Cake Chat
Cake Chat with Amber Comadira-Smith from Cake with Amber
Amber shares her cake expertise so you can sweeten-up your cake skills and create amazing cakes with confidence!
CONFESSIONS OF A CAKE DECORATOR
That’ s right, I’ m here to spill a few cake confessions from my 12 year journey as a cake decorator( has it really been that long?). Some are funny, some are a little bit cringe and some are just‘ oh, you really did that??’. But that’ s exactly my point, because I think it’ s important to understand that we all have those learning moments, muck-ups and the occasional strong opinion. So feel free to judge me a little, chuckle or just nod in understanding … here’ s my top ten confessions!
# 1- In my early days, I was trying to fit decorating around my full time job and at the time I was head down in recipe testing. I’ d wake up early to bake a test batch, I’ d drive over to my parents’ house at 7am, wake my Mum up and make her eat my cupcakes. She’ d be sitting on the couch, barely awake, trying to give me constructive feedback( her taste buds weren’ t even awake). I don’ t think she really appreciated cupcakes for breakfast!
# 2- For the first few years, I struggled to cover cakes with fondant. I always ended up with the dreaded‘ elephant skin’ up the sides! Since I mostly made cupcakes, I didn’ t get much practice on big cakes. So on the rare occasion I was actually asked to make one, I would ask my cake friends to cover it for me so I wouldn’ t disappoint my clients. Eventually I started practicing on dummy cakes and I’ ve been confident with covering cakes ever since!
# 3- I think cake moulds are overused. They take away from the artistry and individuality, and can stunt skill development. In saying that, I’ m impressed by many of the moulds and cutters we have available these days and they definitely have their place in the industry.
# 4- One time, I baked a dozen vanilla cupcakes and they didn’ t rise properly in the oven- turns out I had the oven on the wrong setting! Instead of re-baking( which I should have), I tossed the wonky ones and replaced them with some leftover chocolate cupcakes from the freezer( which were frozen from the week prior and delicious!). I lied to the client on pickup and said that I dropped half on the floor. Thankfully, this client was a repeat customer and they actually wished they had ordered chocolate in the first place. So it ended up ok! But looking back, I never should have swapped flavours without asking...