Celebrity baker Dorothy Klerck goes for BOLD – again!
In 2016, renowned cake artist Dorothy Klerck created an enormous 650-kilogramme Rhino Cake that was displayed at the Good Food & Wine Show (GF&WS) in order to raise funds for rhino conservation. Now, the Cape’s prize baker is at it once again. This time around, she’s taken on a task of mammoth proportions, literally.
Dorothy, who is fondly known as Dot, is creating the world’s largest Elephant Cake for the upcoming show in Cape Town, in aid of The Elephant Project SA. She is using this extraordinary feat of baking, together with her profile as a celebrity chef, to make a difference. Dot’s gargantuan cake is intended to raise awareness about an enormously pressing issue – dwindling elephant numbers and the dire need to protect these creatures from ivory poaching.
“I’m excited about being involved with such an amazing project to highlight the plight of these majestic giants,” Dot explains. You can find out more about this worthy cause here [LINK TO ELEPHANT CAKE ARTICLE], but for now, we’re keen to learn a little more about Dot herself, the face behind these extraordinary cakes!
Mother-Artist-Creator, Dot resides in the small town of Wellington in the Western Cape, along with her supportive husband and four children. She is the owner and maestro behind Eat Cake Party, a company that specialises in custom-sculpted cakes.
Dot’s curious confectionary journey started in art school, where she first honed her skills as a sculptor. Her passion for baking and her fondant and icing sugar techniques developed in earnest when she began crafting cakes for her children’s birthdays – of course, a busy brood with plenty of birthdays gave her lots of opportunities for practice!
As you may well have gathered, Dot is no ordinary baker. She is a skilled designer who creates masterfully modelled cake toppers and spectacular three-dimensional cakes that place her at the forefront of her industry. Most recently, this award-winning cake artist was a 2016 finalist in the British Cake Masters Magazine Awards – the magazine has more than a million readers the world over!
Such is her incredible talent, that most people don’t believe that her creations are actually edible when they first see them! She prefers novelty cakes over wedding cakes, but no matter the occasion, her style raises the bar. Her work clearly demonstrates how quality baking goods can be moulded into aesthetically pleasing and impactful artworks. Naturally, it does help that her beloved husband is a cake engineer – he makes the bespoke support bases of her more elaborate constructions!
Dot says that she gets her inspiration from details, God’s creations and the sheer beauty of her surroundings. This is why she is so passionate about wildlife and its preservation.
To gain her inspiration for the mammoth Elephant Cake, Dot “recently went to visit the Knysna Elephant Park to get a closer look at these amazing animals. I took hundreds of photos from every angle and have been pouring over them ever since.”
We’ll be able to see how all this research translates into amazing artistry, when the completed cake is revealed at the GF&WS at the CTICC.
Besides her love of nature, Dot is also committed to having a positive impact upon her family and the world. She is also an active mountain biker.
It is clear from her dedication and list of favourite bakers – which includes cake heroes such as Karen Portaleo and Mike McCarey – that Dot takes great pride in her work. She maintains a good relationship with her customers and her detailed cake décor has a loyal global following. She shares her superlative skills at cake-making courses all over the world and is reguarly featured in international magazines.
Judging by the incredibly life-like, astounding Rhino Cake that Dot produced for last year’s show, there’s little wonder that she’s so respected. We can’t wait for this year’s accomplishment – Dot’s largest cake ever – to be revealed!
