Catch Up With Lesley From Pops By Launch

You can absolutely have your cake and eat it too!

We’ve all heard the saying “you can’t have your cake and eat it too”, but we call bulls*it! Melbourne, as we’ve discovered, is full of talented professionals making their sweet-mark on the events industry – in cake form! Although we have an extensive list of incredible suppliers on Elite Partyz app, we have handpicked a few who popped their hand up to share their recipe for their success.

Baked by Bianca

Inspired by her husband while watching “Nailed It” on Netflix, Bianca accepted her husbands challenge to create a birthday cake for this cousin. We dare say, she nailed it! Bianca’s passion for cake decorating came alive! “Seeing my girl’s reaction to each cake, cupcake or cooking I make, brings me a lot of joy; then handing over to my customers and experiencing their reaction, is honestly the icing on the cake for me” Two years later, Bianca is a registered, and council approved home business, located in South Morang. Through COVID, Bianca got super creative and made a textured cake for a client’s milestone birthday. This absolute beauty took around five hours to create. It was made from chocolate mud and featured four layers of 7-inch cake and stood nine inches high! Filled with American vanilla buttercream and finished off with warm colour tones and hand-made buttercream florals and sprinkles. Fresh flowers: supporting my local florist Balashi in Doreen. Cake topper made in Macedon in Victoria by Creating Monkies. Fun Fact: Bianca’s other passion is dance! She was previously a competitive Latin American ballroom dancer – which is how she met her husband, Nathan.

Essentially Sweet

Koula from Essentially Sweet has always love baking cakes and making desserts, but having kids and creating their birthday cakes is what sparked the professional interest in cake making and cookie decorating. “I really enjoyed the creative process of it all. Their birthday’s and their interests at the time really inspired me to make cakes that were different. They were dimensional, they were bigger than what was needed, they were stressful, but I was proud of what I created”, says Koula. Officially in business for two years now, Koula is inspired by a challenge and is located in Warrandyte, Approximately 30km northeast of Melbourne CBD. Her favourite creation is an architectural-inspired 50th birthday cake – Koula combined the customers’ interests of architecture and art to create something that he would visually appreciate. Despite knowing how to put it together, achieving the structure was challenging. The cake resembles a building that features his favourite artwork on the side that mimics the beautiful art that you see on buildings in Melbourne CBD. And, of course, it had to also be finished off with his birth year as the street number plaque. Talk about putting the cherry on top, how could you not be inspired by this beauty. Fun fact: The architecture masterpiece cake was made for someone who doesn’t actually like cake (who doesn’t like cake!?), but of course, needed a phenomenal centrepiece for his celebration.

Cake for Me

Lisa from Cake for Me has been whisking up delicious and delectable cakes in the Greenvale area since 2013. But, where did it all start, you wonder? From a simplistic, petite cake made for her eldest daughters christening. The decorations were purchased, not made but the satisfaction from decorating it was enough to spark a magical interest with Liza. After being approached to make a cake for a colleague’s friend, and seeing their impressed responses, Lisa took the advice of family members and friends to venture into a professional cake-making business. Lisa’s favourite creation is a tri-flavoured, tri-tiered wedding cake; white chocolate with raspberry and coconut followed by decadent chocolate mud with chocolate ganache filling and topping it off with marble mud with a marble chocolate ganache filling. This amazing piece took 12-hours to create from scratch – worth every single second, don’t you think? Fun fact: Lisa’s cake was featured in a wedding magazine.

Taste That by Tania

A business we would happily “taste that” from anything on offer, is Taste That by Tania. This Mernda-based business has been around the professional kitchen for about two years, now. About four years ago, Tania’s son was turning six. Being a busy mum, she had always brought her kid’s birthday cakes, but this particular year was different. “I told my hubby, and he was surprised the words ‘I’m going to make his cake’ came out of my mouth. But he was very supportive.” A member of the Facebook Woolies Cake Hack group, Tania’s confidence was lifted and with a can-do attitude, she had pulled it off! Although says, she looks at it now and laughs – we’ve all gotta start somewhere Tania After her successful hack, Tania announced to her family that she was going to make all of their birthday cakes. With their lit-up with delight faces, Tania was ecstatic and hooked on the fun of cake-making. Tania has struggled with anxiety between balancing a career in Senior Management and having a family. It was when she started “caking” (as she puts it), that she was able to find a calm zone and find true work/life happiness. Fun fact: Taste That by Tania posts cookies straight to your door!

Sutsa Cake Ba

13 years ago – before having to scroll through a massive story on a blog to get to a recipe was a thing, Amanda from Sutsa Cake Bar cooked up the idea to start a cake business. Having been inspired by the [then] shorter blogs, Amanda set up shop on the well-known, High Street, Preston. With over a decade of professional experience, Amanda created an incredible masterpiece for Australia’s Sweetest Morning Tea. She felt challenged, yet motivated to come up with a design that was unique – to really think outside the square to fit the 2013 theme, ‘Multi-culture in Australia – a take on traditional oriental yum-cha’. The end result was her one-of-a-kind Chinese QiPao Dress cake. This three-tier showpiece took two dates to create and every detail was hand-made by Amanda, including the fondant cover and hand-piped royal icing. Fun fact: Amanda doesn’t actually eat cake and is a devoted ‘savoury gal’.

Sweet For You Cakes

Amanda from Sweet For You Cakes has been baking up a storm in Manor Lakes, Victoria, for just over a decade! Completely self-taught, Amanda decided to combine her passion for art and baking and began her journey as a professional cake-maker in 2014. The highlight of the decade was the creation of her cow-crazed mum’s 60th birthday cake, made in 2020. This cake featured a hand-painted cow and hand-made pastel flowers the framed what was like a window to the farm. Made from layers of cinnamon cake, home-made apple & cinnamon puree, chopped pecans and signature swiss vanilla meringue buttercream, this brilliant cow-cake took approximately five hours to create. “I just loved the character I was able to capture in the cow painting and the delicate flowers. They were most definitely a labour of love”, says Amanda. All we can say is, MOOOOOVE over Adriano Zumbo, Sweet For You Cakes is coming through! Fun fact: Amanda has a Bachelor of Science Well, if you’re not craving cake right now, have we done our job correctly? If you have a celebration coming up and would like to book any of these talented cake-makers, they are available via Elite Partyz app. Until next time, The EP Crew.