Sugar Painting Techniques for Cakes Class with Lindy Smith

If you didn’t know better, you might think you had stumbled across a watercolour painting class at Lindy’s workshop today! In some ways you have, for sugarpaste is our canvas and edible food colours our artistic medium. The painting techniques for today’s class, all much loved by Lindy, have been showcased in her most recent book ‘The Contemporary Cake Decorating Bible’. Painting on sugarpaste has won over many of Lindy’s cake fans so it was only a matter of time until Lindy added it to her workshop collection.

One of Lindy’s favourite painting techniques is flood painting, you’ll find it in many of her books.  The first thing Lindy does is prepare a sugar surface for painting. She begins with a disc of sugarpaste, then gives it a collar so that any liquid remains within the disc shape. Then the colour magic begins… colours bleed into each other to create ethereal shapes… it looks amazing.

You may think this class looks like it might be a boozy affair judging by all the gin bottles on the tables… I can assure you that the gin ends up on the sugarpaste as opposed to in a G&T!!  Of course everything created today will end up either on or under a cake… eventually! Time is to be indulged with painting sugarpaste, for anything hand-created the time that has gone into your work is to be celebrated for its uniqueness and beauty.

We are joined by 7 artistic sugarcrafters today. The atmosphere is relaxed and calm, painting is very therapeutic. There is a ‘painting by numbers’ feel to this class and with Lindy’s step-by-step approach to teaching, the techniques do not seem overwhelmingly hard. Lindy is great at de-mystifying her craft she is also wonderful at giving her students the time to create their own artistic style.

One student who is developing her cake style is Lynda. She is creating a range of gluten free cakes, cookies and biscuits and one day hopes to sell them at farmers markets. Lynda is keen to make her baking look more beautiful, interesting and appealing to the ‘made with gluten-free ingredients’ market. Fab idea!

Katie will be taking these techniques to Australia at the end of the year. This native Aussie has spent the last 2+ years learning sugarcraft and creating a cake business in the UK. She has attended lots of Lindy’s workshops, owns many of her books … and has just about bought half the Lindy’s Cakes shop!!!  Proving yet again Lindy’s global appeal.

Lindy has shared many painting techniques and tips today. The class have painted prolifically because this workshop is about experimenting with edible colours, brushes and sponges. The results are impressive, intricate and beautiful. Although they look difficult to achieve Lindy reminds her students that “you don’t have to be a talented artist to create some very striking paint effects”. But you do need Lindy to show you how!

Join us! Let Lindy know if you would like to do this class. I am sure she won’t take much persuading to include it on her next collection of classes.

KiwiRachel