On the Rise

A SLICE OF cake may be one of life’s simplest pleasures, yet it’s also one of its most powerful symbols.

It can take you back to a precious childhood moment in a grandmother’s kitchen; sometimes it marks a milestone. Almost always, the sharing of a cake symbolises a celebration – a wedding, a graduation, or a friendship over a simple afternoon tea. Nothing says ‘happy birthday’, ‘congratulations’ or ‘I love you’ like this universally enjoyed sweet treat.

Thankfully, despite the growing shift towards healthconscious dietary trends, our love of cake is showing no sign of dwindling, according to Sunshine Coast pastry chef Fiona Williams.

In fact, Fiona says, we can’t get enough of it. As the owner of Fiona’s Fancies Homemade Cakes & Pastries at Noosa Junction, she’s well placed to make such a judgment.

According to Fiona, whose thriving business was established eight years ago (beginning in Eumundi and moving to Noosa four years ago), cakes remain a firm favourite among young, old, and everyone in between.

“Birthday cakes are the main thing we make here,” she says. “A lot of people come to Noosa for a holiday to celebrate their birthday, and they need a beautiful cake.

“But also, people just like coming into the shop to eat cake.”

Although our love of eating cake seems to be as strong as ever, there are, however, some interesting variations in the types of cakes we’re favouring. Dessert-style creations, like chocolate mousse and layered cakes, are more in demand now than the plainer, more traditional spongestyle versions that once graced our tables, according to Fiona.

The biggest crowd pleaser, she says, is “anything with chocolate”, made all the more appealing by her use of the iconic Lindt brand in all the chocolate products she makes. Cake-eaters are also eager to try new and different types. One recent creation of Fiona’s that has proved to be a big hit is her Mango Colada cake, with layers of mango, coconut, sponge, white chocolate mousse and mango jelly. Everything is made from scratch with fresh ingredients – another factor that’s proved a big hit with the customers.

“We don’t buy packaged or processed fruit, or any pre-mixes,” she says. “We buy the fruit and make everything ourselves.

“People are a lot more aware of what they’re eating now. There are a lot of dietary changes too.”

Those changes include the rapid rise of veganism, and a large contingent of people with gluten-free dietary requirements. This has necessitated a creative revolution in pastry kitchens around the country. While a gluten-free option would once have meant bland or tasteless, today there is a plethora of choices available.

A lot of people come to Noosa for a holiday to celebrate their birthday, and they need a beautiful cake.

“We’re expanding our vegan range at the moment because that’s the demand,” says Fiona. “We have an orange and almond vegan cake, made with oil instead of butter and eggs. For icing products for vegans, we sometimes use avocado. You can’t taste the avocado when you put other things with it. There are so many different things you can use – fruit purees and things like that.

“There are so many gluten-free choices now and you’d never know they were gluten-free. Our bestseller would probably be the caramel and white chocolate friand. We make the caramel that goes in it as well.”

Perhaps the most striking shift in trends has been in wedding cake styles. The traditional tiered fruit cake with fondant icing has fallen out of favour, replaced by smaller options supplemented by eclectic selections of sweets, creating a dessert bar-style offering.

“People aren’t going for massive wedding cakes now,” says Fiona. “They’ll get one cake and then a heap of little things like mini tarts and macarons; little tiny cakes that are cute and decorated.

“I think it’s because people like to serve the cake now as the dessert, whereas in the past there was a dessert on the menu, and then the cake would come afterwards. This way, it gives people more choice.”

Also bringing a fresh twist to the wedding cake table is the use of fresh, edible flowers for decorating, such as miniature pansies in delicate shades of purple and pink.

Cupcakes, once purely the realm of kids’ parties and the corner bakery, remain a popular modern choice for weddings and birthday celebrations. Again, plain is out, fancy is in – the fancier the better. Cupcake collections are often served on multi-tiered stands and individually decorated, creating a visual as well as a taste sensation.

“We do filled cupcakes – the lemon meringue cupcake is my favourite,” says Fiona. “It looks like a cupcake but tastes just like a lemon meringue.”

Undoubtedly, cake will continue to be a menu favourite for the foreseeable future – in whatever form it may take. Fiona recently created a ‘meat pie’ cake for Australia Day – chocolate filling, puff pastry and ‘tomato sauce’ made from raspberries.

“We’re just expanding and changing our range all the time,” she says. “We like to keep things interesting.”

WORDS LINDA READ

PHOTOS LISA PEARL