Is it a bowl of rice? No, it’s a… cake!
His ultimate goal: adding rock ’n roll to the baking world. And he’s doing a pretty good job. As Bake King, Ben Cullen bakes up a storm, and his cakes are anything but an ordinary mocha slice or cream cake.
The Bake King specialises in working with fondant and an airbrush. ‘Maybe it comes from my background as a tattoo artist,’ says Ben. ‘I’m very good at airbrushing; I absolutely love it.’ His cakes are more like works of art, sculptures, he says. His inspiration? Horror films, current affairs and pop culture – especially everything and everyone with tattoos.
Dad’s birthday cake
‘I started making cakes when the mother of a tattoo client showed me photos of a plastic Peppa Pig. I thought: that’s a toy. It turned out to be a cake she had made. I was immediately intrigued.’ Ben got the cake recipe from his mother and got to work on a birthday cake for his father. ‘Looking back, it was a terribly ugly thing, but at the time I was incredibly proud.’
Pasta is a pastry
Ben was in business. Standard wedding cakes and cute cupcakes aren’t really his thing, but if you want to order a lifelike Chucky or a bleeding heart, the Bake King is the right person for the job. Lifelike pasta that turns out to be a pastry, oranges you could eat straight away and a crisp salad made from sugar, cake and chocolate too: Bake King makes it all, and here he shows you how.
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