Carving cakes class with Lindy Smith – handbags with style Spring 2013

Couture designers divide people… are you a fan of Prada, Stella McCartney, Dolce & Cabana or perhaps the re-invented Victoria Beckham’s designs are inspiring you? The spring collections are starting to appear in magazines and online, the mailorder companies are starting to trickle in spring clothing alongside the winter sales. We are all trying to imagine ourselves in lighter colours and softer fabrics. Some of us will be looking at shoes and hand-bags, if that’s your thing. So, what’s your handbag style? Personally I love a simple style and very rarely deviate from natural coloured leather. Lindy, unsurprisingly, is the complete opposite! If it’s brightly coloured and adorned with something, a flower perhaps, then Lindy is very happy to have it on her arm.

The same personal tastes apply to cakes. Here on Lindy’s popular designer handbag workshop I sit amongst naked handbags… cakes being carved into Lindy’s famous handbag shape… all ready and waiting to be covered, coloured and adorned. Lindy has bought along a picture of two Valentino ‘Pop Rockstud’ handbags from the spring 2013 collection. Slightly retro in style, the colours are raspberry and cream and pistachio and pale pink. You will see studs galore this spring and chains, also bags are getting smaller! Inspired by this Lindy is using the palest of green, which we have named pastel lime, and a very strong pink that has the hint of raspberry…

Today we are joined by six students, three familiar faces, three first timers. Wonderfully, two of our students are expecting their second babies at the same time!

Lynda has made a gluten free Madeira cake and we are really impressed. Not only does it look good, it tastes delicious and is light and moist. We’ve conned her into sharing her recipe which we will put on our blog soon.

Rachel, who not only shares the same name as me, was born on the same day too albeit 20 years apart, is doing her 4^th Lindy’s workshop. She runs her own catering company and makes cakes as part of celebrations that she caters for. Rachel has promised that she will give the cake she makes today to her brother… hope he doesn’t mind a designer handbag!

Rhian, who joins us from Swansea, was given this workshop as a gift from her sister, she actually cried when she realised that she was going to be taught by Lindy! This is her first sugarcraft cake course and her first attempt at carving. Very brave! Her passion is making little models for cakes especially for her son and family friends. No doubt this will shift to elaborately carved cakes in the future!!!

Susan is a new student too and is really enjoying using the stencils. She has seen Lindy demonstrating stencils before… I’ve got a feeling Susan might end up investing in a few!

Juliet is doing her 3^rd Lindy class. She was with us recently on the Christmas Bauble workshop, which she loved. As she points out this class is great for another set of sugarcraft skills… carving!

Kate really doesn’t like baking, in fact she’s far rather let someone else bake the cake, but she does loves sugarcrafting!  She decorates lots of celebration cakes and really enjoys modelling sugar flowers as she finds it therapeutic!

Lindy has guided our students through the carving and covering of the cake. Whilst the carving is a delicate operation, done correctly it will serve you well when you come to cover the cake. Lindy is meticulous in her step-by-step approach to carving. She truly believes that what is under the cake is just as important as what goes on top.

We are now at the adorning stage of the day and it’s wonderful to see so many vibrant colours on the cakes. Lindy is demonstrating the clasp, piping, embossing and flower moulds to place on the cake. Let the creative juices flow… “yay, now we can start decorating” said Rachel. And so they did…

It’s been a super day. You’ve done a great job ladies… well done!

Lindy has an exciting programme of classes this year including new days of the week and classes on a Saturday. Click here for our 2013 programme. Come and join us… there has never been a better time to spend time learning and crafting.

Kiwi Rachel