Introduction to Celebration Cakes Workshop 27th Jan 2012

We’ve all got to start somewhere and Lindy’s ‘beginners’ class is a brilliant way to get you started with Sugarcraft. This is back-to-basics stuff but as Lindy is quick to point out “even if you have many covered cakes before this class will help you achieve that sometimes elusive professional finish”.

I am writing this blog ‘live’ sitting amongst our 10 lovely students. We had such good feed-back from last weeks blog on stencilling techniques and sincerely hope this new style of class reporting is inspiring and helpful. Today the students are covering an 8” (20cm) round cake. Lindy beside me is covering her demonstration cake for her son’s 17^th birthday. How cool is that being the son of Lindy Smith! “Happy Birthday Tristan”.  With Tristan’s birthday in mind Lindy has created a bespoke colour… Lindy doesn’t do straight from the pot!! She blended 3 greens together to create a lovely fresh light retro green. It is stunning.

Looking around I can see a rainbow of colours being kneaded into sugarpaste. What is interesting is that most people have chosen quite bright colours today. We often see students using more pale & pastel colours on this class… I am wondering if Lindy’s love of bright colours has rubbed off on our students this morning!!

I have to mention this, because it is a rare occurrence indeed….we have a man in the class! Don finds himself surrounded by women and may I say he looks very comfortable indeed! He is covering his cake for his 14 yr old grandson whose birthday is on Sunday. Donald has chosen the colours that match his grandsons rugby team colours and has given himself the challenge of adding ‘grass’ and the ‘uprights’ to the cake when he gets home! What a fab Grandad you are Don. We can’t wait to see the finished cake!!

Suzanne from Cardiff has done some sugarcraft before but is more used to creating sugar flowers. She taught herself to create sugar flowers using the Internet and books. She realised that it would be good to also learn how to cover the cake and board to put her sugar flowers on which is how she came to do a Lindy Smith workshop! I think she’s got it all covered now!

Oh we have just had a ‘big reveal’… Spanish Maria has stencilled Lindy’s Species Rose stencil onto her cake… it looks incredible. Maria has chosen hot colours of orange and yellow. A sunset on a cake!!

Hold on to your cakes… a rolling pin has just gone flying across the room! I know you are an enthusiastic student Roslyn but go easy on your sugarpaste!!

Busy mummy Joe has a cake creating marathon ahead of her. Not only is she covering her cake for today’s class, as soon as she gets home she has to get to work to create a ‘Mr Strong’ cake for her 5yr old son as well as cupcakes. Get this…the party is 11am tomorrow. You’ve got a late night ahead of you Joe… but just think how much your son, and his friends, are going to love the cake. Better than a shop bought cake any day!

Sarah B has just left the workshop after serving lunch. Today everyone enjoyed soft baps filled with all sorts of gorgeous fillings plus a rocket salad and a tomato, mozzarella, olive and basil salad. Yummo! We’ve also enjoyed our Sally’s lemon drizzle cake…worth coming to a workshop for that alone!!… and a chocolate cake for afternoon tea! All handmade with excellent quality ingredients. We love to nourish you at a Lindy’s workshop.

The students are whizzing along and are preparing to decorate their covered cakes and boards. Lindy is demonstrating using ‘impression’ moulds creating roses – beautiful …. she’s now moved on to using plastic and stainless steel sugarcraft cutters to cut shapes to place on the cake, including showing the students how to use Funky letter ‘tappits’ –  It looks like she may be using them for the letters on her demonstration cake!

The one constant comment we get from our students is how time flies on a Lindy workshop and today is no exception! What is great is how much new students achieve in one day. Hopefully this will be the start of a sugarcraft love affair!

If you’d like to join us on a similar class why not take a look at our workshop calendar to help you decide which to choose.