Birthday Cakes, Birthday Cakes, Birthday Cakes !!!!

I have fun making birthday cakes, for a singular reason!!  I love to see the faces of the children when they receive them and see their cake for the first time. It truly makes their day, and truly makes my heart leap with thanks for being in this industry.
Although we are paid to make them, it feels great to create something based upon a request and to meet the expectations of the client.

One thing though that has long rubbed me a little the wrong way is the expectations other people have of Western - non-European Pastrychefs.
You see, as a pastrychef from Australia and working internationally, (there are quite the number of us out there now in major positions around the world these days), everyone expects us, to not only know International modern patisserie on just about every level, as well as chocolate tempering, sugar work, pastillage, ice-creams, breads and plated desserts, but they also expect us to knock out a birthday cake within a few hours notice (or less!)

 So ! You might say..... You are a Pastrychef after all !! Right!!
Yeh, but does anyone ask Pierre Herme to knock out a celebration cake of novelty proportions for 100 kids on a Friday afternoon??
Does Christophe Michalak get asked to stay late and make a cake for 20 adults ??
 I think not.!!
Seriously it does not bother me, as much as this blog may seem to state, but it is the in-equality of the country of origin that still bugs me a little all these years later.

 If I were French, few would ask me to make a Novelty cake!! They would suffice with the words Happy Birthday draped over one of my more alluring Entrements.

Luckily, although not anywhere near perfect, I have been blessed with the opportunities to practice my Birthday cake skills over the past few years, making up to 50 cakes a year. Small numbers perhaps , had I had my own patisserie, but big numbers for our little operation.
Of course , If i had a Patisserie, I would never say no to any one of these cakes if I was asked to prepare them. For just like Wedding cakes, cakes of these styles can fetch top dollar.
Last minute orders with just hours notice, costing even more.
Thanks for stopping by and hope the cakes that I have produced this past year are of some interest to you all.

 I watch the challengers on Food Networks, Cake Challenge programmes and believe easily, that our team would stand an amazing chance at winning the big bucks.
Pity someone won't cough up the airfare for me and my guys to head to Vegas, and where does the invitation come from anyway??
Or are they just a little scared of the Antipodean pastrychefs and the skilled Pastry guys here in the Middle East, proving how masterly we have
become over the years !!!
Mmmmmmmmhhhhh !!!

 This car, is modelled out of chocolate fudge cake and sprayed with chocolate. Seats are white chocolate modelling chocolate.

 Anyone need advertising cakes !!!
Pastrychef avaiable to fly anywhere !!! ha ha ha, for the cost of a ticket of course. !!! and a few days off at the other end of the production schedule. !

 Birthdays, anniversaries, whatever the reason, its really nice to have some fun with whatever the occassion. I love this Wedding Anniversary cake. Simple, Sexy and of course chocolate mousse cake ! YUMMMMM

Thanks as always for stopping by and sorry for the delay in posting new pics of food lately.
Hope to have more to share with everyone soon.
Regards always

The Four Musketeers Disband

The Four Musketeers have finally disbanded after all these years. six to be exact. One of the most amazing teams in food, friendship and comaradery, it will be extremely difficult for any of us to ever relive or attain any where near the force that our combined cooking genius and skill attained.

They say that "self praise is no praise at all," but as usual this saying is quite the crock of the proverbal, working where we did, I can only state, that, " if you don't praise yourself, then ain't no one else going have the decency to do so, especially when you all agree at how fine the cuisine is."

All good things though, do come to an end, and as we all depart for different shores, it is done with a heavy heart. We will all flourish in our new positions, we shall all stay in touch and we will all move on in life, but inside us all, we will undoubtedly all continue to look back at our past 6 years together as one of the fonder memories of our culinary careers.

Another perspective of the Four Musketeers can be read here by our esteemed Executive Chef, Paul Britton's blog (http://paulbritton.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html)

Birthdays

It's funny that as a pastry chef I have actually received very few birthday cakes in my life after having left home in my teens.

Most people become afraid to give me one , girlfriends or acquaintances shy to bake me a cake or decorate one considering my occupation.

But few realise is the thought that counts. Just like a gift, I do not require the most extravagant or the most expensive, I just like to be remembered like everyone else.

If I had chosen finance as a career, would people be afraid to give me cash , if I had chosen cars or mechanics wouldn't they relish in the fact that giving me subscriptions to auto magazines, tools or car parts would make me joyously happy.

So why can't they just see that a pastry chef just wants to be shown love by receiving a birthday cake, each and every year. Perhaps twelve  months between dates is just not long enough to plan the surprise.

In total I can remember just two birthday cakes in the past 10-15 years. There was the lamington birthday cake given to me after a hard weekend in the Yarra valley by gracious hosts and vineyard owners, Brian and Denise Love and there was a chocolate mousse cake prepared by my Executive Chef of my current employ, he even wrote the Happy birthday himself.

Having made so many cakes myself over the years there is nothing I like myself more than a simple cake of roses. But I like making them out of pastillage so thats only for my satisfaction. I love to start with a lump of gum paste and end up with a rose as perfect as nature (or better). But truly I have come to enjoy making cakes with a theme for one reason. To have a birthday cake and to have a cake given to you which expresses your own likes or loves of that moment on your life ( we always change as we grown older) is an amazing feeling. I think it would be amazing to grow up and look back at your yearly birthday cake photos and remember the year you loved dinosaurs, the year you thought about cartoon characters, your first car, first love, a pet, a friend etc. A birthday cake should reflect the child inside. Even if you are 42.

As a pastry chef, some months there are few and others we seem to have all the birthdays in the world. This month I have three. Lucky !! From a simplistic old style old fashioned roses for a girls on a classic round cake to dinosaurs and interactive volcano to something from my childhood-Mr Men inspired.

I'm not a cake expert, I far prefer the rigors of making a gorgeous entrement or macarons, but these attempts at keeping both adults and children happy, have been catalogued so even I do not forget how to do them again in the future.

Happy Birthday to anyone enjoying one this month . Peace, Love and Happiness to everyone else.

Classic
old Style but fast and effective

Dinosaurs around an active volcano

Mr Men inspired cake