Cake London Exhibition

OMG it has taken me this long to catch my breath after the Cake London Exhibition 2012, at Excel

Had a wonderful weekend, great venue with lots of facilities and local to me - bliss.

Bernard the Owl rocked the display class and won GOLD (And some prize money – a first for me)

He was much admired so I hope you all enjoy him.

His breast feathers were painted individually and his back view was coloured with 9 different coloured (none of which were brown!) dusts in a variety of 6 different patterns – he was a bit of a labour of love but I had seen some gerberas in a flowers shop that sat side by side and they looked just like owl eyes to me and so Bernard was born (Barny to his friends)

The second and more exhausting part of the weekend was the PME live competition.

Our heat was on Sat and we all -Jo Haines, Ceri Griffiths and myself, acquitted ourselves well.

The time of 3 and a half hours was very tight and we did not quite finish but our magical seasons colour cake looked excellent when presented

We thought we were going large at 33 inches but we paled next to 2 of the other entries.

Here are our original drawing and this is the finished article.

Spring is here

Ooh chilly February days and that means it’s COMPETITION time, as usual have signed up to do far too many –it seems I will never learn: 

• Salon Culinair at the ExCel in London Mon 27^th Feb - Thu 1st March
• Squires Exhibition in Farnham at the Malting Fri 9^th - Sun 11^th March
• Cake London at the ExCel in London Fri 27^th – Sun 29^th April

Still plotting and planning my designs for each one when of course I should have already begun working on them!  Does anyone finish their pieces before the wee small hours the night before?

And that’s all before I start work on my Telford piece for the BSG International Exhibition……..
so 2012 is not going to be the year I pace myself sensibly.

“My other job” at the Royal Albert Hall, Cirque du Soeil’s - Totem is finally over for another year and we are gearing up for our own brand new production of Aida and then straight after that a busy Spring season with a top secret world film premier, rock & pop concerts including a week of Teenage Cancer Trust concerts and a nice
3 days of Lang Lang.

Loving the buzz of Spring and getting busy. Have you tried Lindy Smiths Hummingbird cake?
It’s wonderful with at least one of your 5-a-day in it, delish – a healthy cake!  Brushing up on my own baking skills, although I gained my professional pastry chef qualifications, I tend to use the same recipes time and again and as I am starting to teach more baking classes alongside the decorating ones, I wanted to try out some of the pile of recipes that I have ripped out mags. and downloaded for them web.

Music and Cakes

And so here we are knee deep in the biggest classical music concert series in the world – The BBC Proms 2011 and all I can think about is SUGAR.

Surrounded by world class orchestras, soloist and conductors and the most amazing music and all I want to do is practice with my airbrush and model faces…….. Could I be in the wrong profession??  Answers on a postcard please! Or even better – the magic lottery numbers so that I can make my dreams come true

Having overcome the twin hurdles of the Battleship Wedding Cake and
White Chocolate Cricket Pavilion Wedding Cake (thank you for all those who offered advice and helpful suggestions) my summer was looking more manageable.  I can only take cake commissions when it will fit in with work – ok big fib, normally just work late/early/through the night to get my creations finished and looking hot.

Now I look forward to a Tinker Bell cake and then – YIPPEE - my trip to the great ICES cake exhibition this year held in Charlotte, North Carolina
(was hoping for Vegas but a girl can dream)

I promise to take lots of picture and post all the good bits, the list of demonstrations and workshops takes my breath away.

Fun and frolics in foreign world of cake.

Keep up the palate knives

Just catching my breath after the weekend …

I had a wedding cake in the shape of a Battleship deliverable on Friday morning and a sculpted novelty birthday cake at the same time and on Saturday it was the Region 8 BSG Brighton exhibition.

So of course Last Minuet Nelly had not finished her competition pieces.

Luckily my branch entry (I am a member with Tunbridge Wells BSG) was complete. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – our theme was childrens' books that had been made into films.  He was a little sculpted cake on a 10 inch board.  We won silver for the whole table so were very pleased.

 My competition entries did not fair quite so well – I tried modelling in marzipan for the first time and although pleased with my results, he was only finished in the wee small hours so I had inserted a cocktail stick to make his head secure while travelling and in my rush to get down to Brighton and help with the set up, I forgot to swap the non-edible cocktail stick out for some dry spaghetti and the model was disqualified.

 My entry for a cake topper - Sweet Sixteen - got a highly commended and some nice feedback from the judges although I admit I had hoped for more.

 So the moral of the story is – don’t leave it all till the last minute.

Work and Life

Opps sorry had not forgotten about you but just got tied up with work and life in general.

Had a great time recently – do look on the awards page to catch up with what I have been playing around with you.

Since my Gold at the NEC with my Fairy Tree and all the fun of two live competitions I have been working hard to up my skills levels.

My question is – are we ever happy with the work we produce??

Working hard at the moment on my British SugarCraft Region 8 Exhibition competition pieces and my piece for the Tunbrigewells Table

More to follow I am sure…………………..

It's been a long, hard weekend

So many cakes to make and so little time.

Lindy Smith Handbag Workshop – Friday 25th June 2010

Ashton Clinton is surprisingly accessible and took less than 90mins from South London - a great workshop venue in a cool church hall with a lovely kitchen and lounge for those all important packed lunches.

This was the first time Lindy had run this particular course but there were no glitches or time constraints and we all completed our bag cakes even the two complete beginners by 4pm so that we missed the nasty traffic going home.

Grand tips on how to bake, carve and fill a firm Madera or choc cake, this alone was worth the trip.  We then went on to cover the cake and add all the fantastic detail that gives your work it’s individuality and zing.  But again there are lots of clever tips and hints at each stage – my top tip would be to take a notebook and pen to jot them down and do wee sketches as you go alone, there is just so much that you learn from Lindy and all the other students.

A top day out with a handbag – cake yoga at it’s best!