About The Polished Spoon
Welcome to "the polished spoon", a boutique home bakery relocated to lovely Mudgee, where you can learn how to bake from scratch, learn cake decorating and custom cake design. Vegan and Vegetarian baking and cake decorating included.
The Polished Spoon Description
* Classes and Workshops
Learn the Art of Vegan and Egg Free Scratch Baking, Cooking and Beautiful Cakery through my classes and workshops.
With over 13 years experience trialling and developing recipes without eggs, dairy or any animal products I am now able to confidently claim the recipes I offer are equally as good, if not better, than the traditional recipes. Many of the recipes I use and share in my classes and workshops have been adapted from traditional family recipes handed down from generation to generation.
*Wedding & Special Occasion Cakes.
My aim has to been to mainstream vegan wedding and special occasion cakes. I have developed a range of vegan friendly cake flavours that are superior to those recipes containing animal based products. They are now enjoyed by vegans and non vegans alike.
I personally bake every cake from scratch using the best quality ingredients. I do not freeze them to ensure they come to you as fresh as possible – and you can freeze any leftovers should you so desire. Experienced in decorating cakes, the attention to detail I pay to every cake – vegan or otherwise - ensures a perfect finish and an exquisite design that is sure to impress your guests. There is little restriction to the designs I can replicate for vegan wedding cakes.
With the exception of a true mud cake – most flavours can be adapted to become vegan. I don’t use packaged egg replacer, preferring to use unprocessed alternatives. To give you an indication the flavours of vanilla, chocolate, coconut, carrot, orange and orange /almond are all popular, and this year my dark vegan fruitcake is making a comeback. If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, how about a vegan friendly hummingbird, a black forrest, or lime /coconut to name just a few.
Vegan Catering.
I love cooking and have recently branched into vegan friendly catering and again I specialise in developing recipes that can be enjoyed by both vegans and non vegans alike. My vegan friendly curried pumpkin soup is a good example along with an old fashioned pearl barley /vegetable soup. I offer a good range vegan friendly old fashioned desserts including apple pie, fruit cobbler, self saucing puddings, custard slice, & baked cheesecake. I'm developing a range of mains - shepherds pie, rissoles, pizza with mozzarella cheese as a starting point, and I combine these with some evergreen salad and vegetable recipes. I am available for functions large and small.
Personal
I love to bake and make people smile; and I love meeting people and sharing my cooking, baking and cake decorating knowledge.
Reviews
This is my second cake that I have had Carol make for me for special birthdays, (one my own, 65th). Both were fruitcakes with beautiful light icing and nicely decorated. Carol excelled herself once again. One of my favourite cakes are fruit cakes, and I am pretty touchy about fruitcakes.
The special ingredient Carol seems to put into all of her cooking that apart from my late Mum and my wonderful Mother in Law puts in is LOVE. You can taste this special ingredient.
Stay away from this cake maker if you are bride wanting quality or value! While the quality of the finished cake was ok, I ended up paying more than $11 per person for an average cake that was NOTHING like a test cake that I had to pay separately for. The test cake was great and the wedding cake was like the poor cousin. Carol will quote low and end up charging you double or triple the amount she originally quoted. She does this through hiding costs for test cakes, service charges for setting up the cake, and hire costs with terms and conditions that are only visible to her. She is nearly impossible to pin down, either via phone or email, and does not like putting her quotes in writing. She changes the goal posts week to week, and you really are playing Russian Roulette as to what you will be getting. Do not trust her!