The sweetest thing

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A love of art and design coupled with a serious passion for all things sweet led Faye Cahill into the wonderful world of cake decorating. By Laura Venuto.

It is almost surprising that the bright green house on this typical suburban street isn’t surrounded by small children trying to climb through the windows. The temptation isn’t instantly visible from the outside, but a quick sniff from as far away as the front gate is all it takes to reveal its appeal. The air surrounding the house is positively laced with saccharine. Wafts of vanilla bean, chocolate and maybe just a hint of espresso combine to form an edible bouquet of sorts – a deliciously hypnotic welcome for the sweet-toothed visitor. It is what you might imagine the gingerbread house to smell like.

The sugary shack belongs to Faye Cahill, a cake designer with 14 years’ experience in Sydney’s leading cake boutiques. After recently deciding to make a go of it on her own, she now works from her home-based studio in Sydney’s inner west. It takes a while for Faye to answer the door – her music is playing too loud to hear the knocking. But before long the door swings open releasing a sensory assault of intensely sweet aromas coupled, rather quirkily, with very loud indie rock music. It is a surprising choice coming from the softly spoken designer, but is one of the joys of going out on her own, she says: to be able to work from home, do what she loves, and listen to whatever music she pleases as she creates her wonderful cakes. “When I’m making my cakes, I find it quite relaxing. It’s so nice to be able to retreat into your own headspace and listen to music – which is another great passion of mine – while you work.”

Faye’s work area might look like your typical kitchen, but the cakes she spends her days creating and decorating are anything but typical. Some of them are so involved and so intricate they can take up to two days to create. It is not an exaggeration to say her cakes are like works of art – so beautiful you almost can’t bear to think of eating them. They range from classic wedding cakes; to expertly themed creations such as a kitchen-tea cake that was an exact replica of the invitation, to fun and whimsical children’s cakes – such as the three-dimensional elephant lying on its back, kicking its legs in the air; it is so amazingly perfect in its every detail it could almost pass for a child’s toy. “The elephant was probably one of the most unusual cakes I have been asked to create,” says Faye, “and I never actually did ask the customer why they wanted an upside-down elephant. That was one of the first cakes I made when I started working for myself and it was one of the most complicated things I could have been asked for.”

Yet she made someone’s seemingly impossible vision possible through her own imagination and years dedicated to honing her skills. Despite the intricacy of some of the designs, Faye says she doesn’t find her work stressful in the slightest. “It shouldn’t be stressful. I mean sometimes things can go wrong and that can be a bit stressful, but most of the time it’s not. I’ve been doing it for so long and I know what I’m doing. The only secret is you’ve got to allow more time than you think things are going to take.”

Prior to going out on her own, Faye spent three years working at Sweet Art in Paddington and then went on to open her own business with some friends, the now-famous Planet Cake in Balmain, which they ran together for seven years. During this time Faye had the opportunity to work with some high-profile Australian and international clients. But perhaps her most interesting cake decorating assignment came when they were asked to fly to Brunei to make a series of cakes for the Sultan of Brunei’s brother and his family. “It was an amazing experience and it was really interesting because we learned a lot about the structure of their family from what they wanted from the cakes. For example, the Sultan’s brother had multiple wives and they each had a different standing in the family, so the cake for the first wife had to be the biggest and then the first son, and then the second wife and then the second son, and so on. The interesting thing was, they wanted their cakes to be themed around gambling and horse racing. It’s obviously against their religion to actually gamble, but they’re really intrigued by it, nonetheless.”

Despite Faye’s natural talent for design, it was really by chance that she fell into cake decorating. Faye grew up in the country in a very big family and says when it came to birthdays, the cakes were just your typical sponge with jam and cream. So it wasn’t until she started working in cake shops to help pay her way through a degree in fine arts that she realised she might be able to apply her eye for design, colour and style to the world of cakes. “I was always really interested in art at school. That was my favourite subject,” she says. “So I went to art school after high school and did a whole lot of things really – I did some drawing, some sculpture and some film. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but was interested in a whole lot of creative things. I started working in cake shops just to support myself while I was studying and was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it, so I started doing a pastry apprenticeship. There wasn’t much decorating involved at that stage – just very basic cupcakes, putting little smiley faces on them and very simple things like that.”

Still, Faye saw the potential to combine two of the things she loved the most: artistic design and sweets. “I’m a really hands-on person, so doing something practical appealed to me – and I just love sweets as well. I’m really into desserts. If my partner and I go out to dinner, we’ve always got to have a dessert. In fact, we always order two and we’ll swap them halfway so we can try both of them. I always remember restaurants that have really good desserts – that’s what makes me remember and really enjoy the experience.”

But Faye’s inspiration for her cakes only starts with the taste. It’s the design she’s most passionate about, admitting she almost constantly has “cake on the brain”, and finds ideas for new cake designs in some pretty unlikely places. “I find inspiration almost anywhere. I might see something interesting from a design perspective in anything from a fashion range to a homewares product. Then it’s just a matter of thinking: ‘that’d look good on a cake’. I might be watching a movie and see something as simple as a shape and an idea comes to me,” she says.

A recent trip to Paris only fuelled Faye’s passion further. “I was obsessed with the cake shops in Paris. They don’t really do the same sort of cake decorating we do here in Australia – everything looks more ‘foodie’ – such as croques en bouches and things like that. But I just loved how beautifully everything was presented and the care and attention that went into all the little things. It was really incredible.”

While Faye makes cakes for just about any occasion, from children’s birthdays and christenings to corporate celebrations, her main love is wedding cakes. “You’re able to use your design a lot more; you’re always working with elements that people bring in and are trying to combine – maybe the look of their invitation together with their flowers – and making it all work.” The excitement surrounding weddings is also something Faye loves. “When I send the initial design, brides are often really excited and say they can’t wait to see the cake, which is really nice.”

Recently, Faye decided she would like to share her knowledge with the local community by holding workshops at the Summer Hill Community Centre. One workshop teaches how to make sugar flowers, while another focuses on how to make her gorgeous cupcakes (from grown-up cupcakes with pretty bows and flowers, to fun kiddie cupcakes including a 3D tiger’s face and the loveable Elmo from ‘Sesame Street’). “The cupcake classes in particular have been hugely popular. It’s a really fun class and a lot of people have been coming along and doing it with their friends, which has been really nice. I have loved seeing what people can do. A lot of them have never done any decorating before and it’s always great to see they can produce something really lovely and how proud they are of what they have made.”

While the imaginative process of coming up with a cake design is one of the most fulfilling aspects of her job, Faye says seeing the finished product is by far her favourite part of the process. “People often come to see me months before their wedding, so you’re often waiting for quite a while to see how the cake will turn out. When you eventually get around to finishing that cake, it’s pretty satisfying. To have it turn out the way you want and to be really happy with it is a pretty good feeling. Plus, seeing or hearing people’s reactions is a great perk. I received an email a couple of weeks ago and the bride said it was the most beautiful cake she’d ever seen. And that’s just an amazing feeling.”

Photography: Scott Hawkins. Hair & make-up: Tira Jaye.