TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR BUSINESS ? My name is Ivana , originally I ' m from the beautiful Czech Republic - the heart of Europe . In 2014 I made a big decision - I planned a 8 month trip to visit Australia - Sydney . I arrived on student visa because I didn ' t speak a word of English , so first of all I had to try my best to learn a new language ... and look at me now , 10 years later and I ' m still learning haha and still here in Sydney .
In the Czech Republic I used to be in a full time job in an office and as a side business I was a sports instructor in a little gym in my town called Litvinov . I ' ve always had a little passion for Baking but never to the point that I would become a baker or a cookie artist .
When I first arrived in Australia , life was like a roller coaster ... not able to speak the language it was a struggle . I was very lucky to get a part time job as a housekeeper ( a cleaner ) which I was doing for some time along with my english school . In the mix of all this I had already met my husband who was a great support in everything I did .
In 2016 I made a honey cake for my husband who loved the taste so much and made a comment about how it would be a great idea of selling it to people . We started the process and the very beginning was Sydney markets . We attended the Kirribili market , the Ramsgate food market and The Grounds of Alexandria where we stayed the longest period of time . Every second Sunday we had a stall there with the most delicious cake - honey cake . In my country the translation of honey is MED and that ' s how MEDOVNIK Cake was born .
2017 Christmas was approaching and I came across a video on YouTube about cookie decorating , I ' ve never decorated a cookie in my life and after watching Julie M Usher I was in loveee . She was explaining how to make sugar cookies and royal icing .... the video looked so fun and the cookies looked so beautiful that I was so tempted to give it a try so I did .... It was a big fail ! Royal icing was all over me , my table , my hands ... it was a mess lol
I ' m not a quitter and I wanted to give it a second chance . Day by day , week by week I was trying new recipes for cookies and royal icing as there are many ways how to do so ... I watched countless videos on YouTube , read different articles from different cookie artists around the world like Julie M Usher , HANIELAS , Sweetsugarbelle and many more and just invest lots of time into practice . And Royal icing cookies have taken over my honey cake business ( kind of ) I still make honey cakes but now I try to combine these two things together and still offer honey cakes to my clients but decorated with my delicious and art cookies !