerio!

Nadia x

Expo Part 1 - Done and Dusted!

Welcome back :)

So, in case you missed the ten million posts in the last few months, you know that the Pure Bride Expo was yesterday. What an amazing experience it was, preparing for it, meeting some lovely brides and their entourages and also meeting some amazing local business owners.

Long story short, the lovely and super-friendly Kate from Pure Bride found some photos of some of my cakes (specifically, the naked cake buffet below) on her desk and hunted me down to ask me to take part in their annual Expo and magazine. Of course, I had no choice but to say yes - cakes, wedding stuff, things to organise...some of my favourite things to do!!

Image by fred+hannah

So began my summer of ideas, organisation and changing my mind 358653 times a day. Eventually I decided to keep to the naked cake/rustic theme and so decorated display cakes and found booth decorations to fit. We thought it came together nicely!

Yes! We had free samples. As it turns out, I have no qualms when it comes to bribing people with food! I had to chuckle several times when a bride-to-be would have her fiance in tow and he would have that glazed-eye look that you see on husbands in shopping centres....then he would see the plate of samples, then he would see the sign telling him that not only did we have free cake, we had free cake that had BEER in it! They couldn't believe their eyes. Judging by their reactions, I'm really happy with this recipe I've doctored in general, as it offers the comfort o chocolate cake that everybody knows, however has this little hint of something different to it. I do think though that maybe I could have a light and a strong version - the strong version with alot more stout in it. I foresee some experimenting now that I've got a little more time!

Now, I'm not an outgoing person by anyone's standards...I am really shy when it comes to people that I don't know. Let's face it, I've worked in the same place for over 6 years and I still don't know the names of half the people there. This was one thing that was worrying me leading up to the expo. How would I not only stop people in their tracks (something I personally hate about attending an expo!), but actually hold a conversation with them and be charming enough that they'd remember me and think of me when it came time to organise their wedding cake?? 

Turns out I really should'nt have wasted time thinking about it. Also turns out that when you're talking about something you really love and introducing others to that world, shyness has no place in it whatsoever. I found myself chatting away to hundreds of people, explaining things and suggesting things and making jokes. No pauses, no silences, no awkward 'ohmygosh what do I say now!' moments. Who was this person?! I like her!! 

I know it sounds so mushy and airy and so un-me, but everyone needs to find something they truly love to do in life. Whether it becomes your job, or your hobby, or it's your family, friends, travelling...find it, hold on and let it make you your best self!

Everything about the expo was a learning experience for me and I'm grateful to Kate for the opportunity, and also forever grateful to my friends for giving up their time to help me out (especially after being part of a conversation with some others about staff and Sunday award rates!). 

Until next time,

Nadia x

Getting started - for real this time!

Hey there!

Thanks for stopping by. As is probably expected, I'll use this first post as a bit of an intro...so let's dive in!

My name is Nadia and I am a cake decorator. A wife. A scientist. A lover of all things butterscotch, all things organisational (note the justified alignment on this post!), and all things decorative. I relax by watching those tv shows and movies that people are embarrassed to admit to, and you know what? I love them. I love escaping into the suburban world of Gaby Solis on Desperate Housewives, performing surgery with McDreamy & McSteamy on Grey's Anatomy or kicking some zombie ass with Daryl on The Walking Dead.

I have always loved baking, even though in my earliest memory of doing such, I was in early high school and served a chocolate cake to my family, who'd gathered to celebrate my mother's birthday. They ate small bites politely and mumbled about how cute the cake was, how talented I was, all the usual family kind of comments. I took a giant bite and was instantly so embarrassed I wanted to crawl under the table. This supposedly delicious morsel in my mouth was actually a pasty mess and I couldn't taste chocolate at ALL. Not one person finished their piece, politely pushing bits of cake around their plates to make it seem like it was disappearing. I discovered I'd used plain flour instead of self raising flour....although to this day I swear to God there was more wrong with that disaster than just a little flour mixup.

Aaaanywho, here I am 15 years later and I'm proud as punch to say that I've not yet repeated that mistake. I LOVE to create things, and I've found I'm not too bad at this old cake decorating thing. I don't claim to know it all, this business is constantly changing and new techniques pop up every day! I'm HUGELY thankful I stumbled across MyCakeSchool to help me out with all this learning! I have started up a small business selling my custom cakes (found here) - mostly to cover my costs! This is one expensive hobby!

This year I have been mulling over what I'd like to accomplish in the Wide World of Cake and I have come up with SO many many ideas. Firstly I am taking LoveCake to the local Pure Bride exhibition on Feb 23 (one week away - eep!) so stay tuned for a post or two about that experience! Hopefully a commercial kitchen will follow later in the year (our garage is full of junk so it might as well be full of baked goodness!) I also wanted to have a place to share my thoughts, ideas, recipes and other general musings - so what better format than a blog to cover all that!

So please enjoy, and let me know if there are any recipes, techniques or things that you'd like me to research and write about!

Cheers,

Nadia x