Baking spring: Feminine floral cakes for the season

While working in the male-dominated IT industry, Princess Floresca is able to tap into her femininity through baking. Source: Princess Floresca

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Spring marks the arrival of fresh starts, dearly-missed sunshine, floral blooms - and cake.

Feminine and floral. Princess Floresca's name is epitomised in the creations she bakes and sells.

The female IT professional

After working in IT as a programmer in the Philippines for seven years, La Union native Princess Floresca was able to move to Australia under a skillled migrant visa in 2015.

"I moved to Australia without my family, but being on my own wasn't a new experience. When I was 21, I moved to Makati to work. I've been on my own since then."

Princess Floresca moved to Melbourne in 2015. Source: Princess Floresca

Being on her own meant having to fend for herself on both personal and professional fronts.

She shares that her first job was with a Japanese company in the Philippines where "the male and female divide was very evident. It wasn't meant to be discriminatory, but it was weird for females to be programmers. Women were expected to be more visual, like user interface development."

"When I started, it was unusual for women to be programmers especially in a male-dominated industry. Women were expected to do more visual work." Source: Princess Floresca

Princess shares that while there are still more women in visually intensive fields, females are gradually becoming more involved with hardcore IT work such as consultancy, support, server management and customer service management (CRM).

Icing on the cake

Involved in CRM herself, Princess found herself working from home and alone most of the time when she first came to Australia.

"The work was stressful and I had no creative outlet. I was also by myself a lot. I looked for a way to entertain myself," she shares, adding, "I taught myself how to bake - it was a surprise. The first few instructional baking videos I watched online were floral and feminine. I became known for these themes, so I stuck with them."

"The IT field is very technical and stressful. Baking for me is how I express my creative side." Source: Princess Floresca

Aside from discovering these themes, Princess also found herself leaning towards the use of buttercream instead of the more pliable fondant.

According to Princess, here are some tips to take note of when making buttercream icing:

Whisking aerates the icing and makes it fluffier. The proper paddle helps remove air pockets, while over-beating results in bubbles in the icing and undesirable texture. Should the icing form bubbles, let it rest for a few minutes until it deflates.
Temperature is important. Make sure that the butter is at room temperature before mixing. During the summer, turn on the cooling when making icing.
Use gel or oil food colouring instead of liquid. For a darker buttercream, let the icing rest for 3-4 hours so as to let the colour develop.

A cookie cake with royal icing buttercream Source: Princess Floresca

"I follow these tips and use my own buttercream icing recipe for my goods. It was difficult in the beginning though - I went through so many blocks of butter before I got the recipe right! It's even harder to make in the summer because it melts."

Fortunately, summer is still a good few months away and, amateurs wanting to try this challenging craft may find that spring may be more forgiving.

Princess' other offerings include kiddie cakes and donuts. Source: Princess Floresca

As Princess shares, "It's good to try different things. It took me a good few years to find baking - not realising I would excel in it and even make it a side business. IT is a stressful, competitive field. With baking, I'm able to be creative and feminine."