Shannen Hewitt of Ssh. Cake crowned Gympie’s cake queen

Top Gympie region cake maker Shannen Hewitt has shared how her love of baking sprang from spending childhood weekends baking with her beloved Nan.

Shannen Hewitt of Ssh. Cake crowned Gympie’s cake queen.

Delicious icing on layered cake goodness, from natural floral colours, decorated numbers and kids cakes, finding out who took the title of Gympie’s best cake decorator was no small feat.

Shannen Hewitt has been crowned Gympie’s best cake decorator, taking out 33 per cent of the vote, leading by 6 per cent over Melt Me Chocolate Shop.

Veteran resident Ms Hewitt said her love of baking sprang from spending childhood weekends baking with her Nan.

Shannen Hewitt of Ssh. Cake has been voted Gympie best cake decorator 2023.

How small businesses can snap up $14.2bn pumped hydro project work

“My fondest memory baking with Nan is beating the eggs into the creamed butter and sugar (by hand back then) and she said proudly that I did a good job by not curdling the eggs,” she said.

“I loved baking with Nan, so many beautiful memories.”

It wasn’t until Ms Hewitt had children herself that she started decorating cakes, self-taught through social media and lots of practice, trial and error and learning from mistakes.

Shannen Hewitt of Ssh. Cake crowned Gympie’s cake queen.

“Then my sister would get me to make cakes for her kids and then it pretty much went from there,” she said.

Ms Hewitt said her favourite part of making cakes was the reaction from customers, and had one lady cry over how beautiful the cake was.

“I love happy tears, she may have set some of mine off,” she said.

Her biggest achievement was being asked to make the Queensland Country’s Women Association centenary cake.

“I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me, it really is an honour just to be nominated,” she said

“There’s lots of talented cakers in Gympie, it was a tough competition.”