Your cakes are like edible art arrangements, some even look way too beautiful to eat. How do you continue to think up unique artistic elements to incorporate into your creations?
I’m always looking at non-cake sources of inspiration, like art, design, film, and fashion. Rocks also come in endless shapes and colors, so I feel like the possibilities are endless! I feel like my lack of formal training in patisserie allows me to explore unconventional ways of making things.
As you said, many elements of your cakes are nature-inspired, from mossy textures to edible flowers. What draws you to these natural accents?
I think nature is perfect and I’m always amazed by how things can simply occur without human interference. I try to mimic parts of nature — through various rock textures — some based on rocks that I’ve collected from my travels and some imagined. Different flowers and fruits have such different moods suggested by their colors, shapes, and scale. I enjoy how each element in the cake is intentional and how it can distort the overall shape, focal point, create movement, and evoke a feeling.
The whimsical nature of your cakes and the out-of-this-world shapes remind me of an old folk tale or a storybook. Do any childhood stories, movies, or toys inform your creative decisions?
I’m not sure that it’s fairy tales that inspired me as much as elements of surrealism and the dreaminess of some of those landscapes. I had a client that made the reference to the Lorax and Dr. Seuss — maybe the whimsy from those stories is buried in my psyche too. I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid, so maybe all of these mossy rocks are really just places I want to live.
If you could insert yourself into any fairy tale or folklore story, which would you choose?
I actually grew up in one. From the ages of eight to twelve, I lived in a small town called Matamata. I realized that the rolling hills in the town resembled a mossy rock cake. It was also where they filmed ‘Hobbiton’ for Lord of the Rings. They even changed the town sign to say ‘Welcome to Hobbiton’!