By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
KATE Sargent isn’t that proud of the cake that snowballed her into a home-cooked sweets enterprise.
It was a top-deck cake – a vanilla and chocolate sponge with purple icing and flowers – cooked for her daughter’s first birthday.
But the offering went down well and stirred Ms Sargent’s dormant passion for baking birthday cakes, cupcakes, cake balls and wedding cakes in her Cranbourne home kitchen.
Ms Sargent said she always loved helping in the kitchen as a child, with particular fond memories of the classic Australian Women’s Weekly birthday cake cookbook.
“Children’s birthday cakes – that’s where my real passion is, especially for first birthdays and baby showers.
“It’s my happy place. It’s just lovely to see the excitement on kids’ faces.”
She said she now appreciates the real labour of love that her mother endured to re-create the Women’s Weekly cakes recipes.
Requests came from time-poor friends for a variety of fun-themed birthday cakes.
Ms Sargent has created designs including Finding Nemo, Paw Patrol, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman.
“Most of us don’t have as much time as we used to. They don’t have the time to organise a party and make the birthday cake as well.”
Along the way she has perfected the art of edible, icing figurines and flowers.
She honed her technique at cooking classes and by astutely Googling cake-making videos on YouTube and pictures on Pinterest.
Two years ago, her commandingly named home business Sargent Sweetness was officially born.
The business name was a “cute play on words” using her married name. It means that if she divorces, she loses her business, Ms Sargent jokes.
She adds that not only is she grateful for the name but also for her husband’s support for the enterprise.
The business has gathered steam in the past six months through Facebook and dropping off business cards around the region.
Ms Sargent is also gaining a profile with her chocolate-coated cake balls – sometimes with a shot of salted caramel – at the monthly night market at Lynbrook Community Centre, and the recent decadent dessert-fest Winter Treats in Berwick.
The next Lynbrook market, with children’s activities, teppanyaki and door prizes, is on 22 July, 5.30-9pm.
Her chocolate-coated cake balls – with a flavour shot of salted caramel – went down a treat at the Winter Treats event in Berwick recently.
