Cove Country & PA ICES Day of Sharing

This past weekend as most of you know, I attended the Cove Country Cake Show & Challenge in Bedford, PA. The Show was held on Saturday and included a live challenge. The challenge was three hours long and there were three teams that competed. The theme for this year's cake show was "Children's Movies" and each of the three teams were very creative. Their pieces included Willy Wonka, created by two Cove Country students,  Gutsy the Smurf from the new Smurf movie all rigged out in his kilt (right along with his creator, Mark James, in his kilt)  and Kung Fu Panda, the winning design, created by Kim Simon.

I have to give credit to all the participants. They kept their cool, never got upset and did some fantastic work. Any of you who decorate cakes will know how much work went into each of these cakes and a three hour time limit would have stressed me to the max!

Along with the cake challenge, there was a cake show competition that included some amazing entries. I wish I could name everyone who participated, but I can't possibly list them all. A couple of my favorites included The Three Little Pigs and Mary Poppins, but there were alot of great cakes. For a look at all the pictures from the show and challenge, check out Sugar Artists Emporium's Facebook Page. There are some action photos from the competition and more cake entries.

Along with all the fun on Saturday, I had the privilege of taking classes with Beth Parvu. I will post pictures at a later date, but I learned how to make a Rose Fairy and gumpaste stargazer lilies. Beth is an excellent teacher and if you have an opportunity to take one of her classes, you'll be glad you did.

Beth is the owner of Sugarpaste, LLC, and co-owns Crystal Colors LLC with her husband Ronald. Beth is a recognized around the world for her Sugar Flowers and award wining cake designs.  She has been published numerous times in American Cake Decorating Magazine, Cake& Craft Decoration Magazine (England) and 2007 was in listed in Gourmet Magazine in the December issue.  Also she has been written about in Dessert Professional magazine under the cutting edge section.

You can check out her website at Sugarpaste Beth has some great cutters, veiners and molds. We will be carrying a line of her products in the store in the very near future.

 I also, attended the PA ICES Day of Sharing on Sunday. I was very fortunate to take a Lambeth Method piping class with Sheila Miller. Sheila has been a cake decorator for 37 years, and is the owner of 'Sheila’s Cakery'. Sheila has earned over 125 awards, including several Best of Show, People’s Choice, Decorators’ Choice honors, received a bronze medal in the National Wedding Cake Competition, Tulsa OK, and was first runner up in the 2006 Mid Atlantic Wedding Cake Competition. Sheila is a lovely lady and a great teacher. 

For those of you haven't heard about PA ICES, it is the Pennsylvania chapter of the International Cake Exploration Societe. If you join ICES, you automatically become a member of the PA chapter. The group holds three days of sharing every year. Each one is held in conjunction with a cake show. The first one is held in April at State College, the second one is held at Bedford, PA in August and the third one is coming up in November in York, PA in conjunction with the White Rose Cake Show. You can go to ICES or check out PA ICES Facebook Page for more information on the organization. I hope you will consider joining!