Helping Aspiring Bakers Everywhere With Online Cakes

Watch all the cooking competitions, but if your own secret (or not-so-secret) are aspirations to being a great cook or baker, tuning into the following can only help. 

Image by jwalsh via Flickr

Some of us watched “The Great Australian Bake Off” in rapt attention because we are sweet demons. Some of us may have been accused of salivating in front of the screen in the way a teenage boy looks at Margot Robbie or a teenage girl looks at Liam Hemsworth. Nonetheless, all we can imagine is sampling the delights. Then again, there are those who tune into TGABO and other cooking competitions because they adore the drama, the emotional outbursts, the…epic fails.

But there’s a strong minority of viewers whose emotions and intentions are geared more towards their own spirit of the game. Meaning, sure, you’re happy Nancy Ho and her 22-year-old self and her signature white chocolate mud cake with sour cream and white chocolate ganache won the whole kit and caboodle. But there’s a side of you, one that you might not want to voice, for fear of reprisal: you know you could do well on the show. You’re not entirely sure you’d win (that’s a whole combination of elements, all falling into rightful places), but you would be a fierce competitor. If you could just get a little help to prep you… luckily, there are well-established and highly regarded services like Planet Cake offering online cakes Sydney and world-wide (all you need is the Internet) with courses that will push you towards your goal of master baker.

Get motivated by keeping up with the best and brightest Australian television has to offer chefs, cooks and bakers – and anyone who just likes a good TV show. Here are some shows you must tune into:

MasterChef Australia

We couldn’t write about TV cooking shows/cooking competitions without mentioning the juggernaut that is MasterChef. Since it first aired in 2009, the Logie Award-winning series captivated Aussies everywhere. And, in the interest of transparency, it elevated the original inspiration, Britain’s MasterChef.  When a “mere” I.T. office manager (38-year-old Julie Goodwin) won the first seasons, audiences were addicted. The drama only increased when second-season winner Adam Liaw took the prize over next-best competitor Callum by the tiny margin of seven points! Four more seasons only garnered more viewers. The second series final became the third-highest rated show of all time. The show was so profoundly successful that it sparked spin-off fever (“Celebrity MasterChef Australia,” “Junior MasterChef Australia,” “MasterChef Australia All-Stars,” and “MasterChef Australia: The Professionals.”)

Planet Cake TV

No matter how many steps your favourite on-air baker or chef goes through on one of their television shows, you’ re going to need better and more thorough directions. That’s where Planet Cake TV comes in. The online cake decorating school allows anyone who has Internet the opportunity to bake and decorate like a professional. Planet Cake has the distinction of its uniquely decorated cakes, so this is definitely a situation where they know what their doing. Subscriptions are available monthly and annually and members have access to all Planet Cake TV courses and the new tutorials, which debut monthly.

My Kitchen Rules

What can we say? We love a good cooking competition show and “My Kitchen Rules” certainly qualifies. We love the “grace-under-pressure” moments, especially “Rapid Cook-Off,” “Showdown” and “Sudden Death,” because if you’re rooting for a chef, and as the time seems to speed up, it’s effectively emotional and stressful. At my house, we refer to the series as “Amazing Race in the Kitchen.”  The “Video Diary” is dubbed “Top Model in the Kitchen.” The results (food cooked) on “My Kitchen Rules” are consistently out-of-the-box and are interesting and lively. Yes, the show has borrowed from others, but they borrowed the best and the show is very strong.

Given the success of the aforementioned series, it’s likely you’re already watching these shows. If not, it’s definitely the right time to try it out. You’ll feel honoured and supported.

Noah doesn't Like Disney World

My family has traveled to Orlando a lot throughout the years. Florida was always our go to travel destination.  We are a family of beach people. What I am about to tell you is shocking. Maybe even more shocking than Noah not liking chocolate milk but Noah isn't really in to Disney. We have been to Disney World a couple times and it was just cool to him. He doesn't get really excited about the rides or the characters. I am not sure if that's a boy thing or just a goofy Noah thing. So with Noah not really liking theme parks, I have to come up with other things to do on vacations. We use the Visitor's Bureau a lot to come up with different ideas. He loves animals and fish so we always go to any aquariums we can find. We also use their visitor's bureau to find new non chain restaurants for some variety. Sometimes when we are bored I will scope out our local visitor's bureau to find new things to do for a day trip or to see what is going on around town. If there's any cool festivals or events. It's really something many people don't use and should. It's free too. It saves time googling. We have found out about some really cool local events in the past few years that we would have missed otherwise. Not everything is advertised in the paper or with flyers but the visitors bureau seems to always be in the know.

For more reasons to check out the visitor's bureau check out my post.

Traveling with a Smartphone

I use my smart phone a lot. I always have it on me. I do take time where I am not constantly checking it or texting people. It’s a great device to have. I am not sure how we got a long without it in the past. I know we did, but it makes life so much easier. I love to use my phone when I am traveling. There are so many great apps that make things so much easier. You can book a hotel from your phone, you can find places to stop, and you can use it as a map when you are lost or to find out where you are going. I love map apps because I am horrible with directions. I tend to get people lost on occasion. It’s so easy to whip out your phone and just not have to worry about where you are going. There’s tons of different apps that do different things that will help your travel be so much easier. Now you don’t even have to print your boarding pass when you fly. You just hand them your phone and they can scan it. You don’t have to worry about dropping your boarding pass on the ground or digging for it as I have done many times before. You don’t have to worry about giving them the wrong part of your boarding pass for your connecting flight. It also saves paper. That is true for most travel apps. You don’t have to write things down or print them off. You don’t have to worry about leaving it on the counter and remembering that you forgot it, when you are 300 miles from home. Your kids can’t kick it out of the car, draw on your information or throw their gum in it. It’s kind of hard to know which apps are great and which aren’t. It’s important to read the reviews and see if there is any issues or bugs with the app itself.

I created a list of some really great travel apps for you to check out.