Christine’s cakes

By Emma Sun
IF you’ve had a beautifully decorated wedding cake or birthday cake, the chances are that Christine Marshall can make one just as lovely.
At the age of 65, Christine is the secretary for the Pakenham branch of the Victorian Cake Decorating Society and has been decorating cakes for eight years. She loves every minute of it.
“I’ve decorated so many cakes, I’ve lost count!” Christine said.
Indeed, Christine has done everything from standard flowers and butterflies to geisha faces to an elephant in a bath tub.
Wait, what?
“I was in a competition in 2007 called Stitches and Craft and one of the categories was to make a fun cake. We were given various items and we had to make a cake out of it,” Christine said.
“My items led me to making an elephant in a bathtub. It actually fared really well; I won a prize for it.”
That wasn’t the only prize Christine won. In that same competition, she won a trophy for Best in Show with her geisha cake. She said that was one of her proudest moments.
“The theme was black and red, something with an Asian influence.
“I made a cake decorated with the face of a geisha. It was hard because I had to work out how to hand-paint the face. It took me about six weeks all up to decorate.”
Even with her many years of experience, Christine is still always learning.
“Colouring the flower is not as easy as you think. The art of getting a flower botanically correct is quite hard and takes a bit of practice,” Christine said.
“There will always be new flowers to perfect. Flowers are my favourite decorations to do, and modern decorations like twigs.”
Christine encourages anyone who is interested to try decorating.
“I think it’s something a lot of young people are interested in and it’s just a matter of people having a go. Everyone’s got a creative streak about them, and knowing there are classes out there in somewhere like Pakenham helps.
“It’s close to train station, so it’s easy to access from other suburbs and towns. We need to get something happening locally and that’s what I’m hoping to do. If we can organise a workshop next year, we can introduce it to people who might not be close.
“You make new friends and quite often you see people become good friends from just sitting next to each other in a workshop.”
If you are interested and would like more information on cake decorating, visit the Victorian Cake Decorating Society website on www.vcdsstate.websyte.com.au or call Christine on 0413 581 918.