Sugar Crush: Coco Cake Land Meets Katherine Sabbath

Alright cake maniacs. Are you ready to have your mind blown into laser-light-show Led Zeppelin rainbow space dust? I’m so pumped to have Katherine Sabbath as my first interview on my new series Sugar Crush.

I first “met” the gorgeous and inter-gallactically talented Katherine Sabbath (her name is so deeply head bangingly thrashingly METAL) through Instagram last year and I’m so excited to share her beautiful work. When I came across her feed, i nearly died. Her feed absolutely explodes with vivid colour and energy, all in the form of her fantastical cake and dessert creations. Her positive energy is contagious and I’ve enjoyed becoming online cake pals with this rainbow-bright star!

Kat is immensely talented at what she does – she is both a high school teacher, which I just love – how cool would it be to have her as your geography teacher? I can only imagine all the students she’s inspired – AND she’s a master of cakes. She is also the sweetest, most positive and friendly woman (possibly the coolest person in Australia!? Ha!). Her cake style and originality is unmatched – imagine cross-breeding a million rainbows, three unicorns, sparkly gold medallions, the moon and several stars with an Olympic swimming pool crammed with sugar, sprinkles, chocolate and caramel, and forming it all into artfully stylized, sculptural-looking cake creations.

She also has a macabre and hilarious sense of humour – no body part is left unturned when it comes to creating it in candy or chocolate form, from chilli chocolate bloody eyeball cupcakes to entirely edible fake chocolate teeth with gold “fillings” in glow in the dark pastel shades. Her work is playful, brightly energetic but also full of flavours and textures such as rose chocolate shards, freeze fried raspberries, chocolate ganache, toffee, pretzels and caramel.

She calls this one a UNICORN CHEESCAKE. From Kat: “It’s made up of layers of vanilla bean, pistachio & raspberry rainbow cheesecake on an Oreo crust, topped with butterscotch frosting & adorned with my intergalactic chocolate, unicorn pyramids, chocolate pearls, musk dust & edible confetti.”  

You really can’t help but smile and/or drop your jaw at her creations. The colours, textures, drips and flavours are so inspiring. So here she is: the rippingly cool Kat! Her cakes and desserts seem like an extension of herself: madly creative, bursting with colour, DROP DEAD GORGE and a defined aesthetic.

COCO CAKE LAND: What is your name, occupation, and where are you from?

KATHERINE SABBATH: Hello! My name is Katherine Sabbath and I am a High School Teacher (History, Geography, English, and Commerce) from Sydney, Australia. I’m also an after-hours “dessert-aholic!”

Katherine, not only are the cakes and desserts you make full of this brilliantly vibrant, exuberant energy, but they also each have such a playful, colourful and sculptural feel. What inspires your creations?

Oh shucks, thank you so very much. To be honest – absolutely everything! Inspiration can come from the confectionary aisle of a local supermarket, the colour palette of a friend’s dress, or the natural beauty and architecture of our astounding environment. More often than usual though, I bake according to the flavours and textures I feel like eating at the time…Which is actually almost anything! I’ve always loved experimenting with art and drew a lot whilst I was growing up. I think transferring this child-like creativity into my baking was just a natural extension!

Did you always love baking and desserts? When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I certainly always enjoyed eating them! As a child, I always loved art and creating things – you’d normally find me sitting quietly, building a city made out of Lego or making funny objects with Playdough, probably humming a breakfast cereal jingle I heard earlier that morning on TV. It sounds ridiculous to me now but when I was little, I desperately wanted to be a ballerina and practised every day! Haha, to put this into context, I had really big ears, suffered from curvature of the spine, had a nasty speech-impediment, and pranced about on two seriously massive feet. Look, I was a modern-day Helen of Troy!

Who are some of your favourite bands and music? Favourite films, and visual artists? I feel like culture and the world around you plays a part in your creations, whether subconsciously or not …

My all-time favourite band is Nine Inch Nails and they’ve played as the soundtrack to my life for the last 14 years now. I will never, ever tire of their extraordinary music and Trent Reznor’s smooth, honeyed voice! I’m also an enormous fan of metal music (black metal to be specific) and enjoy the work of Enslaved, Immortal, Gojira, and Opeth. My favourite classics are ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), Queen, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, and Gary Numan! My favourite movies are Kill Bill and Zoolander – it’s a nice mix, I know! As for visual artisits, I’m a lover of post-modernist, surrealist as well as classical art.

How deeply do your students freak out when you bring your cakes to school??

They bully me in the playground for cake…Every single day, haha!

Do you see yourself moving towards baking in the future as a profession, or will it continue to be a hobby?

I would absolutely love to continue baking and possibly take it to an even greater scale in the future (with my eyes set on a website, cookbook and who knows, maybe even a television show?!) but for now I’m very passionate about high school teaching and so I’m riding the cake wave as it comes!

What are your favourite foods? What would your last meal on Earth be?

My favourite type of foods would have to be either Italian or Mexican – I LOVE pizza and how amazing are tacos?! Is there such a thing as a taco pizza or a pizza taco? If so, someone give me its number so I can take it out on date night. My last meal on Earth would be either of these things, followed by a vast array of desserts – I’m talking salted caramel, hot chocolate fudge, chocolate mousse, peanut butter-frosted monstrosities!

Who are some of your other favourite creators, and their blogs or Instagrams? (doesn’t have to be cake related!)

I absolutely love Antonio Bachour for his breath-taking and masterful desserts as well as gorgeous plating techniques, Caroline from Nectar & Stone (Instagram: @nectarandstone) for her very stylish images and feminine approach to her work, and of course Coco Cake Land! I’ve been a big fan of yours Lyndsay for two years now and you continue to be such an inspiration! I love your eye for ‘impact’ in your cakes and the wonderful way in which you support other creatives – we need more proactive people like you in the community!

(DEEPLY FLATTERED!! Kat made her version of my mutant bunny cake for her little cousin’s birthday this year! I pretty much died of cuteness when I saw it.)

Hope you guys all enjoyed my first Sugar Crush interview with Katherine Sabbath – follow her bonkers amazing feed on Instagram! So many excellent things to come for you, Kat! Thanks so much for taking the time! xo Lyndsay