So we had a very exciting week last week here at Stacked Cakes. We received a phone call the previous week from Channel 7's Prime Possums Saturday Club. They were interested in filming a segment and demonstration on kids cakes! Well of course we wanted to be involved with such a great kids show. So we arranged the details and set the date and time.

The crew arrived at lunch time on Wednesday. I am not going to lie, I spent the morning being quite nervous. When the doorbell rang my heart started pounding but as they all piled out of the car all my fears started to dissapate. They were all so easy going, laughing and having fun. The vibe was very relaxed and I knew it was going to be a good day.

Channel 7 arrives in Bungendore

So the crew consisted of five people, the producer, the sound guy, the lighting guy, the camera man and the host of the show, Madelaine Collignon.

They set me up with a microphone and lit the room brightly with their stage lights. I had set up a display of cakes behind my workbench and had specially made a coule of kids cakes to go with my wedding cakes.

We started off with a quick run through the questions they were going to ask and then we jumped straight into it. It was fascinating to see how it all works behind the scenes. We did each question and answer twice so they could film it from a different angle each time. Then we moved into the demo. I had decided to do my dinosaur cake as it is bright and fun and a good place for a beginner decorator to start.

All up we spent around an hour and a half filming, I must say it felt like half an hour it just flew by. I can't believe how much fun I had. The crew made it all so much fun that I completly forgot about nerves and just enjoyed the moment. It really was a great experience and am honored they chose me to participate in the show.

At the end of the filming I sent them away with the cake for them to share at the office, I hope they enjoyed it!

Next is to see it on TV! I am really excited to see how they edit down all the footage. Now it is on early on a Saturday morning but I think it will be worth getting out of bed for, I will post on my Facebook page when I have the exact date it will air.

Madelaine Collignon of Channel 7 and Tenele Pekin from Stacked Cakes

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We finally got a request for an R2D2 cake.  We have enjoyed making our previous sci-fi themed cakes and were looking forward to making a Star Wars favorite.

We decided we wanted him to be able to stand up properly without a support under him. This necessitated making his legs and feet out of non-edible, structural materials (wood and polystyrene). His body and head is made entirely out of choc mud cake and icing.

R2D2 was the perfect opportunity to add a sound module to one of our cakes. These modules allow the cake to make any noise you can imagine with the push of a button. Music, sound effects, engine noises, talking, anything at all is possible. Please let us know if you want to add the special touch of sound to your next stacked cake.

You can watch a video demonstrating R2's sound module below, and keep reading for step by step photos of the construction of this mega cool cake. Templates are available for download at the end of the article if you want to have a go at building your own R2D2

Planning Stage

Templates

Leg and base boards

Support assembly

Sound module

Bottom taper attached

Bottom of cake covered

Feet

Polystyrene finished

Fondant icing added to the legs

Body stacked and ganached

Fondant added to R2's body

R2's stand, body and head nearly ready for assembly

Head added

Details added

Battery pack cables

Templates

You can download our templates below. The images should be printed at full size, not scaled to fit. This may require tiling the output across multiple pages and sticking them back together.

• Cake board
• Dome
• Legs
• Body

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Wow time does get away. It has been way too long since I last posted. So I though I might post my favourite cakes of 2011. There has been some fun stuff to choose from but here is my final list....and the awards go to...

Favourite Wedding Cake of 2011

Favourite Kids Cake of 2011

Favourite Delivery of 2011. (To Parliament House)

Favourite Gory Cake of 2011

Favourite Car Cake of 2011

Favourite Novelty Cake of 2011

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I thought you might like to see some fun kids cakes I did recently.

This one is based around the character Humphrey from Humphrey's Corner.

I don't really need to introduce this next character.

Figure modelling really is one of the hardest things about my job. Especially when the character is well known. You have to get the likeness right or everyone will know. I was a little stressed about creating these two characters but once I got started with it it all came together really well.

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I created this Carousel Cake last week for a very special 1st birthday.

What I loved about it so much was that not only was it gorgeous and all the hard worked paid off with a beautifully finished cake but it was entirely my own design.

Often customers contact me with pictures of cakes they would like re-created and that is great but it just isn't the same as seeing a cake through from concept to delivery. Seeing a design you have created come to life is thrilling and the customers end up with their own designer cake.

So next time you are thinking of a cake consider getting it designed especially for you.

I can take your ideas, colour schemes and inspirations and put it all together into a design with you in mind.

Martin made this great little stop motion animation of the cake too. Really makes it come to life.

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I have decided to have a change of pace on my blog.

So far I have shared with you my cakes and some insider tips on cake decoration and construction. I have enjoyed doing so and I hope anyone reading has enjoyed my cakes. I now have taken on a career path that allows me to spend a lot more time on my cake passion and to grow my business.

I had a think about what I love reading in a blog and it is more than just the final products that are produced by all the talented people who write them. It is the insight into their lives, what drives their passions and motivates them to strive to create the things they do. I think it is also what I love about reality TV, a view into a life that is not your own.

So here I go...

I was born on a warm September day...lol just kidding.

What I really wanted to write about what has led me to my career with cake and the big changes I am making in my life to follow that dream.

I recently found myself in as prolonged mid twenties crisis that extended to my late twenties. I phenomenon not to uncommon I hear.

I had a successful career in travel, I had in the past decade travelled the world at close to no expense and seen the most amazing things. Experiences that most people could only dream of. I had made it to management and thought that should be the dream, I had reached the top of my field. And I had (and still have) the most amazing partner. In general I was happy but things just didn't feel quite right anymore. I was dissatisfied. Work didn't hold any excitement for me anymore. Some days I felt like I was suffocating, trapped in a career I no longer enjoyed (overly dramatic I know) and I felt guilty for being dissatisfield. I had the thoughts "most people would kill to be in my position in life". But no matter how I tried to talk myself out of it I just felt lost. I went through the self help book stage to no avail. I nearly veered off into some really random career choices to try to escape the mundane. Thank god I thought the better of some of those.

And then one day I was watching the chick flick "27 Dresses" and they showed this huge wedding cake, totally over the top and I just thought "I want to do that". So I did.

I enrolled in thousands of dollars of "Planet Cake" classes. Planet Cake is an amazing cake shop and school in Balmain, Sydney. At the time I thought I might be slightly insane. Massive amounts of money were forked out and I took leave from work to do blocks of classes. It was some of the most fun I have ever had. New challenges everyday, great teachers and sharing days with people with the same passion. It was intense but man I learnt quickly.

I started up my cake business from home part time to get the ball rolling. I worked up to 45 hours a week in travel and took cake orders and made cakes after work and on weekends. People were loving my cakes and sometimes I couldn't resist and overbooked myself. On occasion I would spend an additional 30 hours a week on cakes. It was exhausting.

I stuck it out in travel for sometime longer with the thought that one day I will pursue my dream. One day when I have enough money, one day when it doesn't freak out my partner to leave my job and go it one my own, hell one day when it doesn't freak me out. One day didn't seem to be coming any closer.

The thought that all the things in my head that I felt need to come together was never going to happen was getting to me.

Work was becoming more and more a chore to be endured. Something had to give.

I made a snap decision and thought stuff it, I'm quitting. and nothing has ever felt so good.

I now sit here with the smell of baking chocolate cake enveloping me. I spend my days covered in chocolate ganache and my weekends delivering cakes to happy people who love my work. Now that is what life is about.

I am luckily not on my own in all of this. My partner Martin is the master of everything. He created an maintains my website, does the photography of my cakes, drives around on deliveries with me, fixes my new delivery van, is doing the sign writing on the van, is building me a database for the business, makes amazing cakes (e.g. the porsche cake), is making me a portfolio and is setting up my accounting system to name a few things. Jealous ladies...you should be

It is very exciting to finally be doing what I want to do and I can't wait to share that with everyone through my blog.

So please check back with me regularly as there are many more amazing cakes and stories to come.

Tenele

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