So I get asked this a lot. How did you get started to making cakes?Who taught you? Who brought them? Will you follow it as your main career?
Overtime I am scrolling on a new found blog on the internet. I always look for a section that explains where they began their journey. I think this is a vital entry to any blog. Because it gives the reader a deeper understanding of you and your passion.
So lets begin my one. Welcome.
This is me as a little girl, devouring as many grapefruit as I can. I have such fond memories of waking up early in the morning and being presented large posting dishes of already segmented grapefruit my Dad had prepared earlier in the morning. I loved grapefruit seasoning our trees were very mature so they never stopped producing.
Anyway asides from that, I am the youngest in the family of 4 older brothers.
I began cooking and baking from a young age. My parents are both great cooks and would teach us kids so we could grow up and cook good meals for ourselves. I always was baking cakes, muffins, muesli and scones with Mum. I would bake fresh bread with Dad, along with slow cooker meals and Saturday Roast dinners.
My love from baking came from my creativity. I was always a creative kid, I couldn't tell you my times tables or anything on the periodic table. But I loved to draw, design, create and visualise. This is the aspect I loved so much of baking was designing, presenting and building a final product. I also loved making food for my brothers, they would all walk into the kitchen and begin eating what I had just made. They would always complement me and really appreciate it. After they finished their first treat they already have 3 in their hand and am asking me when I'm making the next goodie. I loved this.
So when people ask me why is your blog called LINZblog. When I was growing up all my brothers left home after school and travelled, and I was left with no one to bake my creations for and share my passion with. So my nickname is LINZ, and it stands for "Left In New Zealand" while they were all travelling I was still in NZ creating magic. I wanted a platform where I could still share my creations with my brothers because they are a big part of why I started what I did.
So then LINZblog was created.
Growing up I always loved making videos and had a passion for baking, I use to combine the two and make tutorial videos. I would lay out all the ingredients and film myself baking and instructing the audience how to make the baked goods I was making.
I used to make muffins, slices, patisseries, cakes, scones, fresh bread. But I had to find a new group to trial and sample my creations. By this time I had been sent to boarding school. (I hated boarding school, it meant I could only bake on the weekends, and I missed the farm and all my pets)
But I had to go there. So a new group was formed to try my new baked goods. The boarding house.
There was 28-30 girls in my boarding year and on Sunday evenings before we had to go to our chapel service I would bring in the baked goods I was busily producing on the weekend. They were always so amazed and praised me every weekend. We would then go to our chapel service (which I didn't enjoy either) and then we would come back to the kitchen and I would begin portioning my baked goods and handing them out to every girl to sample.
Throughout the years the boarding girls saw my baking skills improve.
I started to find a true passion for cupcakes, I loved how pretty they could look and all the different icing and piping techniques you could make to give them a different effect.
I began practising with some chocolate fondant and sculpting basic flowers, I loved the creativity and detail I would have to spend on each one.
My passion for cupcakes flourished, but I found pouring batter into muffin cases and then icing the top became a bit boring and wasn't challenging me anymore. I wanted to make layered cakes, with 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 layers of cake stacked on top of each other.
Here is a picture of the cupcakes I made for my 13th Birthday to take to the boarding house. I think they look disgusting but back then I was super proud of them. This photo shows how far my skills have come in cupcakes and decorating.
Packing them up to take to the boarding house.
And then I grew a passion for icing and staking cakes. This is where I really began to develop my skills.
Making cakes for family occasions and gathering. This was a cake for xmas. Black forest cake, with chocolate ganache, chocolate scrolls and fresh cherries. Oh boy it was so good.
I made this carrot cake gluten free, because one of my brothers was diagnosed with coeliac disease. From that point on, I wanted him to be able the same sweets without feeling like he was missing out. So I began experimenting, trail and error through recipes to find good gluten free substitutes.
I think a lot of my passion for cakes was influenced by my mum. Every childs birthday, she would hand us the Womens Weekly Birthday Cakes book and we got to pick a cake she would make for our birthday. She was so talented. Here I have a swimming pool cake for my 9th birthday and I am just ecstatic. The water is green coloured jelly.
Mum was so clever at making cakes, I wouldn't be surprised if she has made every cake in that Womens Weekly book. She has made train cakes, butterflies, cricket pitches, swimming pools, koalas, castles are only a few she accomplished.
So then cake journey began, with inspiration from my mum and my youthful ambition at bettering myself after I make every cake.
I began by making all the birthday cakes in the family. But there wasn't enough birthdays for me to really grow my potential. So I then moved onto making cakes for the birthdays for the girls in my boarding house.
These photos are a representation of how far I have come. This was using my mums old cake tins (which were 30+ years old) The layers aren't even and its wonky.
Making cakes for my brothers birthday, this one was actually really tasty.
This is me experimenting with chocolate work. Butterfly, spirals, flowers. I definitely learnt in my time of cake making, Less is More.
Practising my sugar work, another element of technique I could use to make my cakes different.
Practising with homemade marshmallow fondant. I didn't like fondant, store brought tasted artificial and homemade was too sweet. Its ok for little decorations, but covering the whole cake I think is a bit too excessive on fondant. Even when you serve the cake, though it may look pretty you can see everyone picking off the fondant anyway.
I have no words. This looks like a pyramid. My decorating with etc cigars. I made this probably when I was 8.
Gradually with more practise and more investment in better tools, my cakes became better and better.
And so it began, cake after cake. I began making a cake per weekend when I would be home at the farm from boarding school. There were 30 girls in the boarding house, so every second weekend was a birthday weekend. So I would make a cake for their birthday and we would then share it between all the girls in the house.
This was a good way to do it because it meant I got to practise my cake making but I wasn't wasting ingredients. It was more like an investment. Every cake was time for me to practise my skills and enhance them.
So that is exactly what I did. In the beginning every cake was completely different, different decorations, different icing, different style. This is because I was trying to find my niche. Trying to find my style.
I was also practising my skills in different aspects, fondant, modelling chocolate, tempering chocolate, piping, royal icing. This would give me skills that I would be able to work with to develop a style of decorating that was my favourite.
I practised a lot.
For extra practise I would take cakes to all of my classes and sports teams.
6 Tier Red Velvet Cake went down well with the hockey girls after a solid win.
Track team indulging in a chocolate raspberry cake, I made this for my last day at training.
Louise Cake for my Fashion Design Class for my last day at school.
Chocolate Macadamia Cake for the Yr 13 boarders on my last week in the hostel.
Chocolate boysenberry cake for the Hamilton Boy High School Guys for sharing my post and getting my page to 500 likes.
Honey comb cake for my Graphics Design Class.
After making cakes for the girls in the boarding house for their birthday, once they started to improve, word of mouth that I was making cakes went around the school. I soon had people messaging me asking for cake orders for their friends birthday that was coming up.
I began to charge cakes relatively cheap because I had only just started out and didn't have all the professional equipment, cake boards and boxes ect.
Over time my cakes became very popular in my high school, they started to expand to the other high schools in my area. I soon had people messaging me who I didn't know requesting cakes.
I realised that this could be made into a business and I need to make it more professional. I brought cake boards and had a webpage designed.
I hand made my logo, if you look closely you can tell. The I for LINZ is in the shape of an Eiffel tower because I wanted to go to a pastry school in France one day. Because I believe if you learn from the best you will be the best. I then put my favourite cake behind the logo and pushed the opacity down.
I had business cards made as well, this was a huge marketing milestone. Every time someone ordered a cake, I would write a small note, explaining exactly what flavour the cake was, what allergies and what it contains. I would slip 5 business cards in the envelope as well so when they were eating the cake and someone asked who made this, they had some physical card to give them. I found this a highly effective way to promote my business.
During school we used to have this competition called Culinary Fair. It was originally for only Food Technology Students, but I talked to the teacher to see if I could enter. She allowed me after she saw what I was willing to present.
This is myself getting awarded top in class for cold dessert. I think this has to be one of my proudest moments.
For not having any training and being all self taught, it was a huge boost of self confidence as you can see in this smile.
This was my dessert that was 2 points off 100/100. This was the dessert that wan the category of Cold Dessert. I did spend all night trying to make those chocolate rings as even as I could.
I also entered in the hot kitchen competition, this is when you cook in front of the judges in 1 hour and they examine you. This was my favourite dinner my Mum used to make. I wan silver in this and was 2 points off gold because I didn't season my rice. Lesson learnt and I have never not seasoned my rice from that moment forward.
This was my beautiful kitchen where I prepared all my cakes. It had a beautiful outlook onto the farm. I loved the bright yellow cupboards too I think it just brought so much POP to the kitchen.
The one thing that was sensational about my kitchen was the oven. My parents brought it because having a big family, we need to be able to cook a lot of things. It had 6 gas stovetops and a huge oven. I loved it to pieces.
This was my first day of high school, saying goodbye to all my farm animals and packing my bags and heading to boarding school.
I never liked school, not once I was never academic and thrived in the design and photography classes. I hated having so many rules and restrictions going to an all girls private anglican boarding school.
The only thing that got me through school was sport. I would train twice a day, six times a week and it helped me get off the school campus.
I played hockey, tennis and track. Towards the end of high school I became a lot more dedicated to track and played a lower grade of hockey.
I loved track so much, as a kid I always wanted to join a track club but my parents could never make it happen, having to run all the children to all their different commitments.
I used to run to the track from my hostel, train on the track and then go to my coaches gym. He then used to drop me back to the hostel. I am so thankful for this, because it gave me the opportunity to train a lot and better myself. But as well get off the campus for the afternoon and evening.
This is me with 2 of my teammates after we came 2nd in the New Zealand Nationals Relay.
Track will always have a special part in my heart, and I hope that I continue to keep my sprinting up in some way.
But I dropped out of school early and for me it was the best decision I have ever made in my life. I am an independent person and school was restricting me from growing and developing into a person. Goodbye to school and goodbye to the boarding house.
Onto the next adventure. I began working full time at Mavis and Co a nice cafe in my area. I worked their as a breakfast chef, pastry chef, waitress and barista. I loved that cafe like it was my own. Everything they did I believed in, making everything from scratch because you can really taste a difference. Plenty of selection, gluten free, vegan and regular options. Good tasting coffee, and a nice ambiance to the cafe.
I was the pastry chef at Mavis, so I was making all these sweet treats that would be displayed in the cabinet. There was over 40 different slices/cakes/doughnuts/cupcakes/muffins to choose from. I loved this part of my job because I could be really creative and I felt in my element.
I worked here full time, well over full time 70hour weeks. I loved it and was so happy I found something I could go to everyday and put energy and my passion into. After 4 years of absolute misery because I wasn't academic. I was finally happy to find something I could really flourish in.
On my 18th Birthday I left home due to certain circumstances. I got on a plane to Sydney. Unfortunately I had to end LINZblog and the cakes that came along with it. I was starting a new life in Sydney and wouldn't have time, money or the equipment to continue my business. It was sad because I had built such a great representation for my brand and my cakes were the talk of the town.
I have high hopes if I can make a successful business at 16 with my cakes I can come back to it at any time.
And then it was onto a new adventure. A new opportunity to learn about myself. To read about my Sydney entry, click here,
I hope you enjoyed reading the beginning of Linzblog and how it grew and transformed into a business.
Till next time x
