'Everyone deserves a little bit of home baked, thoughtful goodness on their birthday. Or their wedding day. Or a Tuesday...'
Lovely Francesca is the lady behind these glorious, flower-covered, colour explosion cakes, handmade for any occasion. We fired a few questions Francesca's way to learn a little bit more about her thriving business and what to expect at her cake decorating workshop at Gather this August:
Your cakes are a delight to look at, each with their own unique decorations yet all with the same distinct style. What’s the inspiration behind the Cake of Dreams look?
When I started making cakes - for fun and then for a job - it was because I wanted cakes to make me feel like the cakes you would imagine as a child - cakes from story books or films. I wanted them to feel decadent and special and sparkly and oozy and conjure up some nostalgia and glamour and whimsy. A cake should make you feel a little bit magic and be a treat for all the senses, it’s no fun having the same old cake as everyone else…
From glitter cherries to kittens wearing party hats, how do you choose your weird & wonderful decorations?
Everything has flowed rather organically. The glitter cherries were one of the first things I came up with, trying to decorate one of my very first cakes. I had this image of a disco ball cherry that I wanted to recreate, so I just experimented until it worked. The animals in party hats evolved from someone asking for something circus themed and I had this image of a Victorian dancing bear in a ruff and a hat, so I built one and after that kept getting requests for different “party animals” in custom getups. Poor little bear… I try not to stray too far from the general vibe of the cakes I have created, but occasionally someone will request something a bit out of my comfort zone and I’ll invent something new and love it.
You’ve been a Gather contributor before, what can the Gather guests expect from a Cake of Dreams workshop? Is it kid friendly?
I love making food with my own kids, and I think that children can really bring that wonder and magic to decorating that I strive for, so last year I did a kids only workshop where they could just go a bit wild with all the tools I use, and the result was totally gorgeous psychedelic kid-decorated cupcakes that were worth the very lengthy cleaning up afterwards… I also do a class for 15+ to go over icing and decorating big layer cakes, with marginally less glitter and flowers flying through the air, and some secret tips doled out, all very relaxed and with lots of chatting.
Francesca will be returning to run her cake decorating workshop this Summer at Gather; complete with flowers, foraged fruits from the fforest gardens, edible glitter, jewels, sprinkles, maybe even a couple of unicorns - who knows! Whatever she brings, its bound to be one of the wackiest (& messiest) of all Gather workshops!
