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You have over 125,000 followers on Facebook. What tips can you give to those wanting to raise their profile on social media?
My following came as another complete surprise for me as I didn’ t set out to grow my numbers. I’ ve had my Facebook page since 2009 and had just under 800 followers up until 2013 which I was pretty happy with. When I stopped taking outside orders and started concentrating more on personal projects, family occasions and my own designs suddenly my numbers started growing. I also became more active in the online cake community around that time and participated in share days on other pages. Pages with big followings started sharing my work and within a matter of less than a year, I saw my numbers rise and surpass 100K. It was hard to wrap my mind around the sudden increase and I still can’ t say what contributed to it the most but definitely being active in the community helped. Also, creating pieces that had my own aesthetic stamp on it, helped to get my work recognized and shared. I rarely find time anymore to participate in other page’ s share days but I regularly host them on my page kind of as a way to pay it forward.
Who are your favourite cake decorators?
There are so many great designers out there with so many different styles and strengths. If I had to name a few, and these can be easily interchanged with others on any given day, I’ d have to say consistently I love the work of Tracey Rothwell, Calli Hopper, Lesley Wright, Shawna McGreevy, Jacinta Perkins, Karen Portaleo, Margie Carter, Zoe Clark, Jeanne Winslow and Pamela McCaffrey, Karen Keaney, Brenda Walton, Faye Cahill, Kristen Erich, Jo Orr, Lisa Grech-Staehr... I literally could go on and on and on.
What’ s the cake industry like in Canada?
To be honest, I don’ t really know as I am most active in online communities. I had looked for cake shows to compete in, way back when I first started out, but couldn’ t find much at the time. Then I had my daughter so have been busy with her since then and have not really pursued much regarding cake, locally. I do know we have a great world renowned cake decorating school here( Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionery Arts). My daughter starts school soon so I plan to start researching more about the local cake industry as I would love to participate in a cake competition one day and find more venues for teaching classes.
Have you ever had a cake disaster?
Oh yes! Once, I made a tall sculpted three tier topsy turvy teacup cake and it had to be delivered 40 minutes away. My husband called me on his way to the venue saying he had hit a huge pothole and the cake had jumped up, landed hard and was now leaning to one side! I quickly called the client to explain what happened and that we would be a bit late now as the cake needed to be repaired. Luckily we planned the delivery for two hours before the event was to start and she graciously told me it would be fine if it was a tad late. The bottom of the cake on one side was now smushed so I had to unstack everything and shave a bit off the bottom. Luckily it was well dowelled or else it would have collapsed completely. We made it to the venue just before the guests arrived and the client was ecstatic with the cake.
What has been your most memorable cake to date?
That would be a toss-up between my Pink Fairy Garden cake and my Starry Night Christmas Cake. The first one probably got the most attention on social media with views, likes, shares and comments, and the second was my first ever cake to make the cover of a magazine this past Christmas on Party Cakes Magazine.
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