My Story
Bonjour!
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​Allow me to introduce myself – my name is Melanie Hall and I live and work in Rippleside Geelong, just one hour from Melbourne. The greater Geelong region encompasses the Bellarine Peninsula and the world-famous Surf Coast and Great Ocean Road; having such a wealth of produce close provides me with lots of inspiration for my teaching.
I worked in television, fashion and event management before moving to the country and setting up my cooking school 20+ years ago in Birregurra, home to the world famous Brae Restaurant, before moving to Geelong in 2020.
I am very keen to inspire and help home cooks discover techniques, methods and recipes to both enjoy and improve their cooking; my particular interest is in baking, both sweet and savoury.
Over the years, I have met and taught many people who profess to be good and competent cooks, but who go on to tell me that they’re not good bakers, and that, after some stressful failures, have decided that baking is not for them. The undeniable truth is that baking does require a more focussed approach than other forms of cooking; there are some scientific principles involved (not least weighing and measuring) – and many people see adhering to the rules as somehow clipping their creative wings. Nothing could be further from the truth – once you understand how to follow a recipe, and why you’re doing certain things in a certain order, then you have the Tom Daley ability to spring off the board and launch yourself into all manner of kitchen adventures.
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For the past thirty-five years, I have relied heavily on the skill, wisdom and experience in the chocolate-stained, splattered pages of the aptly named Cake Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum. First published in 1988 this book has been reprinted some sixty times and received innumerable awards, along with praise from many thousands of bakers at all skill levels. This is in no small way due to the unique combination of fastidious attention to detail and imagination that Rose brings to her passion.
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Many things have changed in the culinary world since 1988; to encompass such sweeping developments, Rose and her husband have spent several years working on a revised edition of the Cake Bible (to be released in March 2025 in Australia - already available in other countries). I am thrilled and honoured to share that Rose and her husband Woody have graciously given me permission to carry out a 'bake through' of the revised edition and share the results of my efforts here and on my social media accounts.
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I will begin this homage at the start of the book and progress from basic cakes, the building blocks of so many others, progressing through showcase cakes to wedding cakes, frostings and adornments and special decorative effects.
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I love my vintage and hand-written recipe books in particular; they speak not only of days gone by, but also of a time before we had access to the entire world for ingredients and equipment our grandmothers would have found bewildering. These recipes instead rely on fresh flour, sweet fresh butter, free range eggs, gentle spices and seasonal fruit, herbs and vegetables.
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It is in the spirit of all the cooks and bakers who have gone before us that I embark on this exciting adventure, learning from the best in the business and sharing my own experiences along the way - I do hope you'll join me...
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