• Competition and Appliances Online's birthday celebration at Let Them Eat Cake

Have you ever seen a cake made with a blender?  What about a blender made with cake?  Appliances Online is Australia’s largest online appliance retailer and for their 8th birthday, we were invited to a cake decorating class run by South Melbourne’s Christopher Montebello.   The theme was simple; learn how to decorate with each artwork to look like an appliance.  My previous cake decorating experience involved using chocolate to make flowers in an extremely amateur school competition.  Today was to raise the bar.

Christopher began his cake shop, Let Them Eat Cake in 1994.  His grandmother gave him the words of inspiration he needed.

“Plant a tree and watch it grow,” she told him.

“Look at that tree,” said Christopher pointing to the thriving tree out the front window, “that was planted 12 years ago, and I have watched it grow.”

His passion for his art is apparent in his creativity, words and success.  Here you can order a cake to look like anything you choose – your favourite footy player, the little mermaid on a seabed and the all popular Channel handbag, he even created Oprah on Ayers Rock for her Australian tour.  With this in mind, shaping cakes as the Tefal Fresh Express, Breville Juicer, Morphy Richards Toaster and Sunbeam Blender required thought but were not the least bit daunting.

Is it a blender or a cake?
The Tefal Food Processor

Toast anyone?


Some of the other cakes on order.
The firm chocolate mud cake is a perfect base, and with tastings at half time, I decided it was much more delicious than your typical wedding fruit cake covered in marzipan.  Tip one: use cake that can support the icing.

For us to taste.  Delicious!
Instead of marzipan, Christopher works with fondant.  We were shown how to knead it and roll it out, dusting the table with icing sugar so that the fondant would not stick.  Fondant is made from sugar boiled in water, with more and more sugar added until it reaches the best consistency.  Tip two: as you put the rolled fondant over the shape, work slowly and be sure to pull it out so that it does not bubble or fold.


It is important to wrap the left over fondant so that it does not dry out.  Tip three: cling wrap still allows it to breathe, so if you are leaving it for a longer period, use snap lock bags.

We split into two groups, one made fondant fruit, ours made signs with piping bags of blue royal icing.  My first attempt was shaky like a kids’ staggered writing – it seemed my cake decorating skills had not improved since last time.  Tip four: you need to work slowly, it is not like normal writing, plan and be deliberate in each stroke.


Competition
Appliances Online are running a competition to celebrate.  Simply make an appliance themed cake, take a photo and upload it to their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram tagging @appliancesonlineAU and #AOLBirthday.  The competition is open till 8th December with the chance to win one of eight Sunbeam Food Processors valued at RRP $399.  See AppliancesOnlineBlog.com.au for inspiration, terms and conditions.

Good luck! I look forward to seeing your entries.

Let Them Eat Cake
147 Cecil Street
South Melbourne 3205
03 9686 0077
www.letthemeatcake.com.au

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