How Bluey brought a Women’s Weekly cake book classic to the world
You may not know his name, but this 80-year-old Sydney man is probably responsible for some of the best and worst moments in your family’s life.
Creator of iconic cakes Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Cake Bookincluding “Choo-Choo train” And “rubber ducky”Agnes Lee is the woman thousands of Aussie kids can thank for the elaborate icy creations that make their birthdays feel special, and the one parents curse even harder when she tugs at a decapitated duck at 11pm the night before.
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It’s been 45 years since this classic book was first published, but Lee is only now seeing its impact and reach as a new generation of Australians bake for their own children the cakes they grew up with.
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The rubber duck in particular became famous worldwide after it was included in a list. 2020 episode of Australia’s animated hit Bluishright now most watched TV show in the USA. Google search results for “duck cake”, which is also the title of the episode, have increased steadily over the years as fans search for recipes and make your own versions. The show’s distributor, BBC Studios, is opening a pop-up cafe in Sydney this weekend where kids can bake cakes, inspired by the success of the show.
“No one knew this at the time,” Lee says. “It was a quiet little birthday cake book… But now when I go to events, I see men in their late 30s or early 40s – businessmen, successful businessmen – holding a cake book, and they shyly come up to me and ask me to sign it. You can see their eyes sparkle! … It makes me feel like I’ve actually done something.”
That’s quite a legacy for the former food technology teacher from Hong Kong. Women’s Weekly The test kitchen had never made a cake in its life.
Agnes Lee faked it until she made it. Credit: Sam Mooy
The woman behind Australia’s favorite cake
“I got the job the second week I arrived in Australia,” says Lee. “I arrived on a Thursday or Friday in 1978. On Saturday I got up very early, bought a newspaper, saw a small advertisement for the test kitchen and went to a phone booth to call… When you have a family, you worry. [about not having work]. “I didn’t even know what a test kitchen was.”
Lee interviewed on Tuesday and got the job the same day, developing recipes for the magazine; But he also had some reservations.
Agnes Lee (second from left) in the Australian Women’s Weekly test kitchen in 1978, her first year. Food editor Ellen Sinclair is pictured on the far left.
“We weren’t making cakes in Hong Kong back then,” he says. “The girls were making cakes when food editor Ellen Sinclair brought me into the kitchen and I quietly said to myself: ‘I can’t handle this!’ … I thought I was definitely going to get the sack! But I just pushed myself.”
It started with a party trick: turning candies into flowers by dividing them into quarters and forming sticky leaves. Then came the rocket: a frighteningly tall collection of cakes and candy canes atop an explosive base of aluminum foil. Then the train: a detailed work inspired by the coal train he saw during the 1979 train strike in Sydney, with multiple carriages carrying popcorn on a liquorice track.
The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book was first published in 1980.
Three-quarters of the way through the book, designed to bring together the team’s most exciting work, then-editor Ita Buttrose chose the train for the cover, and Lee’s fame was established as “Agnes the Engineer.”
“Anything that requires a little more assembly, people will point at me and say ‘it’s yours!'” Lee said. they say,” says Lee.
So when Sinclair, aka “Mrs.
“I was given a day to do a test run and I did it almost the first time,” he recalls.
“So do you know the story about the duck?” he adds, already laughing. “It came out of the trash can!”
Agnes Lee had to save the thrown duck to take the last photo. Credit: Sam Mooy
A lesson from the best: embracing failure
Lee says this iconic cake is not supposed to look like the one in the book. The potato chip bill was inspired by a trip to a milk bar. But the big red bow and buttons on the front? Not really.
These were added at the last minute to hide the large crack in the front after the duck was thrown into the bin. Lee recalls that there was a miscommunication with the photographer about approving the photo, and he had to rescue the discarded duck in order to take the final photo.
This should be a comforting thought for parents, he adds: “even We I can’t fix this!”
A recreation of the famous duck cake.Credit: Sam Mooy
Failure is at the heart of the work Bluish The episode also featured Bingo and Bluey’s father Bandit – already stressed about having to make the “hardest” cake in the book – dropping the duck’s head on the kitchen floor. Bluey saves the day by helping him grow a crooked head from his neck.
This is the pop-up cafe of the weekend – one of many “immersive” Bluish events It will feature a recreation of that kitchen, as well as the Heelers’ backyard in recent years — where families who received free tickets through voting could pick up duckling cupcakes.
Bandit rescues the headless duck cake from Bluey.Credit: BBC Studios
Lee only heard about her cake being on TV for the first time when her granddaughter introduced her to it. But he says the episode captures the magic of what makes these cakes great.
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“Most of the time, joy doesn’t come from being successful,” he says. “Joy comes from tearing off the duck’s head! The whole family [she says, speaking of the animated blue heelers] Laugh so much… This is failure, but not failure. It’s about making memories.”
But what if there’s a cake in the book that you really don’t want your kids to choose? Agnes has some advice: “Glue the pages together.”
Tickets are now available for Bluey Duck Cake Cafe at Bondi Westfield, open on Saturday 11 October and Sunday 12 October. Fans can sign up at: bluey.tv/duck-cake-cafe.
