Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network August 2015 | Page 85

The way you decorate your cakes certainly unites many different elements. What are your favourite things to top your buttercream cakes with? I love using fresh and freeze-dried fruit for their burst of colour and flavour. I also like using toppings with interesting textures, such as crushed brittle, meringue, toffee or chocolate shards and assorted sprinkles. What is your favourite cake to date? A colourful and delightfully flamboyant creation that I like to call my ‘Unicorn Cheesecake’. What are two things you simply can’t live without when it comes to buttercreaming your cakes? I always employ the assistance of my trusty off-set spatula and cake scraper. What is your favourite flavoured buttercream? I love mixing homemade salted caramel through my buttercream. It gives a more complex, rich flavour that is just simply divine. Many cake decorators have wondered how you achieve the “runny icing” technique on your cakes. What is it that you use to achieve this look? Chocolate ganache, dark chocolate and different variations of flavoured white chocolate. We are seeing many “Katherine Sabbath” creations popping up. How do you feel to have inspired such a large audience from across the globe? It’s incredibly humbling and fills me to the brim with joy every time! To have so many wonderful people be inspired and share my approach to dessert aesthetics as well as flavours, is very validating. The encouragement motivates me to keep doing what I’ve always been doing! When it comes to your sweet creations, what are your goals and dreams for the future? I’d love to incorporate my teaching background into my baking by having my work published in a cookbook and perhaps some day even have my own video series, where I share my recipes and tips with others! Do you have any words of wisdom when it comes to baking and cake decorating? It sounds clichéd but it really is a truth – practice makes perfect! Please don’t be discouraged by failures in the kitchen because these sorts of mishaps are a wonderful way to learn and track your progress. Is there one random fact you would like to share about yourself? I am an absolute NUT ADDICT! I love nuts and have been eating two handfuls a day for the last 15 or so years! Don’t even get me started on crunchy peanut butter.