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!

So you if you have any association with the Guild, you may have heard the word Seminar being bandied about. This year the Guild are holding theirs in Merimbula.

13th Seminar for the NSW Guild – 3 day Sugarcraft Extravaganza in Merimbula

15th, 16th & 17th May 2009
Merimbula RSL Club
Main St Merimbula

Cost: $330 inclusive of events, lunches, 2 dinner and a themed ball (accommodation is separate)

I do believe you need to be a Guild member to attend so if you’ve been wanting to join it provides a good excuse. All the Guilds from NSW are involved so contact your nearest Guild for more information OR there are booking officer contact details on the Guilds Website Events page.

If you live nearby there are also Daily rates if you don’t want to attend all days.

There’s a branch display, 2 individual competitions and Exhibits on Parade.

Payment is due however, last year they allowed Challenge Competition entries after the closing date, so if you would like to attend do use the contact information (in the Events page link), they can only say no.

The Association are also having a seminar in Sydney in August, you can read about it here.