Today Māori Television turns 18 years old and what better way to celebrate than with cake?
We asked Hamilton cake artist Leonie Hemopo of Ngāti Wai and Ngati Pāoa if she could make us something delicious for our birthday and even though she's camera-shy, she agreed to let us into her kitchen.
It's a creative challenge that cake-artist Hemopo was happy to accept - a German chocolate cake inspired by Whakaata Māori.
“Usually, if I'm honest, I don't really come up with a design until at least three days before I don't know why I do that. I don't know why I stress myself out like that. But it's just how I flow. I've managed to get it spot on every time,” she says.
A self-taught baker, Hemopo created a Facebook page called Baysik Creations four years ago, to share her love of baking cakes, her artwork and even DIY projects around her house. Eventually, it turned into her successful cake-making business.
“Just building up my confidence really and putting myself out there which I'm not good at and I hate being in the spotlight but you got to do what you got to do, to support your whānau if you want to make it a business.”
The requests from her customers can be a bit outrageous but Hemopo says that it's the cake requests from her own tamariki that really pushes her artistic skills.
“My children's cakes, they're the most outrageous that I've done. My son is into a lot of zombie- type clips on YouTube and he watches Siren Head.”
Hemopo says that there hasn’t been anything that she couldn't make.
“You name it, Paw Patrol figures, carousels, Nike Air Force shoe. Recently I just made a Sumitomo digger and my uncle who I made it for, his Harley Davidson and the list goes on.”
Today, she'll be tuned into Māori Television and hoping everyone who's lucky enough to taste it, enjoys her latest creation.