18: From Graphic Designer to Buttercream Queen

Today's guest is Merlyn Hernandez, the creative mind behind Dolce Trio Cakes.

Merlyn talks to us about her journey from being a graphic designer in Venezuela to becoming a pastry chef and cake designer in Australia. We talk about her experiences from having a cake business for 10 years and running cake classes for five years. Amongst all that we talk about resilience, community over competition and succeeding despite perceived market saturation. We found Merlyn really inspiring, we hope you do too.

Number of fucks given in this episode: 11

Mentioned in this episode:
* Merlyn's business, Dulce Trio Cakes
* Dulce Trio on Instagram (omg it's so pretty)
* Tigga Mac's Cake Hacks: Unbelievably fun and easy children's birthday cakes

Transcript

Emily: Welcome to the fuck around and find out podcast where your hosts, Emily, Rah and Christine. We are three women who have built and run our own businesses and are here to shoot the shit on everything about women in business and running your own business. I feel like I get super Aussie on the word shit.

Yeah,

Christine: you do. And it's okay because you're super Aussie. I know. Um,

Emily: truth. Well, you know, right. Get in there with the truth. Strength yourself, flame the crows .

Rah: Hi.

Emily: Thanks,

Rah: Alf. Stewart Roman away. Yes. Alf. I do have a pink glass statue on my balcony called. Cause it's a flame and galah. But yes, I am OCA person.

Number two on today's episode and I am.

Emily: What up? What up? Do you

Rah: want to introduce

Emily: yourself? Or do you think people know who we are? Oh, fuck. I'm so sick of talking about myself. So

Christine: Ra is the purple headed leader of work with Rah, Rah Gardiner, because she is her

Rah: business. Freaking fabulous at what she's doing.

virtual podcast studio launching soon. She says, cause that's what she's been working on all morning. Better talk about it out loud and I'll make it happen. That's right. Yes. So M you're on my left. Chris, you're on my right. How

Christine: are

Rah: you doing?

Christine: Hang on. Let me do my best Joey. How are you doing? How are you doing?

Emily: She's getting dang laid. That's

Christine: right. So here we are, Bella Vista Podcast Studio. Thanks

Emily: Bella!

Christine: But uh, yes, so we're Cribs. And M, Juniper wrote, one stop show. There we

Emily: go. I coined the phrase and now it's haunting me to death. Yeah. Yeah.

Christine: Absolutely. And seriously, just having an absolutely awesome time with the two of you.

Yeah. This is fun. This

Emily: is so much fun. It's so much fun. Um, and we are blessed today in the, um, podcast studio. I've got my little son sitting next to us that Rah's casually turning down cause he's singing out loud. And we're here with the wonderful Merlyn from, I can't say it properly.

Rah: Is

Merlyn: it Dolce? Dolce.

Emily: And I'm going to do a real fabulous intro that we've prepped Merlyn on this. So good. Yeah. So good. All right. You ready? I'm going to do my best. She's going to read it word for word. It is hilarious. All right. Cake lovers and sweet tooths, get ready to have your minds blown and your taste buds tantalized.

Today, we're fucking thrilled. To welcome the cake queen herself, Merlyn Hernandez, this badass Venezuelan pastry chef is the creative genius behind, I'm going to say it wrong again.

Christine: Thank you.

Emily: Well, and let me tell you, her cakes are not just desserts. They're edible fucking art. Um, if anyone's bot put it literally is.

And there's so much more. Just wait. That's just the first paragraph. Keep going. Keep going. Merlyn's not your average baker. Oh, no. This woman's got layers just like her cakes. She's combined her graphic design skills with her pastry prowess to create cakes that'll make your Instagram followers weep with envy.

But here's the kicker. Merlyn doesn't just make cakes. She creates memories. People. There

Rah: was a comma. I missed a comma because my mic was

Emily: in the way. She believes food has the power to transport us back in time, reminding us of the people and places we loved.

Merlyn: Oh my god. And

Emily: get, and get this. She's not just keeping her sugary secrets to herself.

Merlyn's developed the workshop experience where she's spilling the beans, or should I say the sprinkles, on all her techniques. So without a further ado, let's welcome the woman who's turning cake dreams into reality and probably making dentists everywhere both terrified and impressed. Merlyn Hernandez.

Rah: Can we just say that that's proof that if you do train up your chat GPT,

Merlyn: I need a copy of that. So good. Yeah.

Emily: You can just take the box. Yes, please. Friendly. Yeah. Oh, welcome. Welcome. Welcome. We're very excited to have you

Christine: and not just because you brought the cake. I

Merlyn: know, I know, I know. Thank you so much.

I'm really, really happy to be here. It's exciting to, um, be surrounded by three crazy, magnificent women. Thank you for the crazy. Yeah. But is, um, when I. I heard the first episode, I thought, my God, this is incredible. I want to be there. I want to, I want to say something just cause it's just the vibe, the energy, and, uh, the fact that we supporting women in business.

Absolutely. It's all that it makes us so special and brilliant. So I'm definitely, I'm really, really happy to be here to share a little bit of my story and uh, and to hear what all the people have to say. So it's, it's, it's really good. It's a special. Thank you so much. We're so excited to have you here.

Yeah. We're

Christine: so excited. We're thrilled. We're thrilled that you're all here with us today. Em

Rah: has been raving about you for so long. She is a special one. She is. I am

Merlyn: not. I'm just crazy. But you're fucking amazing at what you do. Thank

Emily: you. Merlyn taught me most of what I know. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

I met Merlyn when I was six. Six weeks postpartum for my daughter

Rah: as you do

Emily: a unicorn cake class. Um, you did a cake class six weeks after she was my number two. I kind of knew it was just, Oh, you just

Rah: pop them out like you're a clown car. Okay. I mean,

Emily: not

Rah: quite,

Emily: but sure.

Rah: That's what

Emily: I think about anyone who has more than one and never again, choose the limit.

You should adjust that to anyone that's got more than two. Oh, yeah. One gets tricked into having another and then you're like, oh, they need a friend. It was amazing. She's such a good teacher. Oh, thank you. And your classes

Merlyn: have come such a long way since then too. They have. They have. It's incredible how many classes I have done, how many people I have taught.

I feel like that is the place where I shine. And he is just. It's just creating that bond, that community, because they keep, um, asking questions and, and to be honest, I don't feel, um, selfish just to keep, you know, the knowledge to myself in case there's someone may copy me or someone is still my, um, my recipes.

I just feel like there is room for everybody. Yeah. Absolutely there is. There so is. There's so many things you can really create. You can't copy someone's personality. No, but you bring your

Emily: own flair and exactly to it. And you can, like, we all know you can throw a, you know, throw a coin and you'd find 6 million cake makers, but it's what differentiates you is your level of detail is just next level for everyone that's listening, go and fucking look at her Instagram, please.

Yeah. So Merlyn, I asked her to speak at our. at our conference with me on social media because of how fucking well you do it. But also your products are just

Merlyn: so made for the gram. Thank you so much. These are too many flowers for me. You do

Rah: great on the cakes that you made for us as well. But you

Emily: also like the way you're, the way you do it is so good.

The way you photograph it, you've got consistency, you've got the beautiful clean backgrounds, you know, you know how to do it, which a lot of subject matter experts. that are in something else, don't add that part of it. And that's what that's another job itself. Yeah, it is. And but it differentiates you to me as someone who really knows what the fuck you're doing and know how to run your business properly.

Merlyn: Look, it's a whole journey. I think it's, um, oh, it took me a while to get there as well to have that consistency. Cause We didn't know how social media worked until we were thrown into that and, and, and then I realized, okay, social media is my virtual shop. Yes. How do I want people to feel when they come and look at it, all messy, dirty, crazy, they don't know what to buy.

So it's, um, yeah, you got to look at it as, this is my shop, come in. So how do you work on so many? It needs to have all that cleanliness and colors. Were

Emily: you a graphic designer in a distant life? I think so.

Merlyn: Look, yes, I, I was. Graphic designer was my career back home. And when I migrated to Australia, um, I couldn't work in the industry because I didn't have a permanent residency at the time.

And, uh, one thing led me to change careers. By the time I had the permanent residency, I, um, so many years passed by. And I felt like I couldn't really fit in. I was. It's out of touch of what the programs and the softwares and everything else and, um, to make this story short, um, I graduate as a pastry chef in commercial cookery and, um, the teachers, they told me, look, you, you got talent for that.

You might be able to pursue that as a career, but just building the self confidence. Confidence into a country where you don't know the market. You don't actually come from the cooking background. You got no family here that you can just rock up and bring a cake all the time. It made it all a bit different and difficult to believe that I could get there.

So, um, Graphic design helped me to always keep things looking beautiful. Um, nice color coordination, balance, harmony, everything look pretty from day one. Now, getting the flavor in there was a different story. Because I needed the practice to sort of bake and taste and, uh, all of that came with time. And also that, um, as it takes time, it, it, it plays a role into believing who you are and, you know, can you compete?

Because there are millions of cake makers outside. Yeah. And the market is always saturated. But, um, I found my niche. And, uh, and I understood who my audience is and what do they want to see. And, um, and thanks to the customers that I have, um, built through the years. I'm still in business and I think I'm striving despite of, um, the economy and all that is happening around.

Emily: Can I say too, like when I met you, it was COVID. It would have been like January and then COVID hit a few months later and that was, It's almost five years ago now. Look how you've done so amazing. So amazing in that time, like gobsmacking and through COVID, like that's a huge achievement especially for this type of business.

I think COVID

Merlyn: for me, it was a blessing and in a bit of a hard time because I was begging cupcakes like there is no tomorrow and I was just delivering and the orders were coming through the door. Uh, the computer and I was, just couldn't keep up. Uh, that was a moment where people were getting to know Dolce Trio and I had the beautiful opportunity to connect family members, uh, people that were worried in Brisbane, in Queensland, in Tasmania, look I need to send something to, uh, my father.

To my auntie, someone's birthday and they're by themselves. They're isolated. I work for them. So I was driving through Sydney with balloons and cupcakes

Rah: every day.

Merlyn: And, uh, and then COVID. Knocked my door and I got sick

Anyway, and we were at that time that you know, we really didn't know what how would you make it afterwards? None of us knew anything, did we? Such a weird time. But, um, well, after that I kept working and, um, it's just everything is an experience and it's how you, um, battle things and, um, you know, if you get knocked out, then you go back up and try it again and try it again and try it again until things get better.

Oh,

Christine: absolutely. I, um, The workshops that you do, like, was that always a plan or was that a pivot or how did

Merlyn: There was a desperation to bring income into the business. Right. Okay. Gotta

Christine: love those moments

Emily: that

Merlyn: make you kind of sometimes find something. Diversify your income. Yeah. Absolutely. How can you do things different?

Yeah. Yeah. I remember vividly is like, Oh, God, should I just pack up and get a job because I had a child very young, uh, and my husband was, you know, the only one with a full time job. So there were times that I was just struggling to meet ends and I was thinking, Jesus, what am I going to do? Cause these kids want to, someday is going to go to school and, uh, and my client were asking me, why don't you do classes?

Why don't you do classes? Classes were not. Popular, uh, in 2019. You, you, it was hard to find, um, classes available and, uh, I thought, you know what? I'm just gonna give it a go. And I remember the very first class, I only had two ladies, okay. That were my customers. And they thought, yeah, I, I'll give it a go. I give it a go, and, uh, and since then, slowly, slowly, I started building up the classes.

And here I am, loving them so much, uh, that I just don't want to stop. I, I know that is my why now.

Christine: That's brilliant, because it does bring a lot of joy, like, you know, and there's a lot of people, you think about, like, the paint and sip, Kind of like movement, everyone just trying to work out a little bit of their creative juice.

And, you know, don't necessarily have the means. I mean, I wouldn't know how to make buttercream. I mean, I've seen him make buttercream, but I wouldn't know what to do to be nice. I've seen my sister make buttercream.

Emily: But you know, the thing I learned the most, I think from that was it's actually a lot easier than.

Like, it, it's not, it's difficult levels, levels of difficulty, but I always wanted to, I was baked and I always thought, Oh yeah, give it a go at that. But I don't know if I've got the patience, the patience to do it. And then I did your class and I was like, damn, I can do this, but this isn't as scary and as complicated as I expected it to be.

Rah: I was like, and then

Emily: it was,

Rah: well, you're not making puff pastry, so it's a bit easier. And it was just,

Emily: but I was like, but it's the whole like. The way you explain it, the way you teach it, the way you set it up was so beautifully done. And it was also like, oh, so if I just get a bit of this and like, trying the different types of like, um, food colouring and oil based versus not oil based and like, you learn a lot as you go.

And then try, just, just try. Yeah. Just have a go. Just take a punt. Either way, if it stuffs up, it still tastes good. So you can eat it and it's not like you just wasted all this product that you can't do anything with it. You can still eat it. That's right. Mop up all that buttercream with

Merlyn: the cake. Yum.

Emily: It'll be right. I've had bloody hell, I've had times where I've had a cake fall apart as I'm trying to do it. And I'm just going, well, for fuck's sake. And I'm sitting there just eating cake in my misery. But like, like it's so, it's so good. It's not as, I think that's really credited to how you teach as well.

Merlyn: I do think so. And I do not want to sound snob and, um, snob away. But I feel I have come this far in teaching because I do make a connection with the person. Yep. And my only intention and purpose is to make sure that my student walks away more confident. Yeah. Happy and proud that they can achieve what they want in terms of cake decorating.

Rah: And your love goes into it as well. So

Merlyn: that's what they're feeding off. I don't feel scared to share my knowledge. I don't feel scared to share my technique. I do want them to succeed because if they succeed, I do succeed. And I

Rah: think that's an important message for any business woman. I'm looking at me, I'm trying to work out how to look at myself.

There's a bit of a mirror behind me, um, because it is that community over competition thing.

Emily: It's something that I think we've all found, you know, people that have met you and they're like. Oh, it's so nice to meet you. Yeah. And you're like, I can tell you're threatened right now. Yeah. There's no need to be.

Rah: And even there's, um, someone who's a competitor to one of my old jobs, provide similar services. And when my old job started bringing out something that was a little bit closer, But it was, it was a membership, everyone's doing a membership, like, like throw a coin and you can find 10 cupcake makers, you can throw a coin and find 10 coaching memberships and whatever.

And this, and this competitor, who I never saw as a threat, not that it was my business, but I just thought the world is big enough.

Emily: That's another

Rah: line from Hamilton, just FYI, um, the world is wide enough for multiple people. People to be in the same space and this person went to the effort of sending out a newsletter to have a bitch and moan About someone stepping on their turf.

Oh And as talented, I don't know if you do as talented and as inspiring as I find this person It's really put a tarnish on my vibe on them. It's not necessary. You lose respect. Yeah. And like, I can understand, yes, have that internal feeling and, you know, talk to your mates about it and offload and go, fuck them.

They're copying us. And they will

Merlyn: always

Rah: be around. Yeah. But also you don't need to sour your relationships. Yeah.

Merlyn: I just, well, they,

Emily: they've got so many insecurities. Yeah. So. Bye. Yeah. You need to have faith in your own ability and faith that you have a differentiation to other people. Yeah. That's all right.

Yeah.

Rah: And so you talking about how you're willing to share that information, I think that's something that more people could learn from.

Merlyn: Build a bridge of trust from that side to me. But it's

Rah: also your love of what you do. Of the cakes and the creation and the, the design process and the science of the making of the pastries and all those sorts of things that you do.

Sharing the joy. You know,

Christine: because there would be such joy and you know, people coming, whether it's, you know, mothers and daughters and, you know, young kids, um, you know, come together to create something. Yeah. Share a

Merlyn: moment in time. I don't know. Everybody comes for the sake of. learning cake decorating because they want to turn into a side hustle.

Some people just come because they need experience because they go maybe a sick child at home because they need some time off because they got anxiety. And I have heard many stories through, um, Through the times that I've been teaching and it's just feeling that empathy that you use here to give your best just so that person walks away feeling better, feeling, feeling like, Oh, it was me time and, and I really enjoy it and thank you.

And then they get in contact with you back again and actually they start feeling a little bit of love for wanting to pursue making the ice in a home and see if it turns out great.

Emily: Yep. Yep. Yep. So when people are just happy, I have got friends who just do it for their kids. Yay. Are really good at it as well.

They love it and they're just happy to do it for their kids. Mm-Hmm. .

Merlyn: It

Emily: may, it's me now. It means the world to them, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Merlyn: Because they know that those kids are growing up with the idea that mom is making birthday cake year and they

Emily: love it. And I've seen what you do for your beautiful guy every year and it's, but I can see it also gives you that.

Awesome opportunity to just have a go and have a play, which you don't get when you're constantly taking people's orders. If you're taking a brief. Yeah, you've got to make the brief. Yeah. That's right. And I find that even with my two, like they know their birthdays are coming and I've already had Arabella be like, maybe I could have a Gabby's dollhouse or maybe we could do this.

And this one's like, maybe I could. Yeah. Cause not everyone has Hamish Blake

Rah: as a dad. Who's going to get drunk the night before your birthday party and make, you know, stress of that. Oh my God. Oh yeah. Oh my God. Too

Christine: hard. Too much stress. My sister, um, made, um, a cake for, uh, my son for his seventh birthday.

And she made Toothless, so Toothless the dragon from How to Train Your Dragon. And she did a phenomenal effort. I'm not a cake, I'm not a cake decorator. I bake a cake. I will do that, but she loves to decorate it. And, um, and she did Toothless. He was very gray. But he was clearly a dragon. Did he look like Toothless from the movies?

Absolutely not. But, but, it was made with love and she did a far better job than I would have because all I did was buy some woman's weekly kids cake book and you know, it's like, oh, there's the chocolate cake with the ganache, you know, that was me. I didn't do decorating for decades. I think people also forget that

Emily: it's actually quite a high stress thing to do.

Yeah. Oh yeah. It is. And especially, I, I've had times where I've looked at it and gone, I just want to fucking smash you against the wall. Like, I've got an overwhelming urge to just be like,

Christine: against the wall. Yeah, and I, of course, we're a January birthday. It was at a Scout Hall. It was no air conditioning.

It was 45 degrees in Sydney. It was damn hot outside. They quite literally melt. Uh, well, yeah. Tooth, but Toothless tasted alright. Okay. But yeah, he melted. I've had a cake at,

Emily: I've had a cake at a pub for my daughter's birthday like two years ago, and it was my daughter's, I didn't really, you know, worry as much.

So I left it, we were outside, but the icing literally started like separating and melting off the cake. I did that. Yeah, I had cupcakes melt on the back

Rah: of someone's car. Yeah. When I was heavy in my Cupcake phase. Yeah.

Emily: It's a real problem.

Christine: It's alright. I've been in my back in event days all those hundreds of thousands of years ago when I've seen a wedding cake collapse in a wedding reception.

That would, that would like, could you imagine?

Merlyn: Well, yeah.

Rah: I did.

Merlyn: You know. Absolutely.

Rah: So how long have you been doing cakes?

Merlyn: I've been doing cakes for over 10 years. But teaching, um, since 2019. So it's about five years now. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Um, and definitely, um, yeah, the teaching is, um, where I find a lot of joy because, but not only for what I said before, but also because, Um, baking and decorating a home is really isolated and it's been many years since I've been in the cave.

Yeah. So I am an extrovert. I love talking. I love, you know, chatting. And, uh, for a long time I've been just, you know, decorating, decorating, decorating. So now teaching is an opportunity for me to interact with, um, with people and, uh, yeah, A good time as well. It's good for mental health to relay with all this.

And on top of that, you know, they just want to hear everything about cake. It's like, yes, I'll tell you everything.

Emily: I know you're, you're still doing it at a cake decorating central. You're in the hills.

Merlyn: Yes. I have partnered with them since, uh, November last year with trial, um, couple of classes and they went really well.

And since then we've been, I've been doing all the body. Buttercream classes. Um. Just on buttercream? Just on buttercream. Like I'm specializing on teaching, um, how to do. So you're the buttercream queen? Yes. We

Rah: need to, we need to reserve that Instagram account for you, buttercream queen.

Emily: But also just for clarity, you do a very specific type of buttercream?

Yes. Oh, what's

Rah: that? Do you do Italian meringue? Yes. Difficult, the one. Oh my gosh.

Merlyn: It's no

Emily: hard. It's just, she's taught me how to do it. And the lazy ass that I am was like, Swiss is fine.

Merlyn: Italian meringue buttercream is delicious. It's very time consuming. That's why, you know, I have to charge a little bit more because it takes Time to get that meringue, um, rising and beautiful and fluffy and, uh, and then to combine your butter and it, in every season brings their own, um, difficulties when you are in winter is because it's too cold and when you, when, when summer comes, it's just.

It's ridiculously hot, so this is where the science comes into it. That's right. But, um, it's, it's all about understanding how your medium and your elements work. In that way, you can, um, manipulate them, um, to the best of your interest. So as long as people get educated on how to work and prepare things.

Anyone can do it and, and that's what I always focus on my classes. Anyone can do this. If I can do it, anyone can. It's just obviously to have the, the proper information and, uh, and to, to be taught, um, how to, how to do it and how to come up with tips and tricks to, um, to have a good finish. But, um, Italian meringue buttercream is something that I've been working with since I started the business.

Wow. I do know, you know what you're doing, don't you? You

Christine: are an expert in, okay. So we need to change

Rah: that Instagram account to Italian meringue buttercream. Queen. Queen, I love that butter. Queen, queen butter. Queen, queen. I love that The butter queen put my teeth back in. It's so good. But I'm guessing the reasons behind doing it is that it gets you a better result.

So even if it means you have to charge more because it takes more time,

Merlyn: I just find that the flavor is. It's very unique because if you whip your meringue to that marshmallow consistency once you add the hot syrup, it's beautiful, it is, and when you combine it with the butter that is in the right temperature, you have that marshmallow finish at the end, so you're not licking butter.

You use flavor in this, this delicious combo, but it has to be everything at the right temperature. Yeah, it is really important. Um, I do love to use fresh egg whites rather than the, oh yeah, the egg white powder.

Christine: Oh yeah. Quality ingredients are really important. If you're going to stand, stand behind your product and it's a point of difference.

You can also

Emily: sometimes taste the difference. Like if you have a referral, you can. People are not stupid. Yeah, exactly.

Merlyn: People, no. So the customer is right. Yes. Well. Depends on the customer. Up to a certain extent, but if you've been in business and you're offering something in that change, you gotta let them know, look, I'm going to use this instead of that.

You can't just. Just pretend that they're not going to notice people know. And uh, I something that I feel proud is that I got a really good, a straightforward relationship with any client. If I'm going to change something, if I'm going to change last minute color or a flower or something, I send a message, Hey, I need to do this, I need to do that for this such and such reasons.

Are you okay? Yep. When it comes to flavor, I know what they're expecting, especially whoever have bought once for me, they know what to expect. And I keep that consistency forever. But if there is something that is a decoration that I'm going to change at the last minute, I always tell them. And you, you, Look, we're trying to do the best to forever be perfect, but sometimes, you know, mistakes happens and, and it's, and it's okay.

Acknowledging that, saying, look, I have this problem. It was 1am. I couldn't call you. Um, here is something else in replacement. What can I do? Like, it is important to, um, to own. Your business, your victories and your failures. Absolutely. It's authenticity. Yeah. People

Rah: will forgive you. Yep. If you're honest with them about it.

Yes. People don't

Emily: like. To be feel like they're cheated. And there's enough of that in the world right now. Absolutely. Yeah. But

Christine: also there is. Errors happen, you know, it can just be a weather thing. It can be, oh my God, blackout or, you know, yeah, an egg shortage. There's all, you know, as long as you're honest, this is what's happened.

This is my proposed solution. Um, and, and as long as you're coming with a proposed solution, alternative or whatever, um, then, you know, generally the, you know, the way is paved quite well and people are okay. Because you've owned up there'd be, it'd be worse if you just turned up with, you know, Oh, you wanted a football here.

Here's a soccer, you know, a soccer shake. I mean, you know, there's different, you know, errors and stuff like that. What's the most outrageous thing that somebody's asked you to create for them?

Emily: Oh, I've seen you do some pretty hectic stuff. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. That's very, that like, In the Enchanted Forest.

I was like, holy shit.

Rah: Yeah, I'm just loading up your Instagram.

Emily: Your Instagram is so good. Look, um. I was showing Chris some of your fondant work. Oh my god, I can't believe it. Oh my god, fondant. Well, uh. With fairy lights as well. So for

Christine: listeners benefit, Emily's pulled up a bit of Instagram happening here and showing us.

Emily: Um, it's basically a, it looks, it's created to look like a log with a little fairy mushroom house on top and it's got exquisite detail and it's just, I mean the, the whole setup behind that is spectacular too, but. I mean, the cake itself is just, you know, it feels

Merlyn: like driving those cakes to the venue.

Christine: I'll tell ya.

Merlyn: I'll

Christine: tell

Emily: ya. No,

Christine: God,

Merlyn: it's making

Christine: me feel sick. Look, I feel like I understand. I mean, I've watched my fair share of cake bops on, you know, Fox. And they're such experts and they're, did you guys ever

Rah: watch

Christine: Choccy

Rah: Wocky Doodah? Oh my God. Yes. Oh my God. Such a good show. Everything was chocolate.

Oh yeah. The entire thing they made was chocolate.

Emily: Um, this, this generation's version of that is Tiggermack.

Christine: Yes. And I actually know her as Tiggermack. Of

Emily: course. Of course. She's done a great job branding herself. She's

Rah: got a book coming out too, hasn't she? Yeah, she

Emily: does. Smart. And

Rah: she's created an app. Yeah, she's done some big cake

Emily: thingy.

Like a cake app.

Rah: An app? Yeah.

Emily: Yes, yes, yes. Where you, it's, uh, I think it's like cakes on the go or something. Yeah, it's, it's meant

Merlyn: to make your, um Assist you easier to find a cake maker in your area. Oh my God, that is

Rah: genius. It's a very clever idea, isn't it? So it's Tinder for cake people. Something like that.

That is such a genius

Christine: idea. I know, I know. I'd like cake delivered to me today.

Emily: The benefits of having a podcaster coming in ladies. She, she also, her book is called, Cake. Ah. Oh yeah. She does some

Christine: pretty decent stuff with the Woolworths chocolate mud cake. I've seen. I

Rah: found my favorite cake. BB eight. BB eight. That's a long way back in your archive, I think. But there's a BB eight cake.

Is that Star Wars? Yes, that was

Merlyn: I think the round Star Wars thing. There's a little boy holding a baby yo toy.

Emily: Isn't that like one of Leon's?

Merlyn: That's sixth birthday for Leon. Oh, so that's your boy. Yeah, the BB 8. Oh, I

Rah: love

Merlyn: BB 8. BB 8's my text notification. Oh, really?

Letting out all my nerd secret. Funny enough, my son doesn't like cakes. But her dad does like. That's so typical, right? I wonder when in my house you'd cake. Neither does mine. What? You're my husband. I'll move in. I'll move in.

Emily: It's deadly, trust me. My husband will inhale my cookies that I make. It's deadly.

But we'll not, the kids both have actually Arabella, Arabella eats it all, but um, she loves anything sweet. But Ben will eat cookies, but will not touch anything else. Wow.

Rah: So basically your own are the worst.

Merlyn: Yeah. I suppose because they see it on a daily basis, there's nothing exciting

Rah: about it. So listen, stop trying so hard mums.

Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. It's

Emily: not the worst thing for them not to like Yeah. It says the child free lady.

Rah: Stop trying. Get somebody else. Yeah. To make

Emily: your cake for you. That's right. , I gotta ask you, did the Lu, is it Lumie, the French guy, was he French

Merlyn: Lumous cake? Yeah. Mr. Hotty. Ty on the cake guy. He's actually from Venezuela, but he lives in in France.

Maybe that's why I think he's. Yeah, because

Emily: for anyone that most people should, I reckon, have come across him, he does these beautiful hand painted, like portraits on, it's fondant, right? On fondant, yeah. And then they, I'll find it, and then they integrate it into the cake. He came, I was looking at his classes, like he came and did a few classes at Cake Decorating Central.

Yeah,

Merlyn: I think, uh, I saw that you went last year. Um, he had a class in November and I had the opportunity to attend one. And, uh, it's interesting to explore, um, something else. Yep. Um, painting on cake. It's not my thing, but, uh, it was, it was good to understand that there are other techniques, um, and, uh. Just to see if, you know, it brings a spark into something new.

Your cake you did though was stunning. I feel your final product was

Emily: gorgeous.

Merlyn: Yeah, it was, it was good. And I was quite, um, I was quite proud of myself that I could finish the cake.

Christine: But is it something like if I, you know, somebody comes and orders a cake, like, is it something that you would go, Oh yeah, okay.

I could. I could offer that as a decoration or, um, option, or as it was great to do know that I did an okay job, but it's not my jam. So therefore it's not going to be something I'm going to offer in my cakes.

Merlyn: Look at this point in time, I, I take whatever job I want to do.

Christine: Fair enough. Fair enough.

Merlyn: I just feel like, uh, at this point in time, um, I'm not here to do everybody's cake.

I've done and dusted. I'm here now to do. What I feel it's in my pack book, what I like to do, what I feel like, Oh yeah, this is my feel. I'll do it. For example, uh, I don't work with black. If you look at my Instagram, you hardly will see any black. So when people come, can you bake me a dozen cupcakes with black icing?

I said, no, sorry, I don't work with black. And that is for specific reasons I don't like. To, um, I'm quite conscious about, um, health issues and what coloring does to people digestive systems

Emily: and, uh,

Merlyn: flavors and those sort of things. So, um, I just don't, don't feel comfortable using black, um, in so many, in such a big quantity.

And, uh, um, I just like to educate people on how to use. Coloring in icing, uh, up to a certain extent, because it's, it's misinformation. Um, and, and obviously the industry brings, um, innovative products used to make our work easier, more fancy, more beautiful, but, um, we also need to understand that there is a limit that you can reach when you're using all colors.

So, um,

Rah: So you don't say yes to everything, because if it's, if you're not comfortable with it.

Merlyn: No, no,

Emily: I don't. I don't feel, um. Your ability with color, I think, is actually something that really sets you apart from others. Yes.

Merlyn: And, and I think it, it is. And I, I feel like, um, that is one of the characteristics of my work.

And, uh, I feel like that is coming from my graphic design background. Yeah, a hundred percent. Um, and I try to teach the students, you know, how to get, um, color coordinations, um, by use Google, Googling, you know, a mix of colors and, and to see what it brings. So they have an idea what to, how to combine things.

Emily: Yeah. I mean, I love it. Cause I talk about color a lot from branding perspective and businesses, and so color is one of my favorite things. We're getting the signal from old, old boss over here. Yeah. The ball and chain in the corner going.

Christine: But I think this is actually testament. This is fascinating. Yeah. No, really.

It's been really enjoyable to look at you that the time is starting to get away a little bit from us. Yeah. Alrighty. I do

Emily: want to ask one question before Chris's question though. You go for it. Go for it. It's nothing that exciting. Um, what advice would you give someone else wanting to start their own business?

Merlyn: Look, um, my advice will be, give it a go. People will always tell you, Oh no, there are too many of that in the market. Why don't you choose something else? No, don't do it. Think about it. Look, you just got the security of the nine to five job. Uh, you know, it's, if you find that you have that spark in yourself.

You gotta give it a go. Yeah, love it. And if it doesn't work, it didn't work, but you have to try. You definitely have to try because the chances to succeed are in yourself. And

Rah: if you don't try, the answer's already no. Correct.

Emily: Yep, that's right. And you'd be surprised how resilient people are.

Merlyn: Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. Absolutely. And it's funny, but when you encounter problems and difficulties is when you actually find answers in you above. In your business journey, because you are resilient, you don't want to give up. And then it's when, you know, something happens, it click, and then you go back on track. I mean,

Christine: I think, you know, a good analogy is that, you know, there is not one.

single recipe for a chocolate. There is thousands of ways to get to an end result of a chocolate cake. So in business, if one recipe doesn't work, pick another one and change an ingredient and see how that goes. Um, and then keep trying until it does. And you'll,

Rah: you'll always have that unique ingredient, which is you.

Absolutely. Yes. That no one else can replicate. It's like the 11 herbs and spices. No one's going to That's so true. So true.

Christine: Yeah. All right, my lovely. Merlin. If I had a box that had all the things that you had lost, misplaced over the course of your life up to this point, do you think there's something that you would like to find and take out of that box?

Merlyn: I think it is. Um, as much as I love Australia with all my heart and my might, I do miss my family. You know, I think time will be one of those things that I would like to pick up from that box to give me a bit more time with them. I haven't seen them in many years. And, um, A family is a lot, but now I have a family on my own.

It's just time to, to, to be with the ones that, you know, once were your loved ones and meant everything to you, they were your world. So time will be that thing for me. Yeah,

Emily: I could do some time too. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. Yeah, that's a beautiful answer. I love it. Yeah. Well, look, I think that is it for today's episode.

Thank you so much. No, amazing. Joining us. Thank you so much. So excited to have

Merlyn: you. Yeah. Too much fun. It was beautiful. It did feel like a conversation. Not too scary. That's what we're going for. No, a conversation with three friends. Yeah.

Rah: Absolutely. 100%.

Merlyn: Fantastic. I love it. Yeah. I really, I can't wait to see where this is going to take you girls.

Oh, thank you. So can we. Yeah, no, we are.

Rah: We're a

Merlyn: bit impatient tonight.

Rah: And

Christine: a world domination. Do not give up. No.

Emily: Because this is too much fun. Also, shout out to the Bella Vista Hotel. Thank you again for hosting us. Uh, in this lovely podcast studio and, uh, for everyone that's listening, thank you kindly for, um, taking the time.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review, like share it with your friends, you know, send it around the place. Um, and we'll link everything into our show notes and also check out our brand new website. Yeah. Um, that is now live. We'll have a lovely bio and links for the lovely Merlyn on our website under the episode for today.

Bye bye. Yep. So thanks. Peace out, everyone.

Bye!