I am having such fun teaching my Australian students that I’ve not had much time to keep you all up to date, except via twitter! However today I’m flying down from Brisbane to Melbourne so you’re in luck – I’ve a few hours to kill!
Classes are going swimmingly, I’ve taught quite and few now, all full of very enthusiastic sugarcrafters keen and eager to learn what I have to impart, mind you I think I’m learning almost as much as my students…..! My first workshop in Sydney was my ‘art nouveau lilies’, a cake from my Cakes to Inspire and desire book – a challenge for me as at this stage of my trip as I wasn’t familiar with Aussie cakes, sugarpastes etc.
Iced Affair however were highly organized and had cakes prepared and ganached and ready to go. Ganaching cakes is a completely new idea for me but it worked a treat on the stack of three orange and poppy seed cakes that we used in class. It meant that the cakes were firm and easy to roll up in icing. From what I have learnt, ganaching cakes has become popular here in Australia due to the hot climate, buttercream melts easily and can become unstable, so chocolate mixed with cream which sets hard is the solution often used on straight sided cakes. Iced Affair just use a thin coating of ganach, whilst some other decorators use a much thicker layer.
As you can see from the photos below, the students all did really well. There was a lot to do and some were very new to cake decorating – so I think they excelled themselves!
Iced Affair was a great place to teach with a lovely naturally lit classroom, something that I find quite rare on my travels! Evan and Dimity, the owners, were also extremely helpful with nothing being too much trouble. So if you haven’t paid them a visit why not pop in to their shop or enroll on a class, its only a short bus ride from central station, Sydney.
Elizabeth Solaru says
Wow those cakes look very tall indeed. Would you by any chance be doing any sugar lily cake classes over here anytime soon Lindy?
Enjoy the rest of your trip and I loook forward to seeing more photographs.
XXElizabeth
Lindy Smith says
Hi Elizabeth
Thanks for your comment, I’ll bear your request in mind when we plan the next class schedule
Best wishes
Lindy
Gráinne Mac Clancy says
Hi Lindy, I’ve been following your Australian journey with great interest. Looks like you’re having a wonderful time. I would like to add my request to Elizabeth’s (above), if ‘over here’ means your UK classes. I’d love to do the Lily Cake too. Best of luck with the rest of your trip ‘down under’.
Lindy Smith says
Please to hear you are finding my ‘Australian cake adventure’ reports interesting, there will hopefully be quite a few more blog posts once I have a little more time to write – so keep following! Regards ‘over here’, yes it does mean UK classes and I’ll bear yours and Elizabeth’s request in mind.
Thanks for your comment
Lindy
Debbie Oliver says
Hiya there Lindy I was wondering if you could answer a question for me, I made a 6inch Maderia in a 3in deep cake tin, when I took it out the oven I let it cool then cut the top off it using the tin as a guide, I noticed that the cake hadn’t risen the whole depth of the tin is this correct or have i done something wrong. When i took the rest of the dome off it the cake depth dropped to 2 inches, but when I looked at the round cakes you have produced in you Inspire and Desire book they all seem to have a curved edge do you leave this curved edge on and just trim the ‘crust’ off
Lindy Smith says
Hi Debbie
Can I refer you to the my post on baking deep madeira/chocolate cakes as I think it probably answers all your questions
Lindy
Amanda Benge says
Hi Lindy,
I love your Art Nouveau Lily cake and I have bought you Cakes to Inspire to Desire book, but unfortuantely I am a complete beginner but thanks to the BSG I am baking really good cakes!
How difficult is it to make a Sugar Lily cake? Is it suitable for beginners? I would love to make it for my friends small wedding at the end of November. Do you think you will run a class in the UK, alternatively do you provide one to one tuition?
Thank you very much, you are very inspiring.
Amanda
Lindy's Cakes Team says
Hi Amanda
This cake is beautiful isn’t it? The great news is that Lindy is considering running this workshop in the UK next year. However, this doesn’t help you for your friends wedding in November.
To answer your question about whether is is possible for a complete beginner to make this cake, the answer I’m afraid is, it depends. If you are craft biased, good with your hands then you’ll probably be fine. Depending on how much experience you have had covering cakes, you should probably have a go with some small cakes or dummies.
I hope that this helps you
Andy,
Lindy’s Cake Team