Always active in the kitchen, since childhood, serendipity brought me to Dufflet Pastries in 1989, where I, a freshly minted Art School Drop Out, began working as a cake decorator — learning the craft on the job — and within a few short months quickly adapting my artistic skills to the task. Decorating and selling fanciful cake sculptures began to take up my free time and I was soon winning awards for my Edible Art.
In 1990 I appeared on the CBC for the first time, demonstrating a snowman cake for a Christmas edition of the programme Sunday Arts & Entertainment. Since then my cakes have appeared on CityTV News and I've appeared on CFTO News and again on the CBC demonstrating more cakes, as well as Global TV's The Morning Show. Scroll down to see video clips.
In 1994 my spare time orders turned into a full-time business. Over the years I've made birthday cakes for all kinds of folks and even a few celebrities, including Mick Jagger, comedian Dave Chapelle, rocker Tommy Lee and CBC News icon Peter Mansbridge. I was also honoured to be able to make retirement cakes for both Karen Kain and Mr. Dress-Up, the late Ernie Coombs.
I am also pleased to have been a part of many charity events over the years including Willow's Eat To The Beat, CANFAR's Bloor Street Entertains, The Fur Ball, The Covenant House Annual Auction, and The Gardiner Museum's Twelve Trees of Christmas.
Sometimes I'm called on to make cakes purely for their looks — something I'm normally very careful to avoid — for use in films and in advertising, including for an Absolut Vodka ad, the movie The Five Senses, an episode of Queer As Folk and a station identification for The Life Network. Some of my cakes were featured — for both their taste as well as their looks — on the programme My Fabulous Gay Wedding, with Scott Thompson.
But my creative pursuits are not limited to the culinary arts, despite having long abandoned the academic route in more traditional arts. Though they may have taken a backseat to butter and sugar, I've still found time to work in a variety of other, less ephemeral mediums over the years, and am now focusing more attention on numerous mixed-media projects which can be seen in and around various Toronto galleries, including The Super Wonder Gallery, the now defunct Artusiasm, and Propeller.
