May saw the arrival of the NSW Cake Decorator’s Guild Seminar, held in the lovely town of Merimbula.  A three day extravaganza of demonstrations, food, tips, tricks and shopping!

Merimbula is located halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, this South Coast tourist town is the perfect place to enjoy the beautiful white sand beaches, rainforests, lagoons, and mountains of the South Coast NSW.

Special guests from Tasmania and Melbourne helped round out the many other decorators who gave of their time to demonstrate or help with the organisation.

Demonstrations (to name but a few) included things like 10 flowers to create with a primula cutter, gelatine flowers, how to make a peony, airbrushing techniques, ribbon roses, and much much more.

It was great to meet other decorators from other branches, to chat and trade ideas, thoughts, tips and more with.  A range of ages meant there was always someone to talk to!

The food at the RSL (where the seminar was held) was fantastic from the service down to the desserts!  Friday night bought a buffet meal while Saturday was the masked ball, which was a three course sit down meal.  The one thing that I would have liked to have seen here is on one of the nights it would have been good to be placed randomly at tables so as to have the opportunity to chat with other decorators from other branches, I mean it can’t be that scary we all had at least one thing in common right?  There was plenty to talk about.  But having said that most people were relatively open when you simply went and introduced yourself or asked for questions or help.  I was lucky enough to have one lovely lady even take the time to invite me to her room one evening to actually show me some things that I had been asking questions about.

On top of the ability to buy some goodies from the 4 shops that set themselves up at Seminar, we also received a goodie bag and a nice thick book of all the notes and instructions for each of the dems.

If you are wondering if it was worth attending?  From my perspective definitely.  There was loads to learn and heaps of tips and tricks to pick up.  Were all the dems great… well no but there were enough great and good dems to make up for the ones that might have been better spent getting a cup of coffee.

The Association will be holding their seminar in August, in Sydney.  Can’t find the time or money to attend all week, no worries, there is a day rate so that you can just attend one day, remember UK Cake Decorator and Author Lindy Smith will be demming apparently some things that have never been shown anywhere else before.  And in addition the chance to meet up with other decorators is a great opportunity to learn something you may not yet know!

So finally the Party Cakes Magazine has hit the newsagents.  More instructions and cakes from the lovely Lindy Smith.  Now remember if you have the books then I do have to say you don’t need the mag, because they are designs and instructions from the books, nothing new there.  But if you don’t have the books then they are definitely a great thing to add to your collection! 

This issue also includes the instructions on how to grow edible crystals, and again contains links and numbers to suppliers, websites and so on.

And Lindy if you are reading this I did manage to pick up the previous issue and bought you this issue too!  So don’t worry when I see you at seminar I will have a set for you!

One of my all time favourite books, when I was starting out, and still even today is the Women’s Weekly Kid’s Party Cakes Book. It has great instructions, it includes templates, but most of all if you are just starting out, doing cakes for kids or just want to do something fun, the combination of cake and lolly designs is assured to make many a kid happy!

Here are some of my earlier attempts straight from the book when I was simply starting out.

Recently my new purchases included the newest Women’s Weekly book Women’s Weekly Kids’ little party cakes, which is a similar book but based around cupcakes! With some very cool ideas.

See you don’t have to be an artist, just a knife, a paper template and some mint leaves, smarties or licorice and you can still create a kid’s or big adult kid delight!

Different people have different ideas about what they want out of decorating cakes, for some they just want to be able to something a little special for their kids party cakes, some try it and decide they just don’t have the patience, some just become the baker amongst family and friends and other’s go on to have business, teach, enter competitions and so on. Some people love the baking as much as the decorating and some just want to decorate, the beauty of cake decorating is that you can have or be any of these things. You can take it as far as you want to go, be creative as you want to be, learn as many techniques as you want to learn. It’s all about taking the information in and then deciding what is best for you!

Have you made a cake from one of these books, send me the picture and I’ll add it to this post so other people can see the fun other people have had with it too!  Or as always feel free to leave a comment!

A little while ago I posted a comparison between the three known available Sugarcraft/Clay guns, The Difference between Sugarcraft Guns (aka Clay Guns).

Since then I’ve had several people tell me that they’ve bought the gun and they love it!  So, so far a big thumbs up! Want to hear something even better?  Clay Princess  now have two new packs of additional discs.  Yes it is true!  Can’t believe there could be that many more different discs well check them out here’s Set A and there is also a Set B.

But the excitement doesn’t stop there!  Clay Princess have some even more exciting new products.  They include 2 new flower ejector cutter sets (3 in the pack in different sizes).  New texture sheets and new flower and leaf cutter sets, some of which also include their own embossers.

Any of these items could help extend your current cake decorating kit!

For those of you new to Clay Princess and their products, my favourite moulds are their sculpy range.  Take a good look around and you will soon notice some of these fun creations on cupcakes and cakes alike.  To use fondant in them simply dust with some cornflour or spritz with a little cooking spray.

Just remember once you use the products for cake decorating don’t mix and match them, if you like to use clay also keep the clay used ones for the clay and the food used ones for food! Yep any excuse to have at least two sets of everything!

Pictures courtesy of Clay Princess.

Have you heard of The Cupcake Courier?

The Cupcake Courier website describes itself:

The Cupcake Courier is an ingenious device that allows you to carry and store up to 36 cupcakes or muffins. Transporting cupcakes has never been easier or more stylish! The Cupcake Courier has three stackable cupcake trays with twelve cups per tray. The trays will securely hold your cupcakes in place so they will be less liked to get smooshed in transit. Each tray is stackable and removable. Simply lift the trays from The Cupcake Courier and store cakes and baked goods of all sizes. The Cupcake Courier is dishwasher safe and completely air tight.

The couriers come in gorgeous pastel colours, Saffron, Petal Pink, Lemongrass, Crystal Clear White (which is the one I have! ) or Blue Sky.

Specs: 11″ height; 15.8″ width; 11″ depth, Trays: 10″ x 13.7″.

Normally priced at AUD$59.95, The Cupcake Courier are currently having a Mother’s Day Sale and Courier’s cost AUD$49.95 until the 1st May, 2009 and both those prices are GST Inclusive.

So go on do something for yourself and spend some of that K Rudd bonus, there will still be plenty left to pop on the mortgage or pay a bill.

But it doesn’t stop there! After a successful start with The Courier they have branched out into some other fun, exciting and exclusive products.

Ever wanted to take a cupcake to work or school for morning or afternoon tea, only to find it squished by the time you open the bag? Try a Cup-a-Cake!

The fabulous Cup-a-Cake container will hold a frosted cupcake or muffin in place with special protrusions positioned in such a way that the cupcake or muffin will not move within the container if jiggled or turned upside down.

They come in packs of 2 for AUD$14.99 or 4 AUD$24.99, in a variety of fun colours including Pink Sparkles, Lime, Orange, Watermelon, Purple, Blue, White and Red. GST & Postage is inclusive on the prices of the Cup-a-Cake.

One of the newer exciting items The Cupcake Courier have added to their site are the Jessie Steel Designer Aprons, previously I’ve only ever seen these available in the USA!

They are gorgeous, retro, fun designed full and half aprons, for adults and kids. Some even include matching tea towels, oven mitts and pot holders!

They’ve also branched out into some books including some very interesting ones I haven’t seen before (which is always a bonus!)

There’s even more so be sure to check out the site.

Don’t want a carrier but want some cupcakes instead! Check out their blog site The Cupcake Company.

Have you managed to read this far! Now for the fun part! The Cupcake Courier have offered a very special Cupcake Courier pack giveaway. Want to win some very cool stuff? This is what you need to do.

• Take a cupcake (any cupcake, simply a baked one, or a decorated one or even a bought one, doesn’t matter!)
• Take it somewhere funny, creative, interesting (go on think OUTSIDE the box)
• Pose it
• Take a picture of it
• Add a caption if the photo doesn’t speak for itself
• Send it to me at cakesandmoreforum AT hotmail.com
• If you are a registered user please include your username. If not that’s OK, you only need to be registered to comment you don’t need to be registered to enter.
• Wait until the contest ends on 1st May, 2009.
• Wait until the 2nd/3rd of May for the big winner announcement.
• PLEASE NOTE: Due to the cupcake courier being available overseas, particularly the USA and the cost of International postage not being viable for a prize of this side, you must be IN AUSTRALIA to participate in this particular competition.

Pictures kindly courtesy of The Cupcake Courier.