Preparing and making food has always been an essential part of my life. I have wonderful memories growing up in the rural heartland of Brazil where food is made lovingly from scratch. It’s an all-day communal affair, where stories are shared with family, friends and farmhands while splitting peas or stirring great pots of stew or making compotes and jams. To this day, it is something I dearly miss. So food is part of my soul, and sweet food especially.

In my mid-twenties, I moved to London to study business; but I soon longed for the food of my childhood and lost myself in cooking again. I soon realised I was climbing a ladder to nowhere, and so I enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu to study French cuisine. After one or two steps, including working for a two-star Michelin chef, I found myself making pastries at Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge, one of the great pastry kitchens of London.

After moving to Australia with my husband, I started making cakes and soaking up the beautiful natural surroundings where I found a connection with my home country. I had an opportunity to make a wedding cake for a friend and it was the unbridled joy that it delivered, not just for me but also the bride and groom, that got me hooked. It’s not a job, it’s a passion, a vocation. It’s an opportunity for me to be who I am: someone who delights in creating beautiful things inspired by all the splendour and the vagaries of nature and knowing that it will be an integral part of a very special day.