What would it be like to be living in a world where everything around is made of sugar, chocolate or biscuits? Like in the witch's house from the Grimm Brothers’ tale of Hansel and Gretel? Many have asked themselves that at least once in their lives and have wondered what it would be like.
We found a woman who has made just such a dream come true. Her name is Albena Petrova and she has been living in Canada for years. She has graduated ceramics and glass at the applied arts school in Sofia, but her passion is cookery. That is why when she arrived in Canada, she applied for a pastry making programme at the culinary arts school in Montreal. There, the secrets and magic of cake and pastry decoration were revealed to her. Albena took part in a series of competitions, winning a great many awards and earning recognition for her talent. One of them is Brides Around the World.
“In March I was invited to take part in the Brides Around the World project, along with 30 other cake decorators from around the world. We each had to create a cake inspired by a wedding dress from different corners of the planet. We were given free rein to choose whether to make it contemporary or vintage and which part of the world it should come from. I had no hesitation because it was a perfect opportunity for me to make the cake I had wanted to for so long – a cake inspired by Bulgarian embroidery.”
But why did she choose embroidery for her cake decoration?
“The first reason why I chose to decorate my cake with elements of the traditional Bulgarian national dress was that the embroidery is so beautiful, vivid and varied, with such elaborate stitching. This means it is a real challenge to replicate in sugar dough. The second reason is that I was myself born in Bulgaria and it gave me such pleasure to be able to present a creation of mine showing the beauty of Bulgarian national tradition.”
Albena has created hundreds of cakes in her career but what she remembers most vividly is that:
“The biggest challenge I had was my first big cake which earned me first prize for wedding cakes in Montreal. It was an Indian wedding cake and was really difficult to make. My inspiration was the Indian sari, but also the architecture of the Taj Mahal, a symbol of once-in-a-lifetime love. I remember I spent two sleepless nights making two of its tiers.”
In making each one of her cakes, Albena invests a huge amount of work, but also gives attention to each and every detail. To see more of her work, log onto albenacakes.com.
Photos: courtesy of Albena Petrova
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