Some people have tattoos of Katherine Sabbath’s desserts – that’s how committed they are to her cakes. Given that the self-taught baker has around 400,000 followers, it’s not a surprise that fans are so dedicated.

Katherine’s blockbuster creations range from a Palm Springs wedding cake to a cantilevered cake with hardware parts that she made for an architect. She’s also made birthday cakes for Andy Bowdy and Ken Done – and she’s collaborated with fashion label Romance Was Born, too.

Even though her desserts are epic, it’s surprising to learn that her approach is actually lo-fi. She uses her dad’s plastering joint knife as a cake scraper and a lazy Susan from Ikea as cake turntable.

We also talk about Katherine’s previous life as a high school teacher and I could totally imagine her being the schoolkids’ favourite – she is so charming, likeable, good-humoured and down-to-earth relatable. We even get into some #realtalk about social media and how representative it truly is.

Plus, we also cover her cake-making triumphs and disasters; how to turn a dessert fail into a win; the irony of her being an Instagram star, given that she was the last person in her friendship group to join that platform; and her spectacular new Greatest Hits pop-up cookbook, which weighs 2.5kgs and is filled with stunning contributions by her collaborators (which include Benja Harney, Tracy Lines, Nikki To). It’s available here and is honestly one of the most amazing books I’ve ever seen.

You can listen to this episode on iTunes or download it via RSS or directly. You can even find it on Stitcher nowadays. And thanks to everyone who has said generously said nice things about this podcast (kudos especially to Lemonpi, who always sends me a cheering comment) or even dropped a kind review in the iTunes Store (aka Apple Podcasts) – it all has a caffeinating effect while I upload the podcast at a curfew-busting hour!

Photography courtesy of Nikki To.