Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network Februrary 2019 Cake! Magazine | Page 44

just try all the beautiful techniques
artists are using now with painting,
textures and buttercream. Creating
cakes on a weekly deadline can really
push you to expand your decorating
repertoire quickly, which is something
I miss!
way that can then be easily recreated.
From a teaching perspective it can be
difficult for students to be successful
if a process is vague or requires “just
having a good eye” for what looks
pretty. So, I think roses will continue to
be a work in progress!
What tools could you not live without?
Pasta machine for rolling paste,
metal ball tools, Dresden tool, small
embroidery scissors, foam pad, and a
groove board for making wired petals
and leaves.
You’re now a published author, Craftsy
instructor and globe-trotting teacher.
What’s next for Petalsweet?
I’m excited to share I’ve just finished
my second book, Modern Sugar
Flowers Volume 2, which will be
coming out this fall! It’s filled with a lot
of new flowers and some fun new cake
projects and designs. I have been a
total hermit, holed up at home working
What is your favourite flower to make?
My obsession with the ranunculus
flower continues! While not the
most impressive or showy, there
is something about the shape and
multitude of delicate layers in a
ranunculus that keep me coming back
for more. My own version has evolved
SO much since I began making them
in 2010, and it’s the flower I like to work
on the most when I have time to play.
We have beautiful ranunculus flower
fields here in San Diego and they are
incredible inspiration each Spring. I’m
also focusing on more roses since they
continue to be so popular for cake
makers and their clients.
on it all summer and just finished the
final photoshoot in January. It was a
huge, exhausting project but a great
opportunity for me to grow creatively.
Is there a flower that you don’t enjoy
I’ll be sharing details about the launch
making?
as they come together, and I hope
This is the perfect question to follow up followers will be excited to see it! I’m
on my previous answer! I mentioned
also continuing to travel and teach this
focusing more on creating roses, but
year, although I’m scaling back a bit to
I don’t enjoy making them yet. I’m
spend more time at home working on
fascinated by and completely in awe
other projects. There are a lot of folks
of the beautiful shape and movement
who can’t travel to classes so we’re
of rose petals and how they all fit
looking into creating our own online
together, but I think these aspects
courses and tutorials.
also make recreating roses in sugar a
challenge. It can be difficult to make
layers of gumpaste look delicate and
Do you enjoy using a variety of
airy and natural and organic. I love
mediums or is gumpaste always your
experimenting with techniques on my
go-to?
own time to get closer to that goal. But Currently it’s all gumpaste just about
for work I’m frequently thinking in terms all the time, but I am experimenting
of the exact steps it takes to make a
with other pastes and wafer paper too.
flower from start to finish, and roses
And I’ve taken some cookie decorating
can be more difficult to interpret in a
classes to break up the monotony a bit
and practice my piping skills. Painting
and textures are also on the list when I
have some time.
Are there other artists in the industry
that inspire you?
I try not to pay too close attention to
what other sugar flower artists are
doing because I don’t want to be
influenced too much by someone
else’s style or technique. With so
much visual inspiration on social
media, I work hard to stay true to my
own aesthetic as much as possible.
Having said that, I really like to support
my colleagues and their work in the
industry, so I do check in to see what
they are up to! I’m also continually
inspired by my former teachers and
the long-standing greats like Alan
Dunn, Ron Ben Israel, Scott Woolley,
Nicholas Lodge, Giovanna Smith and
Greg Cleary.
What floral trends do you see being
popular over the next year?
I think sugar flowers artists are
increasingly inspired by the many
incredible florists and flower-growers
sharing their beautiful work online.
This year, lots of greenery, shades
of ivory, brown, yellow, orange and
coral, and new colors of familiar
flowers will be popular. Also, looser
arrangements with a moody, organic
feel with flowers that look more
realistic, as well as flowers that are
past their prime (imagine brown edges
and petals about to fall off), and
darker cake surfaces as backgrounds.
Admittedly some of these floral trends
are challenging for me as my eye is
drawn to pure soft colors and fresh
looking, tight flower arrangements. But
I’m loving the greenery trend and am
using new color combinations outside
of my usual pastels, so I’m taking it
one step at a time!