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!

Cupcake Class Week 4

Next week's cupcake class is all about fondant. We will be learning about how to handle, roll, color and use fondant. Students will have an opportunity to create a set of cupcake toppers to take home and dazzle their family. The toppers in the picture are done in black and white, but of course any accent color can be used. These toppers would be appropriate for a bridal shower, wedding or tea. The limits are only defined by your imagination.

Classes are scheduled for Thursday evening, August 25th from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm and Saturday morning, August 27th from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm. Students will be supplied with fondant, colors, and variety of tools to create their own toppers. Bringing iced cupcakes to class is optional since each student will be given packaging to transport their toppers home. Class size is limited to 10 and the cost is $15.00 per student. Reserve your seat early!

Cupcake Class Photos

We've been having a great time in our weekly cupcake classes. The students have been doing a fantastic job and it's been a pleasure meeting everyone. Our first week's class included piping flowers on cupcakes. Students learned to prepare piping bags with couplers and tips and fill them with icing. They practiced piping Mums, Pansies, Sunflowers and Zinnia. Each student went home with their own little flower garden!

Our second week's class project included coloring icing and piping designs on cupcakes. The Thursday evening and Saturday morning classes learned how to pipe swirls, ruffles, pulled peaks and a basketweave design. Everyone had a great time deciding which colors they wanted to use for their designs and which sprinkles and toppers to use to accent their finished cupcake. Everyone had great ideas for making their own cupcakes special.

Next week's classes with Jodi McMillan should be exciting and everyone is looking forward to taking home their own cupcake bouquet of roses, hydrangeas and sunflowers. I will be out of town next weekend to attend the Cove Country Cake Show and the western PA Day of Sharing in Bedford, PA so I'll miss Saturday morning's class. But, I will be at Thursday evening's class and hope to see a nice turnout. Right now we still have four available seats, so don't miss this opportunity to bring home a bouquet!





Cupcake Class Week 3

Next week's cupcake bouquet class will be taught by Jodi McMillan. Jodi is the pastry chef at the Stegmaier Mansion and she is also the owner of "Cakes by Jodi". Jodi creates some great fondant cupcake toppers that she sells on Etsy. If you have a chance check out her selection of items at pastrychefjodi .  Jodi will be teaching students how to pipe roses, hydrangeas and sunflowers on cupcakes as well as how to construct a cupcake bouquet centerpiece. These are a great idea for an inexpensive centerpiece for a baby or bridal shower. Or, maybe you would like something out of the ordinary for your next bake sale or coffee clatch.

The picture shown is only a general idea of what you will be doing. Classes are scheduled for Thursday, Aug 18th from 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm and Saturday, August 20th from 10:30 am - 12:00 noon. The cost is $20.00 per student which includes a terra cotta pot and all other supplies needed. You just need to bring yourself and 12 cupcakes without icing. We've been having a blast in previous classes and this one will be tons of fun as well. We hope you can join us for the cupcake bouquet class. Seating is limited to 10 per session, so make your reservations soon!

Cupcake Classes Week 2

We had a fantastic response for this week's cupcake classes and actually had to schedule an additional class for Saturday morning. Since that is the case, next week we will be offering the Saturday morning class again. You need to reserve your seat by Tuesday August 9th for next week's class. Please specify whether you will be attending on Thursday August 11th or Saturday August 13th. As with this week, the Thursday evening class is from 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm and the Saturday morning class is from 10:30 am - Noon. The cost is $10.00 per person.

We will be working on "patterns" for the new class. Included are the ruffle which appears on the left, the plain swirl, pull out peaks and a basketweave design. With the right embellishments, these designs can be used for a variety of occasions such as bridal and baby showers, weddings and birthday parties. You can add jimmies, pearls, cake sparkles, fondant flowers, etc. to dress up your cupcake. Also, adding cupcake wraps or pretty baking cups can make an impressive display at your next event.

Icing colors, designs, embellishments and the combination of any or all three is never ending. If you would like to try something new that isn't included in one of the classes, please let us know. We will gladly arrange a class or private lesson.  For next week's class you will need to bring at least 12 fairly level cupcakes without icing. Sugar Artists Emporium will supply you with everything else you need to create some beautiful cupcakes. We hope to see you in next week's class.



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.

Cupcake Classes

 Beginning Thursday August 4th, Sugar Artists Emporium will be running four weeks of cupcake classes. Each Thursday evening from 6:30 pm - 8 pm we'll have a different class theme.

The first week's class will be piping flowers. It's summertime and we're all enjoying the beautiful flowers in bloom throughout the valley. Why not make some pretty flower cupcakes for your next get together. Cupcakes are so popular right now. They're just the right size for an individual dessert...and no utensils needed!

We will be showing you how to turn your cupcakes into a pretty floral display that will brighten up any dessert table. Thursday night's class will include the pansy, chrysanthemum, sunflower and zinnia...all popular summer flowers.

If you would like to join us for the first class, please reserve your spot no later than Monday August 1st. You will need to bring at least 12 cupcakes, that are fairly level, to class with you. We will provide all of the remaining supplies including buttercream icing, piping bags and all tips required for these particular flowers.

The class size is limited to 10 students, so make your reservations early. We will consider adding an additional Saturday morning class if there is enough interest. The cost of the class is $10.00 per person. We hope to see you for our first decorating class and we look forward to many more project classes!