Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network August 2015 | Page 89

decoration. I would say refrigerate
if you aren’t using it for a while, let it
come to room temperature for serving,
and refrigerate unused portions, as
buttercream holds up in the fridge for
about a week.

Written by Marianna Saran
Recently she wowed thousands of
cake enthusiasts with her spectacular
three dimensional buttercream painting
of the Palace Rose Garden from the
Sydney Botanic Gardens at the Cake,
Bake and Sweets Show in Sydney.

Buttercream has really become
popular in the cake decorating realm.
What is your most favourite effect
using it?

The ACDN team caught up with Kerrie
to find out more about her love for
buttercream.

I love everything about buttercream,
picking a favourite technique is hard!
I think my favourite though will always
be buttercream roses. They took me
ages to get right and they were the first
buttercream creation I put out there, so
they have a special place in my heart.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and
your business. How did you get into
cake decorating and how long have
you been doing it?
My name is Kerrie Wyer, I am the
owner and operator of Kerrie’s Cakes,
a fully registered and approved home
based cake artistry business based
in Bradbury, NSW. I’m married to the
best man in the world, and we have
two beautiful little boys, who fill our
lives with equal parts joy and chaos!
I really got started in cake decorating
like a lot of people do I imagine. I
wanted to make my boys’ birthday
cakes special, particularly as they both
have special needs, so big parties and
lots of madness just isn’t possible for
them. I started by watching YouTube,
and you would amazed just how much
incredible information you can watch,
and for free! I spent hours and hours
watching everything I could, practising
what I had learned. My husband eats
a lot of cake, haha! With equal parts
knowledge, talent and stubbornness,
I opened my cake business in August
of last year, and I have loved every
minute of it!

your buttercream should be the first
consideration. Second would be don’t
overwhip it, especially if you want to
colour it. Whipping adds air, which
temporarily lightens the colour, but it
will change dramatically once it settles.
Lastly, there is no one consistency.
You will need different thicknesses for
different applications, so don’t give up
if your piping droops!

What are your main tips for using
buttercream?
The biggest tip I give for buttercream
is spend the money and buy really
good butter. I highly recommend
Lurpak - it’s all I use. The taste of

To be honest, my favourite buttercream
creation is always the one I’m working
on. I genuinely love what I do, so the
actual making of it will always be my
favourite. I do have a soft spot for my
waterlilies cake. I’m a big fan of Monet
and had the good fortune to see his
exhibition in Melbourne last year. Life
goal right there! So that cake is my
o de to the beauty of his work.
What is something people don’t realise
they can create with buttercream?
With the right consistency, almost
anything is possible with buttercream.
I created a 3D painting of the Palace
Rose Garden from the Sydney Botanic
Gardens for the Sydney Cake Bake
and Sweets Show, made completely
of buttercream. I have seen some
great videos of chefs in Asia, where
buttercream is bigger than here, piping
sculptures! That’s next on my list of
things to try.

What made you decided to use
buttercream as your main medium?
I have always loved “icing” - the way
it smoothed, the way it looked; it just
says “cake” to me. When I first started,
I felt compelled to use ganache and
fondant, because it seemed like that
was ‘the way’ to decorate cakes. The
fact that I hate the taste of ganache
led me quickly back to buttercream.
There is pretty much nothing you can’t
do with it, and it tastes incredible!

What’s the most favourite buttercream
project you have created to date and
why?

There is often confusion about how
long you can keep buttercream, what
are your thoughts?
Buttercream is generally made with
dairy products, which generally hold
up ok in room temperature for a limited
time. I only use full butter buttercream,
not Swiss meringue or other variations.
A general guide would be that if
it’s ok for butter, it’s probably ok for
buttercream. People often ask “will
my cake be ok in 35 degree heat for 3
hours??” NO! I wouldn’t be ok, so why
would I do that to a cake! Potential
spoiling aside, it will ruin almost any