Gladstone’s Cake with Amber wins cake decorator of the year award

From a gravity-defying spaghetti cake with a flying fork to a human heart cake for Halloween, Amber has a huge online following. See five of her baking tips.

Amber Comadira-Smith from Cake with Amber.

From her kitchen in her Gladstone home, Amber Comadira-Smith connects with thousands of people online, sharing her expert tips and tricks in the art of cake decorating.

She has refined these skills over the past decade so much so that she was recently awarded the 2023 Australian Cake Decorator of the Year by Party Stylist of the Year Awards for the second year running.

“It’s absolutely incredible, I would not have anticipated to win awards two years in a row,” Amber said.

“It’s really validating in so many different ways, validating your skills, validating the commitment to your craft and the fact that people really support you.”

Growing up in Gladstone, Amber didn’t feel like she had many options in pursuing an industry in creative industries, but that has all changed now.

Amber with her dad Peter, who was a big influence on her cooking.

“When I was leaving school I was always more interested in creative endeavours and I didn’t really have any options, I ended up having to go distance education (from Gladstone to) Brisbane,” she said.

“Over the years Gladstone has embraced creative endeavours, now we have two art galleries, and other businesses.

“It’s so fantastic to have that in Gladstone when it wasn’t like that so long ago and I’m so glad to be part of that now too.”

Amber has quite a large following on social media and is heavily involved in online communities, creating a name for herself in the virtual world.

“It really does help, even though you are in a regional town, you do feel connected to people nationally and around the world,” she said.

“It really helps to shine the light on regional towns, even 15 years ago, the online communities weren’t as well developed and people in cities received much more recognition, the online space has given more opportunities for regional and rural Australians.

“If you had asked me 10 years ago when I started I would have said it was quite difficult to get your name out there but it really has progressed so far in the last decade.”

A vibrant leopard print style cake.

Amber’s journey in the cake industry began about 2013.

She was working as a graphic designer but was feeling creatively unfilled and limited by the clientele.

One day she watched an episode of Great Australian Bake Off and a passion was ignited in her creative soul.

“It was literally overnight - that was all I would talk about,” she said.

A few months later she did a cake decorating class and Commie’s Cupcakes was born.

Amber and the cake she made for her 30th.

“I’ve got to make so many cakes for events over the years, the fact that people would come to me and trust me to create cakes for their special moments,” Amber said.

A few years ago, she looked to pivot in her business and rebranded the business as Cake with Amber and invested in a speech coach to help her with nerves and anxiety about speaking in front of crowds, and she began to grow her skills in teaching.

“It ended up being a full circle because now I get to see that passion and creativity,” she said.

“It’s absolutely amazing to be able to be part of that moment and journey.”

A human heart cake made by Amber for a Halloween style class she had.

She has taught many classes, from 3D illusions of a gravity defying spaghetti and meatball cake with a flying fork, to human heart cakes for Halloween, to buttercream flowers and private one-on-one classes.

“I love sharing, I love seeing people win,” she said.

“I do have repeat customers, which is fantastic because I really get to hone in on their skill-sets, but every class I also have new people that haven’t decorated before and that’s fantastic.

“Throughout the class you see this emotional journey, they think they can’t do it and then they start to pick up the technique and then at the end of the class they are all smiles because they can’t believe they have made something so amazing and creative.

“They always deviate a little bit from what I am teaching, which I love to see, I love to see people experiment.”

She is now working on online classes and live demonstrations, to be launched next year.

The recorded classes can be bought on her website and aspiring cake decorators can watch the sessions from their own kitchens at home.

“I would love to reach a wider audience, to inspire more people,” Amber said.

“I love in-person classes, there is nothing like connecting with someone in person, this way I can reach people who won’t be able to come in person to see me.”

A piped buttercream flower cake. Photo by Wezzy Cruze.

When it came to offering advice to any aspiring cake artists, Amber encouraged everyone to just get in and experiment.

“It really is just practice makes perfect,” she said.

“People find it can be very confronting because they are afraid to stuff it up, just give it a go.

“Start small, you don’t have to try out such a big project.

“Buy a piping bag, just experiment and have fun.

“Cakes aren’t here to judge you, they are here to have fun and they are to be eaten.”

AMBER’S TOP BAKING TIPS

• When baking a cake, give it a little tap on the top, if it sinks a little bit, it’s not ready yet, if it bounces back, it’s ready.
• Bring your ingredients to room temperature, it will mix together better and you will get a better result.
• Don’t over mix your batter, it will get dense. Always mix just until all the ingredients are mixed through, it should give you a light and fluffy texture.
• Fondant hates humidity and any type of wetness. When working with fondant, turn on your air-conditioning.
• For decorating tall cakes, always use a denser cake batter like mud cake, a sponge cake doesn’t have the structural integrity.

Originally published as Gladstone’s Cake with Amber wins cake decorator of the year award