Jun

Corina is our guest blogger this week. To get the ball rolling, I asked her a few questions:

I imagine this time of year must be busy with wedding cakes, graduation, summer birthdays and whatnot. What’s been your most outrageous or challenging order?

Most challenging order.
The most challenging cake was probably my first fondant cake. It was a large tiered wedding cake and I had to travel from Victoria to Vancouver in the middle of the August summer heat. On the ferry over I had to park on the ramp incline with a cake in the car (horrible conditions for a cake). It also had to sit out in the sun for 8 hours before serving it. Good news was that it was a success and tasted great.

Most outrageous order.
It all depends on what people find ‘outrageous’. I just recently made a male stripper cake (inspired by Tom de Finland). I’ve done a roasted turkey cake, a steak cake, a hot tub cake with naked ladies and bird cage cake with a bird hanging in the middle. I consider these unusual as you can’t just go to a bakery and buy them off the shelf or just order at any regular bakery. I love the unusual requests. Lots of my clients have said… Is that really a cake?

What are your top 5 essential tools of the trade?

My Top five tools of the trade.

1. My kitchen aid mixers

2. My extra large baking silpat

3. Interesting ingredients (like beet powder, edible 24K Gold dust, homemade jam)

4. My recipe book that I’ve been building for years

5. Unlimited creativity, and passion

Your design background obviously influences your creations – what would you say are the 3 most important tricks of the trade when building/creating a cake?

I’m thankful for my graphic design degree from Emily Carr Institute and years of being in the creativity industry – inspiration and learning I can always draw from. Three of the most important tricks;

1. Think about how you’re going to transport it before you start building it! Structure is key.

2. Patience and precision is essential.

3. Have fun with it and expect failure. When the dog trips you and the cake goes flying across the room – laugh about it! (true story with this cake...)

Can you highlight some of the ingredients you use?
I really let the cake that I’m making determine the ingredients that I will use. Most bakers speak in great length about the quality of the products that they use – the finest chocolate, all natural organic ingredients etc. Yes, I also use great ingredients, however, I tend to focus more on the unusual ingredients – For example I recently made aSupersized Shoe Cake and the company logo is all red. So I made a red velvet cake made with beet powder (rather than red food coloring). I also used edible 24Karat Gold dust and natural inks (as an example, see the Juicy Couture cake I recently created)- I also create a lot of vegan and peanut free cakes (using organic earth balance butter and soy flour). In the summer I hand pick local strawberries, make strawberry jam and then use that in a strawberry butter cream. For me, it’s not as much about using the most exclusive ingredients, but rather about using unique ingredients that make for a custom, one of a kind cake.

You are a raging baking success! Any desire to make it your full-time biz or do you like to keep it as a working hobby?

For now, baking is my passion outside of work. I’m loving the balance of creative freedom in the kitchen without the pressure of having to make a living from it.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

If I was starting all over again or giving advice to someone just starting out, I’d most likely say don’t be too hard on yourself and don’t expect a perfect cake every time! I’ve tried lots of recipes and techniques that never worked. Like fondant…I’m still looking for a recipe that actually works as well as the commercial kind. So far, every instructor and baker I’ve met buys fondant.

What type of cakes do you most enjoy making?
I get real satisfaction making one of a kind unique cakes that you couldn’t just pick up at your local bakery. Ones for corporate clients like the MAC Cosmetics Cake, Upper Canada Mall Shopping Center Cake or fun ones like the Curious George Cake.

To learn more, contact Corina at PassionForCakes.com