Iman Louise from Westzaan won bronze at the Dutch championship last weekend with a creation of sugar flowers. “I’m very proud of it because the jury is super critical. Everything has to be perfect and botanically right,” says Iman, who owns a one-man wedding cake business.
Iman with her sugar flower creation with which she took bronze at the Dutch championship. – NH News
The winning flower garland is on her dining table. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think they were real flowers. And that mistake is made regularly. “For a while I made a wedding cake and I asked the newlyweds: ‘Do you like it?’ And then they said ‘yes, yes beautiful’. And I thought that could be a little more enthusiastic. It turned out. They thought I had bought roses in the store and I had easily got rid of them.”
Devising and making a flower is very intensive, time-consuming and meticulous work. In her studio, Iman shows how this works. The sugar is dyed, kneaded and rolled. Petals are cut and processed. “It is still too thick and needs to be flatter and thinner,” explains Iman. With knives, brushes and make-up washes she finally conjures up a perfect leaf. And then a real flower is made with wire. “Otherwise it is too weak. And during a match there should be nothing left of the wire at all.”
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Cake Decorator
For Iman it is a girl’s dream come true. “When I was 6 years old, I saw a pastry chef on TV who put a cake in the window with such passion that I ran to my mother and said, ‘I’ll be a cake decorator later on’.” And years later, when she attended a workshop in making sugar florets, she knew for sure. Laughing: “I was completely sold and I still do.”
England
In the Netherlands, making sugar flowers is not a very big tradition. “I estimate about such people of which 15 have made their job.” In England it is a very different story there is very old cake baking tradition. Iman has also participated in competitions and won prizes there before. “With so much competition, that is very special.” She has not stopped learning by a long way because there are always flowers that she has not yet sugared. “For example, I am currently practicing on a lantern. It is not quite the way I want it to be yet.”
Does Iman have anything to be desired? She has to think for a moment. “Yes, I would love to make a wedding cake for Princess Amalia.”
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