Cake decorating

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Posted at 12:02PM, 19 May 2008 by Caroline Hire - Food editor, bbcgoodfood.com

Last week The Apprentice featured wedding cakes retailing at around £600. Sounds a lot, doesn' it? But when you discover the amount of work and time that goes into one of those cakes, you realise it's worth every penny.

I've always had mixed feelings about cake decorating. I'm not generally a fan of novelty cakes (you either love 'em or hate 'em). However, before my recent marriage I took a renewed interest in the art, thinking I might rustle up my own wedding cake (I didn't).

Post-wedding, the interest continued and last week I did the 6-day Professional Intensive Cake Decorating Course at Squires Kitchen's International School of Cake Decorating and Sugarcraft. They weren't joking when they called it 'intensive' but I loved every minute of it.

We covered marzipan including very cute teddies (ok so I'm warming to novelty), pastillage, and sugar flowers. Two very full days were used to master the art of royal icing, which required a lot of patience and precision. Sugar paste proved easier and we had impressive results all round. The sheer volume that tutor Paddi Clark got though left us speechless, literally, from exhaustion.

The cookery team at Good Food loves a bit of cake decorating. June's Orange berry wedding cake is a stunner, as is Jane's pretty pink rose petal wedding cake and trendy Romantic rose cupcakes.

Are you a fan of cake decorating, do you have any tips, recommendations or successes to share? (I have a vested interest, I'm doing my friend's wedding cake next month, all suggestions gratefully received - or she may not be a friend for much longer!)

Comments

sheppy

19 May 2008, 3:40PM
sheppy

My girlfriend does a cake decorating course as she thought it would be great fun and have some money benefits should she want to change jobs.. She's on her second course at the moment, and has 2 wedding cakes for friends, to make for the summer, one end of June. In fact, 3 tiers of one of them are taking up room on our dining table right now read to be decorated! For inspiration...this book has some great stuff: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectacular-Cakes-Mich-Turner/dp/1903221390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211207968&sr=8-1

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Caroline

19 May 2008, 4:00PM
Caroline

Thanks Sheppy, that book looks fantastic. I also like this one, which your girlfriend might find useful for wedding inspiration: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Romantic-Cakes-Peggy-Porschen/dp/1844003213/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211209192&sr=1-2

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im_not_olive

21 May 2008, 10:18AM
im_not_olive

Hi! I'm doing a professional chef diploma...but I'm so much more into cake decorating! i'd love to work as a professional cake decorator! I've done cakes for people before but I mostly make them for family at the moment...Christmas is a great time to experiment with ideas! I have photos on Flickr...check them out and tell me what you think?! ;)

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im_not_olive

21 May 2008, 10:20AM
im_not_olive

woops forgot to add the link! ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/17880524@N05/

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Caroline

22 May 2008, 12:50PM
Caroline

Hi I'm not olive, Ooh so many gorgeous things on your photostream. I particularly like the snowmen cupcakes, the star cake and your gingerbread in pants made me smile. Great work - I shall keep an eye on your future forays in cake decorating!

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Ellen Scott

27 May 2008, 11:09PM
Ellen Scott

I promised to make the wedding cake for my brother in laws wedding in Portugal in September. Apparently in Portugal they have a his and hers cake and one of them is a fun or novelty cake. My brother in law is in to surfing and I was hoping to put a little surfer on the top of the cake. Is there somewhere I could buy novelty decorations or should I make them out of roll out icing or marzipan. Anyone got any ideas?

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Siryan

5 August 2008, 3:22PM
Siryan

Wow, checked out the cake pics. That strawberry and white choc cake looks and sounds divine. As much as I love to bake - I have to restrict my activities because I'll just end up eating lots of cake. What do you do when you bake yours?

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CakeDecoratingClasses4u.c

16 February 2012, 12:53AM
CakeDecoratingClasses4u.c

Hi Caroline, great article! Can you please contact me about an upcoming cake class I'd like to give you a seat to! Thanks! Jonathan Edwards, founder CakeDecoratingClasses4u.com

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