Hi...:he:

Hi My name is Suzie...I am a work from home mum who although a Brit now lives in Tunisia, North Africa! I used to run a cake and catering business in the UK(20yrs) and have been dabbling in the cake side of things since moving here.....I have now turned this hobby to keep me sane into a viable business although it is hard work especially in a country with different traditions,culture and languages..... I have had to basically start from scratch as there are many many ingredients I cant source here...Fondant for instance has to be hand made from scratch......as does the modelling chocolate...it has its advantages though as it tastes much better and can be coloured and flavoured naturally. I have a website and a face book page details are posted in the network section.....I have been here 5 years now and brought with me lots of books about cake making and modelling which the locals find fascinating...Debbie Brown has been an all time favourite and has been copied to death....*sigh* there is no concept here of copywrite and at first I used to try to stick to my policy of no exact copies..ha! that was soo not going to work! if a picture was produced from whatever source the client wanted it copied EXACTLY!....something I did to a)pay the bills and b) build a reputation......no point in trying to tell the folk here I was once one of 10 cake designer/decorators featured on a Brides Magazine CD!...They wanted this "new" European" idea of sculptured cakes edible flowers trailing blossoms American stacked drizzled with sparkle and bling! I have even had to produce cakes designed in the 50's,60's through to the late 90's.... things have slowly started to change and finally I am able to edge towards my own way of things again...I now when faced with a picture of yet another un-named designers work suggest a way to change so as the client has a cake that is similar to but not exactly the same ......this satisfies my need to be individualistic,the clients need for a cake they really like but which is modified to suit their specific celebrations and of course it will eventually put a stop to the nasty remarks of those who put themselves on a pedestal and preach holier than thou to all and sundry about "them having seen photos posted of cakes that are so obviously not the posters work".......some of us at times have no option but to reproduce..especially when there are soooo many books and pictures out there for people to see and print off and very little knowledge of the present day produce anything from the imagination that you want abilities of cake makers designers and decorators I am working in a 1960's lifestyle /venue with the same type of ingredients available(think UK 1950-60's),producing modern style cakes for people with 21st century technology to find what they want.....and you get an idea of the challenges I come up against!.... but you know what?....they are worth every headache,every snide remark from UK or European women in the same business, every collapsed cake and every sleepless work all night drama...because this is my PASSION!! and I LOVE IT!!!