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.

The Easy way to Decorate your Child's Birthday Cake

I am not a cake decorator at all. I am left handed and it is horrible when I try and decorate a cake. My creations would be on one of those botched cake sites every time. My six year old could do better than I could.  I made his first birthday cake and it turned out cute, minus the writing.  It was a fish cake. Makes sense that he loves them so much. His room was underwater themed.  I am sure I just need practice  and eventually I will get the hang of it, someday, when I am ninety.

I prefer homemade cake to the store bought any day because I make it with love. I have made Noah's birthday cake every year except when he was two and five. I felt obligated to have someone do it at Kroger because she was friends with a friend of mine.  It was cute but it wasn't the same. It wasn't as good and it was really expensive. I decided from then on I would do it.  Except when he was five and we were out of the country.

Since I am not a great decorator I came up with an idea. I can frost a cake no big deal just don't leave any naked spots, and don't make it crumbly. Easy enough.  I think I am brilliant. Every year Noah picks a theme and I buy plastic toys and put them all over the cake. We eat the cake and he gets the toys. It's a win win. When he turned three he had a duck cake. It was really cute. When he turned four he had a flyers cake with planes and helicopters. When he turned five we were on our Disney cruise so he didn't have a special homemade cake. We shared the cake they gave him on his birthday.  When he turned six he had a sea creature cake.  They usually have been blue. I want to have a different color this year. Really for him some beautifully decorated cake doesn't mean anything, once it is gone its gone. I like the way I do it because he can always remember that those toys were on his birthday cake.

What do you do for your children's birthday cakes?

Norman R. Davis is AWESOME

I love watching Food Network Challenges on the Food Network. I even have a favorite competitor. I think he is adorable and extremely talented. I love to cook but I am not a cake decorator by any means. I blame it on being left handed. My favorite cake guy is Norman R. Davis he owns The Sweet Life. He is awesome. I hope he always wins. I just saw a commercial for another cake show on TLC and I saw Norman and heard his voice. I am so excited; I am going to start watching it. I didn’t catch the name of the show though. I am sure I can figure it out because the internet is wonderful.

My favorite judge is Kerry Vincent, she is a British woman who says what she thinks and isn’t afraid to tell you like it is. I guess she is comparable to Judge Judy. Yes Kerry Vincent is the Judge Judy of the food judges. I know on the episode where they were making Kerry’s birthday cake Norman decided to let his partner take the lead and he did wonderful. I think he won.

My old best friend and I used to go to the grocery store on the weekends when we were in high school and buy a cake from the bakery. We would have them write something on it most of the time. Usually nothing that made sense to anyone but us. We were dorks and we actually had made up our own language. It was a normal Friday or Saturday and we decided we wanted cake, fudgecicles and candy so we went to the store and walked over to the bakery. There was a guy working in the bakery. I still think that he was filling in for someone at the bakery because when we asked for our normal personalized cake, he told us to come do it ourselves. That was an ugly ugly cake when we got done with it. It was a lot of fun though. We never saw that guy again so maybe he wasn’t an employee after all and just a customer pretending to work there. It was late for all we know the bakery could have been closed.

I think the cake challenges are so cool. I just don’t think I could ever have the steady hand to do it myself. I love to cook and bake and I make delicious food but decorating it, it looks like a four year old created it. Of course no one says, Hey Sheila that cake is hideous, I hope it tastes a lot better than it looks.

I would love to meet Norman R Davis, he seems like an awesome guy and I would love for him to make me a cake.

Do you enjoy watching cake competitions? Do you have a favorite decorator? Who is it?