The Cake Decorators Association of NSW are hosting the 15th National Seminar at the Citigate Central Hotel, Thomas Street, Sydney.

Special Guest is Lindy Smith.

The Seminar will open officially on Sunday Evening 23rd August and will finish at 3.00 pm Friday 28th August.

The programming information and application form can be seen and downloaded from the Association website: http://www.cakedirectory.com/cdaofnsw/15NatSem.html

Non-members can attend without joining the Association. Costs are higher though than those for members.

Final payment due beginning of June.

EDIT 22/06/09: ‘Day Only Registration Forms” have now been released for those people who cannot attend the whole week just come for a day, remember Lindy Smith is going to be demonstrating! Forms can be downloaded from the website.

EDIT 3/07/09:  Want to know who is demonstrating on what day?

Monday demonstration list:
Lindy Smith – UK
Mary Ann Gonsalves – WA
Stella Abraham
CDA of New South Wales
Victorian Cake Decorating Society
National Executive
See the National Competition entries.
The day will finish with afternoon tea at 3.45pm.

Tuesday demonstration list:
Lindy Smith – UK
Kath Swansbra – NSW
Gail Dorter – WA
Greg Cleary – Qld
South Australian CDA
CDA of New South Wales
The day will finish with afternoon tea at 3.45pm.

Thursday demonstration list:
NSW Cake Decorators Guild
John Quai Hoi – Vic
Queensland CDA
Rita Nicholls – NSW
Western Australia CDA
Tasmanian CDA
The day will finish with afternoon tea at 3.45pm.

Friday demonstration list:
Lindy Smith – UK
Paris Cutler – Planet Cake
Jillean Crouch – Vic
The day will finish with afternoon tea at 3pm

Information also available here

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!

Open to Associations State Wide across Australia, based in Sydney.

The schedule is here http://www.ancda.org/sugar_craft.htm (there are clear contact details if you need to ask any questions).

VENUE:
CITIGATE HOTEL
169 -179 Thomas St
SYDNEY
23rd – 28th August 2009
Entries close 1st July 2009

The Competition is open to all financial members affiliated with the Australian National Cake Decorators’ Association Incorporated (ANCDA) and also International Delegates and any other interested persons attending the National Seminar

EDIT 22/06/09: A reminder that entries for the National Competition close 1st July.

So you are in Victoria and the Association doesn’t have any branches near you… as with NSW having the Guild, Victoria also has the Victorian Cake Decorating Society.

They have four branches who each have a website.

Eastern Branch – Boronia

Northern Branch – Watsonia

Casey Branch

Town & Country

I don’t know much else than that so check out the websites for more help. If you’d like me to add something please leave a comment or use the Contact page.

So you wanted to join the Guild but there isn’t a branch near you or you live in another state. There’s still another option it’s called the Cake Decorators’ Association.

Australian National Cake Decorators’ Association (Not all states have websites, so if you don’t see a link for your state, then contact the ANCDA for state specific information)

Cake Decorators’ Association of NSW

Cake Decorators’ Association of VIC

Cake Decorators’ Association of SA

Cake Decorators’ Association of WA - Perth Branch or North Beach Branch for other branches contact the ANCDA

Branches for NSW include:

Albury, Bankstown, Broken Hill, Chatswood, Coffs Harbour, Coonabarabran, Eastern Suburbs, Far North Coast, Hastings District, Hunter, Inverell, Kyogle, Manning Valley, Muswellbrook, Nambucca Valley, Narrabri, Nepean District, Rylstone, Southern Suburbs, Tamworth, Tweed Valley

Chatswood Branch

Roseville Uniting Church
7 Lord Street, Roseville

31st January
28th March
23rd May
25th July
26th September
28th November

As with the Guild you can attend a meeting before joining, the Association will let you attend 2 or 3 meetings before requiring you to join.

Despite advice to the contrary you can be a member of both the Guild and the Association, after all it’s about Cake Decorating right , the Association’s charter does state in basic terms that if you are a committee member in one you can’t be a committee member in the other.

Do you have the dates of meetings for another area, leave a comment or contact me through the Contact page so I can add them!