Swank Cake Design Class

One of my favorite things to do is attend a decorating class. As I've said before, cake decorators are some of the most giving people in the world. They are willing to share techniques, advice, recipes... This past Monday I had the opportunity to travel to Burlington, NJ to attend classes with Wayne Steinkopf and Chuck Hamilton from Swank Cake Design in Raleigh, NC. A big thanks to Robin Bostic, Director of the Garden State Cake Club who sponsored the event. Bobbi Holl, a Sugar Artists Emporium customer and friend, traveled with me and we had a great time.

Our morning class started with Chuck Hamilton. Chuck took us through all the steps to work successfully with Isomalt. And, as you all know after my experience with Isomalt a few weeks ago, I REALLY needed this class! Not only did Chuck give us a thorough understanding of how to work with Isomalt, but gave us numerous tips on the characteristics of different molds, the best way to pour into molds, coloring & storing isomalt and where to purchase supplies.

Wayne continued the class by showing us how to make brooches that incorporated the Isomalt jewels that Chuck molded. The class included molding a gumpaste/fondant mixture into pieces that could be joined together in a variety of shapes, painting with silver and gold highlighter and adding disco dust, dragees and Isomalt jewels to create some beautiful pieces.

The afternoon class was another great learning experience for Bobbi and me. Wayne taught us how to make a high heel shoe that was so realistic looking you almost wanted to slip your foot in. (Not me of course. Because, for those of you who don't know, I managed to break a couple of toes that morning before Bobbi & I left for NJ. lol Leave it to me!)

Despite a battle with the high humidity in the classroom and having to bring in a couple of dehumidifiers, we managed to complete some great shoes. They certainly weren't up to Wayne's caliber, but they were pretty good if I do say so myself. You can see the samples Wayne brought to class in the picture above. We loved the sparkly shoes, but the detail and retro look of the red shoe was amazing! Below you can see the shoes Bobbi and I completed.

Not bad for our first time. Wayne has designed some unique tools and patterns that make designing a shoe almost foolproof. We were so fortunate that we were able to keep all the molds we used in both classes as well as the shoe form and patterns that include closed toe as well as open toe shoes and full back designs. If you ever have a chance to take these classes, don't hesitate. Wayne and Chuck are very knowledgeable and very down to earth. We're all trying to create our designs as cost effectively as possible and both Chuck and Wayne are conscious of how important that is. They both recommended sites where you can purchase supplies at the best price and gave us ideas for inexpensive solutions to store different products. Nailpolish bottles were used to hold a piping gel/water mixture used as glue, jars with shaker lids were used for disco dust and on it goes.

Bobbi and I were both excited to meet Dana Herbert who won TLC's Next Great Baker contest. Dana actually attended our high heel shoe class with Wayne. It was a special day and we met some very special people. I can't thank Wayne and Chuck enough. Not only were their classes fun and infomative, but they are both very warm, outgoing gentlemen. I hope I have the opportunity to attend another one of their classes in the future.