Lindy Smith at ‘The Cake and Bake Show 2012’

The Cake and Bake show 2012  held at Earls Court, London,  on the 22nd and 23rd September this year was the first of it’s kind in the UK.  When I first heard about this show I understood it was more a baking show rather than cake decorating show, however such was the demand from the general public that only a few weeks before the show was due to open,  the  floor area  at Earls Court was expanded to allow for cake displays and two additional classrooms including a sugarcraft classroom.

The organisers had been talking to me about their future shows but not this one, so my involvement was very last minute…… I’m always up for a challenge so with two weeks to go, I agreed to give two demonstrations in the sugarcraft classroom. One week to go I gave up a Sunday afternoon to research and plan and a Monday to prep my display peices and handouts. My title – ‘Inspirational ideas for contemporary cakes’ which I used to showcase  a few of the techniques covered in  my ‘contemporary cake decorating bible’ book.

For my demonstration I choose three themes to illustrate the techniques  I’d chosen, the first was Polka dots. Traditionally used in the clothing of flamenco dancers and performers polka dots, it seems, are currently on everything from furniture, fashion to kettles. I choose a traditional black and white polka dot theme and topped it off with an easy to create but stunning moulded chrysanthemum.

Multi-pattern, where one pattern is placed on top of another was the second trend I choose, seen most commonly on printed  fabrics and paper – I really love this trend. For my demonstration,  I based  the cupcake below, on a Desigual coat called ‘electric Love’ that I’ve definately fallen in love with!  I used red, orange and pink sugarpaste to create a marbled sugarpaste and then topped  it with my cherry blossom stencil design using black edible dust – simple yet striking!

For final demonstration piece I took the theme of words or more precisely letters. We are surrounded by the written word but large wooden words to decorate our homes is a relatively new trend and letters to decorate shoes is one I have only just noticed….. check out Christian Louboutin’s latest collection! For my cookie shoe I used red sugarpaste, a ‘love’ embosser and the lower case funky letters set, I find that many of my students and customers struggle to  make perfect letters so  this was a fab way of showing my audience how simple and fast it is, with the correct cutter and paste.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the Cake and bake show,  meeting my enthusiastic audience, seeing the crowds swarming around Paul Hollywood, having a chance, for once, of looking at the cakes on display.

Here’s one of the lovely comments I received via Facebook after my day at Cake & Bake

“Hello all, I would like to thank Lindy for a great demo at the Cake & Bake show. I’ve got almost all of her books(and have just ordered her bible) I am self taught and have been a ‘cake lady’ since I was 15. I enjoy taking inspiration from her endless projects but have never attended any of her classes before and this was part of my 50th birthday treat from my friend (who attended with me). We have 2 flower and cake shops and although she doesn’t often get to help with cakes we both came back with loads of ideas and full of enthusiasm and can’t wait to get started on some new projects! Thank you again and well done on your award, well deserved. Hope to see you next year” Karen & Zoe x

Hopefully I will be back next year

In the mean time happy baking and decorating

Lindy