Sydney’s leading bakers reveal secrets behind most impressive, showstopping creations
The kings and queens of Sydney’s baking scene have shared the secrets behind their most showstopping, epic and mouth watering creations. See the full list:
Central Sydney
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Sydney’s leading bakers are continuing to set the standard in the creation of showstopping and mouth-watering baked goods – and inspiring a strong following of home based cooks in the process.
Elaborate cakes and crowd favourites that have customers lining outside the door are just some of the recent works created by established and up-and-coming bakers across the city.
Many of the bakers run successful home based operations where they’ve gained a strong following through social media, while others run popular brick and mortar stores that have become part of the fabric in local communities.
North shore based baker Gabriela Oporto, who runs Bakealicious, said there had been a renewed interest in baking over the last two years, partly prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic which had given people more time to venture into the kitchen.
“During Covid, people suddenly had time on their hands and needed a distraction from the events outside and baking is brilliant for channelling stress. It’s a project everyone in the family can be involved with, and a great way to express yourself creatively,” she said.
Shelley Gage, founder of Belle Bakes, said social media had also contributed to the rise in people taking up baking from home.
“Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest have really contributed to this – there are so many great resources available on those platforms that can well and truly set you up for success in a number of fields,” she said.
“I’ve seen a lot of businesses either start or go full time during the last couple of years because of that.”
Many bakers say the secrets to success include a focus on quality ingredients, perseverance, attention to detail and planning ahead.
“Making the cake taste as good as it looks is also important – there is no point at all to making a cake look beautiful on the outside and tasting rubbish and dry on the inside. It must be the best of both worlds,” Stacy Brewer from Stacy Brewer Cakes said.
Like any industry, baking is not without challenges including the current rising cost of produce and supply chain constraints.
Donna Morris, owner of Sugar Cartel, said current trends in the industry include bakers willing to challenge themselves through elaborate and complex creations.
“When I first began in 2020, the community was creating much more minimalistic designs. Since then, the trend has definitely slowly become more-is-more and complex – this is what is constantly trending throughout the baking community and most sought after by customers,” she said.
“There’s always something trending in the baking community and the trends are definitely forever changing.”
We take a look at some of the top bakers in Sydney who have shared a look inside their most impressive and challenging works:
BLACK VELVET SYDNEY
We have done many complex reality cakes but the California Girl Lollipop Cake by far is the epitome of joy and celebration. We’ve supplied this cake for birthdays from one-year-olds to 86-year-olds. It was inspired by a Qantas executive who wanted a joyous cake for her daughter’s party. The initial cake design was quite complex as it required a lot of overseas decorations that were difficult to source in Australia, so over the years it was slightly modified so we could guarantee supply. Since its inception, we’ve done many variations for clients including blue, chocolate, Marvel Avengers colours and rainbow themes.
STACY BREWER – STACY BREWER CAKES
The cake that is the ultimate show stopper. The cake you can’t walk past without hearing the words ‘wow’ from people passing by at the venue. This cake has most definitely been the cake of the year for us. Our take on the traditional millefoglie which is seen in many Italian weddings over the years. We use layers of vanilla bean sponge cake, Italian meringue buttercream, lemon curd and not to mention the 35 punnets of fresh raspberries. It can be made in a chocolate cake version as well. The cake is a mammoth one metre in width and requires a very large oven to bake it in. It’s definitely a two person job weighing in a total of 30 kgs. Displayed in the centre of any room, this cake has been used from events as large as 300 people weddings to 30 people birthday celebrations. With all the backlog of Covid weddings, there is a lot of celebrating to catch up on!
GABRIELA OPORTO – BAKEALICIOUS
Every cake I’ve made has a story to tell. However, I am very proud of my bestseller, the vintage vanilla cake – vanilla butter sponge layers, with raspberry coulis and mascarpone cream. I wanted to create something that would taste like home and that could be customised and decorated in many different ways for many different occasions. I tried many, many times – well over 17 times – to perfect it and would give it to every person I could find to try. I wanted it to have the most delicious flavour and texture everyone would love. It took quite a long time to fine tune but I really wanted it to be perfect so others loved it as much as I did. It was worth it – our vintage vanilla cake is definitely a star.
MOLLY CAMERON – MOLLY’S KITCHEN
This cake is definitely a favourite of mine. When working with buttercream texture, it can be difficult to make the different elements work together on one cake. For this one, I really wanted the texture to be more of a feature than in previous cakes so I used a variety of tools, such as palette knives of different shapes, sprinkles and a silicone pastry brush to create different looks. The colour inspiration also had more dusk and rust tones, making it harder to match the buttercream, as when colour mixing, it can be a fine line between deep tones and murky colours. Floral arranging is also hard because, unlike texture or piping, the flowers can’t be changed or manipulated, so you have to think about using them in a way that keeps its shape and height that will suit the cake. Overall, I’m really happy with how it came together.
JAVI CERDA – JAVI BAKES
This vintage-inspired sheet cake is arguably my most elaborate and challenging work to date. This is largely due to the delicate string work involved, which requires a very steady hand and healthy dose of concentration. The process involved baking the sheet cake, whipping up several batches of buttercream, meticulously covering and smoothing the sheet cake with buttercream, and carefully “dressing” the cake with frills from top to bottom. The last step involved hand-piping the pretty floral details. I felt very inspired to create this cake when looking at old pictures of my parents’ wedding from the 80s.
LISA CAI – KEKICAKES
As someone who comes from a Chinese background, I wanted to design a cake inspired by my heritage. This cake is inspired by the traditional Chinese ink paintings, but using a more modern and different medium, buttercream on cake. This was my first buttercream art on cake, and it sparked my interest in this style of cake. In the future I would like to do more of this on my cakes, using buttercream on cake as a medium for art.
CLAUDIA ABRAHAMS – SMASHCAKES
This cake was a custom order I made for a 30th birthday. The brief was “pink, girly and pretty”. I made a pastel pink dome, filled it with lollies and decorated it with 24 carat edible gold leaf. I then made the intricate lace casing using chocolate, to go over the dome. I wanted to have a 1cm gap between the dome and the casing to create another dimension to the cake. The challenge was to make the casing without it breaking as it is made from chocolate that is approximately 1mm thick. Once I had my base done, I added hand-cut edible wafer flowers and other decorations. I loved the challenge of producing a unique design that I knew my client would love.
LUNA CAKES
There are a lot of customer favourites on our menu but the lychee and coconut dacquoise is quite special. It consists of a coconut meringue sponge, mascarpone cream and lychees and is both light and rich in flavour. Being gluten free, it’s also a beautiful option for those who can’t tolerate gluten. I wanted to combine the coconut and lychee flavour and liked the texture of the almond dacquoise, so I replaced it with coconut and created a smooth and balanced mascarpone cream to fill the layers. Lychees add freshness and decoration.
This is also one of the flavours we use for our number cakes, which have been quite popular this year. In my opinion in order to be a good baker you need passion and for a business to succeed you need focus and hard work. Long hours in the kitchen are sometimes hard and often take you away from spending time with your family but worth it in the end when you receive feedback from customers who absolutely adore our creations.
DONNA MORRIS – SUGAR CARTEL
Despite this set being created earlier on in my baking journey, it remains a favourite of mine as it showcases exactly what our brand is all about. With this particular set of cookies, the customer simply provided us with a theme and allowed us creative freedom with the design process. An important aspect of putting a set together is sourcing supplies that match the overall theme you’re working with. For example, I had a vision to incorporate honey drips throughout the designs and located a cutter that hadn’t been used for this purpose before to bring this to life. Each element of the set pictured is there to tie into each small detail and the theme. I’m passionate about ensuring that all added detailing is there to serve a purpose of being relevant, rather than just for the sake of it – this is the key to creating a beautiful, cohesive set.
STRAWBERRY FIELDS PATISSERIE
A classic sponge with a twist; consisting of light, fluffy sponge cake layered with fresh taro cream. Inspired by our Vietnamese background and childhood memories, it is a creation that we are proud to introduce to those beyond the Asian community. Growing up, taro was a prominent ingredient used in many of our savoury and sweet dishes. We wanted to share this experience with the wider community as it delivered so much more than just a vibrant colour. Although it may just seem like a simple sponge cake, the taro flavour is infused through a long process of cooking the fresh taro with coconut cream, before incorporating it with fresh cream to create a perfectly textured and flavoured element to sandwich between the layers of sponge.
EMILY DEMETRIOU – FLOUR AND STONE
This vanilla slice was born out of my love for Aussie classics and a family tie. My great-grandmother lived in Merbein, Victoria where the great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph is held every year. It took many trials to reach the perfect caramelised and impossibly flaky puff, taken right to the burnished edge. To compliment this deep flavour, I use dark brown sugar in the pastry cream, with plenty of vanilla of course, and fold it with whipped cream to lighten it. I chose raspberries for textural contrast, acidity and colour. Dusted with raspberry sugar to showcase the blushing colour within. This simple dessert allows you to truly taste the butter in the pastry, the caramel notes in the cream and the fresh raspberries provide the balance necessary to devour the whole thing yourself. This is a perfect example of what I love to eat and create for the community and the people I love, simple nostalgia but elevated. I think the problem with childhood food memories is they quite often don’t taste the same as an adult. My goal is to evoke that sense of joy again.
DULCET CAKES SWEETS
Nama-shokupan – an eggless, sweet version of the famously pillowy Japanese shokupan milk bread – first launched in Japan in 2013. At the time, people queued at bakeries for hours, trying to get their hands on the soft and creamy loaves, which were selling as fast as they were coming out of the oven. The craze for nama shokupan spread not only across Japan but to neighbouring Asian countries as well – and now you can try them in Sydney. We have tirelessly experimented with flours from all over the world, played around with the flour-to-milk ratio, and tried various kneading techniques and baking times. It took four months to develop our own version of nama-shokupan, using 100 per cent imported Japanese flour. Our version comes in the original plain flavour and chocolate; and you can also get matcha tea, pumpkin and black sesame. Its remarkable softness – even in the crust – will completely up-end your expectations of what a loaf of bread can be.
LA PETITE TARTE
I recently created for a gorgeous couple at the Queen Victoria Tea Rooms – This cake really showcases a blend of crisp clean linear finishes, and a rustic feel with the gold leaf patching while the sweeping path of roses adds a little touch of romance. This three tiered wedding cake was inspired by the beautiful couple that it was created for. I met with the couple in the months leading up to their wedding and quickly established that their special day was going to be a true romance story so we needed to create something unique that really emphasised their love for one another. We drew inspiration from their venue at tea rooms and created a colour palette which complimented this. The sweeping roses and gold leaf added a touch of elegance to the final piece.
LOOMA’S
Our head chef and founder Ibrahim Khatib created our famous Ferrero Rocher cake around 2012. Since then it’s been our bestseller by far, with over 500 sold per week. The ingredients we use include New Zealand butter and Belcolade chocolate imported from Belgium. The inspiration behind this creation was to have a simple, high end quality cake that could easily be distributed throughout Sydney. Apart from quality ingredients, the elements that make this cake so popular are the layered textures and the unmistakeable Ferrero Rocher flavour that bursts with every bite. We produce this cake in high volume, with over 1000 created per batch. Because of our volume, our production process requires a skilled team of four to five pastry chefs working together with the use of commercial baking machinery.
BELLE BAKES
When creating a wedding or celebration cake I find there are two main types of challenges – creating a unique and tailored design that suits the event/venue and the brief, and the time it will take to bring that specific design to life. The square stone cake is probably the cake I took the most risk with and am therefore most proud of – creating something very different to the other cakes in my portfolio.
In the lead up to its creation, the brief was: tiered, modern, minimal, muted colours. Usually I receive a detailed brief of what is wanted so having freedom to create something unique was both challenging and very rewarding. As that design was relatively minimal I knew that adding details to the texture of the icing, offsetting the tiers and colours that compliment the venue decorations but didn’t explicitly match would be the way to create interest.
FRANCOIS GALAND – FRANCOIS ARTISAN BAKER
Out of the six years I’ve been running my shop in Bondi, one of my most memorable creations was when I was challenged by the Sydney Art Gallery to create three large croquembouches to be displayed during their special event in celebration for Bastille Day in 2018. To say the least, this was a challenge within itself. And if three croquembouches wasn’t enough, making two more as custom orders, one plain and one with sugar the colours of the flag was definitely an added pressure. Croquembouches are not something that can be done overnight, taking around five hours to bake and assemble. There were a few sugar burns along the way, but nothing to stop me. In France, croquembouches are usually only used when celebrating weddings, but for this occasion, it was something different. Being able to create these not only for a place such as the art gallery, but also on the day of French celebration was something very special.
KIMMY GASTMEIER – CHERRY MOON
This loaf truly represents the essence of Cherry Moon. Connecting nature and an everyday staple back into our lives and onto our table. The elements of the wood fired, natural fermentation and the fig leaf leaves an earthy heartfelt, floral sweet scent in each loaf. Our sourdough ferments over two days which is more nourishing and easily digestible for our community’s tummy. Building a fire each day to create the heat for the next day’s bake in our purpose built wood fired oven Apollonia is such a romantic way of cooking We enjoy making it as much as we do eating it!
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