Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Connie Viney's Cake Recipe Book

My cakes were getting bigger and more adventerous.  Setting up a cake business was becoming a possibility.  Then, there is the marketing aspect I would need to think about.  How to run a business- make it successful.  I looked at celebrities chefs and how they became so successful. The key factor was branding.  Developing a persona. It was not just about the food, but the image around it. The lifestyle, what you stand for. Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson are perfect examples.  Take a look at their cookbooks.  The food is only a small part of the design- there are also photos of their families, their kitchens, their friends- the lives they lead.  I wanted to play around with this notion of self promotion and branding.  I thought about my own persona when I was at my cake events. I liked to dress up and play the part of the 'Cake Lady'- priding herself on each cake being bigger and more extravagent than the last.  I wanted to develop a story/narrative for this cake lady.  What was my brand? What was I trying to sell? How, like the celeb chefs, could I get people to buy my cakes? 

Themes that ran through the cakes I had made- my life, my aesthetic. Fantasy, direct, physical, narrative, playful.

I wrote a short story about a cake lady.  Looked at fairytales, stories about morality, religion.  Like the cookbooks of celebrity chefs, I wanted to create my own recipe book, interspersed with stories of the cake lady.
Aesthetics- I looked at pop-up books.  I wanted to give the reader the ultimate experience and insight into another life.  Life size book. Giant. Walk into fantasy world and read story.  smell cake.


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