The blanketed crusader

This cake is one that is extremely close to my heart.

Waz, the Blanketed Crusader and his cake. Designed by Khanh of Cake Me!, this cake perfectly sums Warren up.

I remember taking the bus home one winter's evening after uni. It was bucketing down, very cold and very dark. Kind of scenario where you'd prefer to just stay on the bus and not get off, even though you couldn't wait to get home. But there, waiting in the rain by the unlit bus stop was my brother, on his little bicycle, with an umbrella. He's always been like that.

Fourteen years later, my brother Warren founded the charity organisation 300 Blankets, to keep those who are less fortunate in our community warm. Waz works a full time job in Merchandising at the Myer Headquarters, but after work and on weekends, he directs a team of over 70 volunteers to provide warmth to the homeless. 300 Blankets raises awareness, funds, buys, collects and distributes blankets to the homeless. His work isn't just about providing tangible materials, it is also about providing warmth through friendship. Every Wednesday night, rain, hail or shine, Christmas Day, his birthday or just any regular Wednesday, you would find Waz out with the Vinnies Soup Van distributing food, a hot drink, blankets and friendship to those who need it most.

Waz and some of the awesome 300 Blankets volunteers — Waz and some of the awesome 300 Blankets volunteers

The stories and experiences that Waz shares are moving, heart wrenching and more often than not, puts a lump in your throat or fills your eyes up with tears. Listening to my brother speak at a recent event and looking around at an audience of over a hundred people, you can see how his work and anecdotes pulls at people's heartstrings.

So that's Waz as a brother and as a member of the community. What makes Waz extra special is that he is your normal, average person. He loves his fiancee, his family and his close group of friends. Waz is our everyday superhero. He's a man with many hats (or lego heads, as this cake suggests).

Superhero Lego heads, Chocolate mud cake and Red Velvet mud cake with chocolate ganache

The other Waz we know and love is "Uncle Wazzie" as he is affectionately called by his niece and nephew. Waz is a big kid at heart, an awesome uncle, and our kids adore him. He loves toys and for years, worked in the toy department at Myer, and then later, in the Buying Office for Toys. Waz has especially loved Lego and made sure he rubbed his passion for these coloured bricks on to his niece and nephew. Another of Waz's childhood loves is Raphael, the red teenage mutant ninja turtle.

Warren. Our brother, friend and uncle. Hero in a half shell. Friendly neigbhourhood spider. We couldn't be more prouder of you, Waz. Happy 30th birthday to our Blanketed Crusader.

Lego minifigure Waz cake, complete with his signature mole, 300 Blankets tshirt, and CAPE!

Everything is awesome. You are everything AWESOME.

To learn more about 300 Blankets or to volunteer/donate to the charity, please go to www.300blankets.com.au.

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Our new venture... Cake Me! kids

We are soooo excited to announce that we are expanding Cake Me! and launching our new venture Cake Me! kids.

Cake Me! kids is a brand new concept, professionally teaching kids to sugar craft and decorate amazing cakes at birthday parties, utilising the skills and expertise of our Cake Me! team. This idea came about when planning for our own children's birthday parties this year. We love inviting friends over to celebrate our birthdays but at the same time, it can be extremely stressful thinking about how to entertain all the children. Then on the actual day of the party, things can get a bit hectic, running around ensuring that the guests are fed, and the children are entertained. Sometimes we get so busy that we don't even get to enjoy the festivities, which in our opinion, defeats the purpose of having a party in the first place.

We are often asked if we run cake decorating classes or if we could hold sugar sculpting tutorials, however with two children of our own, we have not had the time. Having professionally worked with children and young adults for over twelve years, and seeing how our own kids both LOVE craft and cake decorating (our daughter helped decorate her own cake when she was just two years old, and our son was playing with fondant at eighteen months old), it ALL CLICKED.

Cake Me! kids is about teaching crafty kids to create their own masterpieces and eat it too! It takes the stress out of entertaining for the hosts, and most importantly, it is so much fun for all the guests. Professional cake decorating and sugar sculpting tutorials will be tailored to the age of the guests and tailored to the theme of the party. All cakes, cake decorating tools and materials will be supplied, so the hosts wont need to prepare anything. Guests will be able to take home their own Cake Me! apron, Cake Me! bakers hat... and their own boxed Cake Me! creation.

If you're planning your next birthday party and wondering how to entertain your guests, contact us now :)

Please subscribe to our blog if you would like to find out how our new venture goes!

Cake Me!'s first blog entry

I love reading blogs. Blogs can be so intimate, so vulnerable, reading someone's inner thoughts that they've put out there in the world wide web, but not professionally edited or premeditated. I love reading about another person's passion, and seeing the photos that accompany the post. I've always wanted to start my own blog but keep putting it off as I don't know whether anyone would be interested in hearing what I've got to say. So I'll give this a try and see how it goes!

I thought it would be most fitting to start my very first Cake Me! blog entry about a cake we created for my mum's sixtieth birthday. Mum has always been a low-fuss, low-key, simple, yet classy woman. She has always put her family ahead of herself and has made uncountable sacrifices for us. So it was quite a surprise for us when she announced that she was having a big dinner celebration for her sixtieth birthday.

From the very beginning, Mum has been a huge supporter of our cakes, so we knew she would like pretty much anything we created for her. We thought her cake would be easy - something classic, classy, pink with roses. I had the perfect design in mind.

Then my dad came into the scene.

No, he's not a baker or cake decorator. He knows very little about cake aesthetics. But for the cake to be "perfect" he said it needed something "extra special, symbolic and traditional". He said that cake should have a symbolic cake topper of the Goddess of Longevity. For those of you who are South East Asian may know that this Goddess has huge ear lobes, carries around a peach in one hand and a walking cane in the other. For luck and prosperity, she is usually dressed in bright red with gold accents. I had no idea what she looked like so I went to ask google for help. Google came up with the male version:

*JAWDROP*... without offending anyone's culture or beliefs, I wasn't sure if this character/God was one I wanted on top of my mum's "simple, classy, classic" cake.

Firstly, everyone knows that red does not go well with pink. Secondly, my mum is a very young sixty year old (still can't believe she's 60!). She is vibrant, beautiful, fun and happy. She doesn't look or feel a day over 40, so we were beginning to wonder if this was part of my dad's quirky sense of humour? Joke or not aside, the question is, how do we incorporate THAT with our cake?!

Anyhow, a "client's" request is a client's request. And a VIP one at that. So off I began sugar sculpting a female version of the images I found on Google, with a mumsy-twist.

My brother was horrified. He was the first to object to the walking cane and said it was "not our mum at all". He didn't mind the topper as she was quite cute, so as a compromise, we swapped out the walking cane for my mum's most prized possession.. her iPad! So... the result? A semi-old Goddess of Longevity with huge ear lobes, holding a peach in one hand and an iPad in the other. Pink flowers surrounding the base of the topper with the red and gold-accented costume, to help her blend back into the pink cake.

So what's the verdict? What do you think of the final cake? Which cake do you like better?

PHEW! There, my first blog entry done. Thanks for reading! xx

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