Interview #53: Marta Hidalgo Jiménez

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1. Tell us a little about yourself, family, where do you live and what did you do for a living before making cakes if anything?

Right now, I live in a little village in Seville with my two kids however, I have lived a big part of my life in Barcelona, where I studied Fine Arts until I started working in animation 2D as a storyboard and layout drawing artist. That was my main profession until I decided to stay home to raise my sons.

2. How long have you been doing cakes and why did you get started in cake decorating… was it by accident or did you always have a passion for it?

Well, I started last May when I was asked to make The Godfather cake. I was taking a general class on sugar-crafting (cookies, cakes, basic fondant modeling, …), but I heard of chocolate modeling which is very similar to clay. When I discovered it, it was like a revelation, and I started to develop it in a self-taught kind of way.

3. Is there one tool you cannot live without and one you don’t have yet but really want?

My main tools are my hands. One tool I would love to have is an airbrush.

4. I love your bust designs they are always so very realistic and the eyes always tell a story. Do have one small tip you can give us all too help us when making these type of creations?

One tip I would give is watching. I daily watch people around me, like my kids. I watch their features as a reference to create realistic figures.

5. What part of making cakes do you like most and least?

Obviously, what I like the most is modeling and finishing touches on my pieces. What I like the least is modeling during summer time because the heat makes chocolate modeling quite complicated.

6. Tell us one thing about yourself that many of us might not know already.

I love going mushroom hunting to the forest. I’m passionate about it.

8. Do you have a bucket list and if so what might one or two of those be and it does not have to be cake related?

Oh, yeah!!! Going with my kids to Disney World.

9. What would you say has been your biggest cake challenge to date and if you could have a do-over of that cake would you want too and what about it would you change?

My biggest challenge has been the Sugar Spooks’ collaboration. If I could do it all over again, I would have probably made her hair out of modeling chocolate instead of fondant. I have developed a technique that I would have loved to use with that piece.

10. Is their one technique or sugar skill that you have not tried yet but really would like to learn?

I would like to learn Isomalt and aerography

11. What is your favorite cake flavor you like to make?

Chocolate, of course!

12. Do you sketch your cakes or just wing it?

I never make sketches. I work directly from an idea in my head and pictures of faces that inspire me.

13. For anyone just starting out what would be one piece of advice you would give them?

Practice, practice and more practice. I always learn something new in every modeling figure I make. It doesn’t matter how many classes and courses you take, if you don’t practice you won’t get any better.

16. And one crazy one just for fun…If you could go back in time and be anybody in history where would you go, who would you be and why? ( example building of the pyramids, Cleopatra)

I don’t think I would like being someone else. However, I would love to travel in time to Italy during the Renaissance and watch artist from that period working on their masterpieces