May Cake Decorator Spotlight
The Flour Girl
I am pleased to announce that Lindsay, @theflourgirl_ is the May Cake Spotlight Decorator! From our chats on Instagram and her stories, she is extremely generous & humble and always willing to help bakers!
(Side Note: Her answers are in Canadian English)
Hi Lindsay! Tell us about yourself.
Hi Diana! I am a 26-year-old baker from Toronto, Canada! I went to university to study neuroscience at the bachelors and masters degree level. I am currently aiming to pursue a career in the medical field.
In the meantime, I am running my own business called The Flour Girl! I create a variety of custom cakes and desserts and regularly share them to my Instagram page @theflourgirl_. My family and boyfriend of nearly 9 years are all extremely supportive of my business and academic endeavours! I am so grateful to have them in my life.
How did you start making cakes?
One summer, my best high school friend Melody suggested we take a cake decorating class for fun! We were both terrible at making cakes! During this class, I learned a few basic techniques to make beautiful cakes. After that class, I baked occasionally for family events or birthdays.
It wasn’t until 2017 that I started frequently making cakes. I was under a lot of stress as I was doing my master’s degree. Making cakes was my creative and mental outlet to escape from all that stress! Family and friends kept suggesting that I start selling my cakes. I thought it was a crazy idea ESPECIALLY since I was still doing my degree, but one day I just came up with a name and impulsively started an Instagram page to post whatever dessert photos I had!
Why did you decide to use flour buttercream as your preferred buttercream?
When I first learned to make cakes, I was taught to make American buttercream. I didn’t know that any other types of buttercream even existed. After a while, my family started complaining that my cakes were too sweet because of the icing. I really didn’t want to stop making cakes so I figured I would look into a less sweet form of buttercream (if that even existed!). I came across flour buttercream on the internet and I decided to give it a try. I made it once and never made American buttercream again! It’s fluffy and stable like American buttercream, but it doesn’t crust over much making it easier to smooth on a cake and doesn’t leave you with that overwhelming burst of sugar in your mouth.
Do you have favorite cake styles?
I sure do! I mean, the trends in the cake decorating world are always changing. I like my cakes bright and colourful with lots of sprinkles. Sometimes, I like to do things a little more classy and incorporate metallics with fresh florals. I’m kind of torn between those two styles. All the cakes I make are buttercream-covered and sometimes I use whipped-cream icing but I never cover cakes in fondant. I don’t prefer working with fondant and it is painful to watch others peel the fondant off after spending all the time applying it to the cake!
How did you build your social media presence?
It took me about a year and a half to reach 5000 followers on Instagram and then just a few months more for that number to explode exponentially. Before this point, I was really new to Instagram and I didn’t really know how hashtags and photography worked. Eventually, I realized that because Instagram is a photo-sharing app, the photo quality is very important. If my photos aren’t eye-catching and bright, they will not be noticed!
I continued to teach myself more about Instagram and photography so I could improve my account. I wouldn’t say I’m the best photographer and I still have a long way to go with my photos, but I have also come a very long way. I’ve also found that it is very important to respond to your followers, leave nice comments, make friends! I have met so many amazing and talented individuals on Instagram and I’m really grateful for their kindness and support. It wouldn’t be the same experience without like-minded people to share with.
What are your favorite tools to make your cakes?
My all-time favourite tool to make my cakes is my KitchenAid stand mixer. I started my business making all my creations with a hand mixer. The stand mixer was a gift for my 25th birthday and it was life-changing! I can multitask while things are mixing!! As for cake decorating, my favourite tool is my tiny offset spatula! It’s what I was taught to decorate cakes with and it might be a little inefficient due to its small size but I just love it!
Where do you look for cake inspiration?
Everywhere! I am inspired by other Instagram bakers, trends such as unicorns, rainbows, cactus, and pineapple-themed things, sprinkle mixes, even patterns I see on gift wrap or items of clothing! I think inspiration can come from the simplest things. Sometimes I think people overthink this when the inspiration could just be right in front of them!
Do you have any advice for a beginner baker?
Yes! My biggest piece of advice is never to give up! Nobody creates a perfect cake after one attempt. Not even after a few attempts. Baking takes a TON of time, effort, and even money! I encourage new bakers to ask questions, watch video tutorials in IG or YouTube, find a local class, or even Google things you aren’t sure of! Some of the first cakes I made were horrible but imagine if I gave up? The Flour Girl would not exist.
It’s very difficult to be a brand new baker and compare your bakes to all the picture perfect cakes on Instagram. I like to remind everyone that we are all on a journey and at different stages in this journey. It wouldn’t be right to compare your 1st cake to someone’s 100th cake. Put your head down and keep working! You will get there with time and patience and one day you will look back and be so proud of where you came from.
Do you have a hobby?
When I was younger I used to play competitive ice hockey for about 10 years! I was a goalie for my team. I didn’t continue playing hockey once I started university because I just didn’t have the time. I started to miss it, but then I got really into working out and fitness! So now I make time every day to go to the gym or do yoga. I have suffered from severe migraines since I was 6 years old and picking up my fitness, I have never felt healthier! So naturally, I have stuck with it for a few years now.
What is your favorite TV show?
At this current moment, my favourite TV show would be 90 Day Fiancé on TLC. It is about Americans who meet significant others in other countries around the world. Eventually when these couples get engaged, they apply for a fiancé visa that gives them 90 days in the United States to get married, otherwise, the foreigners have to be sent back to their home countries. Some couples are genuine and work out well but others are a hot mess. There’s also some spinoffs that show where the couples are up to after marriage or what happens before 90 day process even begins. I think it’s an absolutely ridiculous show, but I love that type of reality TV. It’s really interesting and can be pretty funny. My whole family watches it including my grandma!
Cakes I’ve Made
The Flour Girl 2nd Anniversary Cake
I decided to decorate this cake inspired by my logo! I finished it off with Sweetapolita “Spring Fling” sprinkles that a lovely friend sent me! It was a lime cake with cherry filling and strawberry flour buttercream.
My first cake attempt of this anniversary cake was a failure. I’m almost certain the layer I used for the base of the cake had a weak spot so it collapsed with the weight of the other layers. This was a learning process! My logo, fails, and friends all were represented in this cake.
Rainbow Cake
This was the first time doing a cake collaboration with a guy baker on Instagram. I’ve been dying to make something rainbow so I had the best time making this cake. It was a vanilla cake with lemon-vanilla bean flour buttercream and I added strawberry callebaut chocolate crispearls to this cake.
Sprinkle Geode Square Cake
I made this for a cake collab and the point of this collab was to create something using a new technique or style that is a little outside your box. I decided to do a square cake since it’s a little less common, plus I tried out this new “cracked” looking cake trend. I finished it off with Sweetapolita “Flight of the Unicorn” sprinkles and black sugar sheets that I broke into spikes.
The cake was the ultimate chocolate cake from Cake Confidence by Baking With Blondie, filled with ganache and Callebaut chocolate dark crispearls and covered in chocolate flour buttercream.
Elegant Birthday Cake
I’m really proud of this cake because I’ve been itching to do some more elegant cakes and I LOVE making flower arrangements on cakes. This was a pink champagne cake filled with homemade strawberry reduction and coated in strawberry flour buttercream. I palette knife painted the outside and finished it off with Sweetapolita “Dream On” sprinkles.
Pink Ombré Champagne Cake
This was a vanilla bean champagne cake filled with a strawberry reduction and coated in vanilla bean flour buttercream. I decided to go with a pink scheme to go with the strawberry flavour and an ombre “bubbly” effect to go with the champagne flavour. My client surprised his wife with this cake for her birthday because she is a big fan of my cakes. I was so excited to be part of this surprise!
Starry Night Cake
I iced this cake with royal icing which was a massive challenge on its own! I wasn’t 100% sure of the best consistency to use. Once dry, I painted a watercolor base coat as a guideline for the royal icing painting. I decided to do Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” because I love the colours and I’m not a painter so this was difficult for me! I kept it majorly whimsical and rough because that was my interpretation of the original art piece.
Spring Colors Square Cake
I’ve had this cake vision in my head for a few weeks now and I went for a watercolour effect, inverted 2-tone ganache drip, and finished it off with my current favourite sprinkle mix Sweetapolita “Spring Fling”, princess beads, and turquoise rods.
Ferreo Rocher Inspired Cake
Here’s a Nutella cake I made. For some reason on my first attempt to make this, the cake began to collapse downwards as I crumb coated and I think the combination with the soft Nutella filling was just a disaster. I had to fully rebake the cake and remake the icing. I’m glad it all worked out in the end! Decoration inspired by a Ferrero Rocher.
Winter Wonderland Square Cake
Square cakes are something I’d love to perfect this year! I love the modernity and geometric style. Inside was a moist chocolate mocha cake with coffee flour buttercream, coated in vanilla flour buttercream, and decorated with @SweetSticks edible silver paint splat, Sweetapolita “Glitz” sprinkles, and chocolate snowflakes.
Cotton Candy Sprinkle Cake
The cake was a moist blue and pink marbled vanilla bean cake, filled with confetti cake dip, and coated in cotton candy flour buttercream. I added pink jimmies to my white icing for extra fun. I finished it off with a 2-tone drip.
Portuguese Inspired Cake
Revealing the super special cake I made my mom for mother’s day! This cake has a very specific theme and inspiration: Portugal (Azores). My mom was born on São Miguel Island of the Azores of Portugal. If you’ve ever visited Portugal you definitely would have seen the painted blue and white tile murals on the sides of buildings. They’re called azulejos. I freehand painted the sides of this cake to resemble those. I added the hydrangeas on top because they are very characteristic of São Miguel Island (literally the roads and fields are lined with them!). Lastly, I added a passion fruit because they are a really popular fruit in Portugal and my mom loves them! The inside is a vanilla raspberry swirl cake with passion fruit (maracujá) AND pasteis de nata (Portuguese custard tart) filling all covered in a rough concrete-like layer of vanilla bean buttercream. Of course, my mom LOVED it.
Mermaid Tail Cake
I made this cake for my little cousins and the cake is vanilla cake with vanilla flour buttercream! I finished it off with a chocolate mermaid tail and Sweetapolita “Attention to De-Tail” which might be my favourite mix ever.
Unicorn Cupcakes
I was icing the cupcakes at an ungodly hour of the night and ran out of rainbow icing when I got to the last cupcake. I had to remake every colour just for ONE cupcake then my kitchenaid broke. The cupcakes are lemon with raspberry filling and raspberry flour buttercream which is one of my fave combos!
Purple Sprinkle Cake
This cake was inspired by my strawberry champagne cake that I posted on my Instagram and she requested a purple colour scheme. I went for a different top border to make it unique and added Sweetapolita “Berry Cute” sprinkles and metallic triangles to make it pop! It was a chocolate cake with mango flour buttercream, one of my favourite flavour combos.
Purple & Teal Sprinkle Cake
I made this cake for a client which was a confetti cake with raspberry filling, covered in vanilla flour buttercream. I finished it off with Sweetapolita “Buried Treasure” sprinkles because I felt they matched perfectly!
Gorgeous cakes! I enjoy seeing Lindsay’s cakes, so definitely give her a follow on her Instagram to keep up with her fun creations and get discount codes!
Check out the past cake decorators!
