By Ethan Benedicto
A big-name award always tastes as sweet as it comes, especially if it involves three first places and one second at the Royal Melbourne Show’s cake decorating competitions.
Anita Laskovsky, a Clyde North resident entered not one, but four cakes into the cake decorating competitions which saw her win the Most Successful Exhibitor Award.
To Anita, the whole experience felt “unreal – even now just sitting here, I just can’t believe it”.
“You know from 10 years ago when I first started getting into cake decorating, and when I first entered competitions I would get awards like highly recommended or just get told well done.
“Looking back at that and to actually you know, come first and win, it’s amazing,” she said.
The four cakes Anita submitted were a clear display of her skill, her attention to detail, and her proficiency in decor.
The piece that garnered the most attention was her roast dinner; complete with a whole chook, collared greens, carrots, potatoes, corn, peas and tomatoes, all pieced together like the perfect Sunday roast – except it’s cake.
Another piece was a baby Grinch, sitting down with a smaller cake in between its legs, covered in snow dust and with a little snowman for company.
Anita developed her love for patisserie after bingeing on cooking shows during the floods in Brisbane in 2011 and 2012, and after indulging in a series of cake shows, she realised that not only herself, but her children would love it too.
The competition wasn’t her first, and having been a hairdresser in her home city, Anita has always been good with her hands, however, she considers herself more of a decorator than a baker.
“I gave up hairdressing and decided to make some cakes, I loved it, family and friends loved it and I sort of had a little bit of business going – and then we decided to move to Melbourne,” Anita said.
It was here that she decided to enrol in Chisholm’s patisserie certificate three course in order to formalise her qualifications as a cake decorator, a crucial step in which Anita recalled led her to where she is now.
“That was when I decided to enrol and learn, to do something more on the patisserie side and of course the baking side,” she said.
“It was a chance for me to ‘advance my cakes’ and such and I absolutely loved it.
“And now, I love being able to teach people, because as I said I was self-employed and self-taught, so it’s my passion that I have that I want other people out there to be able to go, ‘you know what, I can do this as well’.”
Currently, Anita runs a cake-decorating business, called Whisk Takers in Lynbrook, a play on the popular term and an ode to her switch in careers even through her middle ages.
That, in itself, has been a place for her to grow, where she learned more about pastries and also expanded her own skillset.
Anita’s results at the Show are as follows:
First – ‘Is That Cake?’ Category
First – ‘Novelty Christmas Theme’ Category – Baby Grinch
First – ‘Innovation Cakes’ Too Cute Category – Sunflower Piggy
Second – ‘Creative Challenge, Dolly Verden’ Category
Taking her inspiration from all aspects of life, from YouTube to everyday things, Anita recalled the first take on a realistic patisserie she made, which was a lettuce made from wafer paper and other materials.
Taking it back to her current pieces, it’s not uncommon for Anita to tell others first what they see, such as the chicken, but then “I’ll say it’s a cake and they’ll be like, whoa”.
“I made the roast and everything, put it on the dinner table and I said, it’s time for dinner but then when I told them it was cake they were all shocked!
“So it’s about that you know, trying new things, expanding, I love trying new and different things and push the boundaries a little bit,” she said.
