I’m Pedro, 28, I’m from Lisbon (Portugal) and I studied Visual Arts in Caldas da Rainha. I always liked to bake but never thought I would be taking cake orders. During college, I worked mostly on drawing and then on music.
I realised how boundless and how much there is to explore in baking after a small online workshop with Alli from @cakes4sport during the pandemic. I decided to make an Instagram page to share the cakes I would be making for fun and shortly after I started getting more and more orders

I think I naturally arrived at baking as my medium after other more traditional art mediums didn’t inspire me as much, and I didn’t see myself following the art world path. I’m really intrigued by the cake form because it has a utility in itself and at the same time is decorated and marks an event/celebration. So there are all these elements that make it an art object but it isn’t exactly one.

It’s just what I came up with. I don’t see the cakes I make, especially the first ones, as unconventional, it’s just my way of making them.

I’m very inspired by my friends as their creativity and commitment always surprise me. I have the luck of having amazing artists around me like Ema Gaspar, Guilherme Figueiredo, Zé Maldito, and many more. Inspiration and references come from everywhere, I couldn’t track them even if I tried.
I have this idea of my work like a pop star that needs to keep putting things out, pushing the envelope of their sound and visuals and even identity, which is something so absurd and so tied to capitalism and the way we consume. I like to use that idea as a narrative to try different things and have fun.

I think so, and I have come to that conclusion from some messages I get from people who are repulsed or just really confused when they stumble on my cakes. I don’t know if it’s the neon colours, the way I apply frosting, the dried elements or the abstract way I approach themes but something puts some people off, and that’s interesting. I’m also very interested in taking traditional elements and giving them a different context.

The flavours are chosen by the person who is ordering. Normally I don’t think of that connection, but that’s something to consider for the future.

It was very important. I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to have reached so many people in such little time if it wasn’t for Instagram. At the same time, it’s all very vapid and the fact that we as creators are dependent on an algorithm and people’s attention span and trends is very challenging. As an artist I have to trust what makes sense to me most of all but when working with social media there’s this idea of the public’s expectation which can compromise quality, it’s a very fine line.

I was definitely influenced by it, by seeing such amazing bakers, most of them amateurs, showing their creations online and embodying the ‘imperfect’ like I do. But I don’t pay too much attention to trends.

Not at all. I actually think it’s pretty fun to see the cakes on my fridge after I finish them and realise they will become only available in the digital realm pretty soon. The fact they are perishable takes the pressure off my shoulders, I feel that if I was doing traditional sculpture it would be way harder to make decisions.

I feel really humbled and grateful when people say they are inspired by my cakes and some even recreate them. Right now, I wish to create cakes for different contexts and be able to take them to new spaces and collaborate with more people. I also wish I can still surprise myself and my followers, that’s what makes it all so fun.