Cake inspiration
Now, I had no plans to write this post tonight but after my visit to Cake international’s ‘The Cake decorating and baking show’ at London’s Excel today I just had to share with you some of the inspirational cakes I saw!
I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it to the show as I have been shooting a lot this week and had family commitments all weekend, but it all worked out perfectly for me and mum to go to the exhibition and have a bit of a cake shopping spree. (Gosh I hope Mr MT doesn’t read this! If he does I didn’t spend that much…really!! And Poopah nor did mum….Ahem)
The exhibition has been at Birmingham’s NEC in the past and this was its first time in London and judging from the crowds (and serious elbow pushing – manners ladies please!) it was a resounding success!
Mum and I were really impressed by all the great and new decorating equipment on offer (more on that in future posts – loads more actually. I can’t wait to share them with you) but it was the cakes that we were really in awe of. There were loads of categories in the competition including two tier or more cakes (with no height restrictions!) shaped cakes, shoes and handbags, cupcakes, classic cakes and there was even an under 12’s category (one for Beau next year I think). The standard was so high and we couldn’t believe how some of the amazing cakes were only awarded silver, bronze and merit of achievement awards when they were so fantastic.
I should point out that all the cake decorations had to be completely edible. The details on some cakes were just amazing. They looked like plastic toys. The tiger below actually had tonsils!
We spoke to one of the judges and even saw judges talking to some of the younger entrants explaining what they look for when judging and where they could improve for next time. They even turned the cakes around to look at the back and see if any areas that would normally not be seen were neat. They were looking for originality, skill and neatness. Our hearts went out to all the entrants. They must have put in so much time and effort.
One of the entrants was a lovely lady called Nova. She works in my local cake decorating shop in Bromley – who also had a buzzing stand at the show Cake craft world. When I popped into the shop last week Nova was telling me that she had entered the hand bag and shoe category. I was really looking forward to seeing her design and I was completely bowled over when I saw it. It was INCREDIBLE! I have never seen such life like shoes. Nova’s were so detailed with a snake skin look, detailed laces on the trainer and the cake board detailing was amazing too. The bag looked like you could just pick it up and go out for a night on the town with it. She got a very well deserved GOLD !!!!!
Learning new tricks
There were loads of demonstrations going on at the stands and that’s where we bought the most stuff. We bought letter cutters, imprint rolling pins, square plunger cutters, to name just a few, but it was on Karen Davis stand that we really had to hold our selves back. She has the best silicon moulds ever. She showed us how to create a head using one and how she gets the eyes to look so cute and glisteny. We loved these! The teddies were really cute too!
More great cakes we saw
I really wish that I had taken my DSLR to take proper photos rather than these snap shots taken with my phone, but then again I also wish that I hadn’t dropped my camera and broken the lens last week!
Anyway, here are some more of the amazing cakes we loved.
The highlight
As if seeing all these cakes and buying tons of new toys wasn’t exciting enough, I also got to meet Ruth Clemens from The Pink Whisk. You might recognise her from the first series of ‘The Great British Bake off’. I’ve been following her fab blog for ages and last Thursday I tweeted that I was excited to have just received her new book to review here on CakesBakesAndCookies.com. (that will be later this week) and I had to say hello and she remembered me. That made my day! She’s was so lovely and so slim and tall! How does she stay so slim whilst coming up with all those amazing recipes! I need to know her secret!
So, I hope you have enjoyed this little whirlwind tour of the show. There’s another show in Birmingham in November, but I am definitely going to be entering the competition in London next year, hopefully with Beau. Time to put my thinking cap on I think!
EmmaMT
And what about you Mrs MT? Thought about entering yourself?
I’ve got my thinking cap on!
All of these cakes are incredible and I imagine the show at the Excel was massively inspirational. I was think about doing a tea party cake with vintage crockery made out of gumpaste so that first cake has definitely got me thinking. Thanks for sharing these great photographs
I know! After seeing them I wanted to find the perfect cake to make just so I could play around with the designs. There were also a lot of bunting on the cakes and I love a bit of bunting on a cake.
[…] her new book to review here on CakesBakesAndCookies.com, so when I saw her stand at ‘The cake decorating and baking show‘ last Sunday I had to say “hello”. To my complete astonishment she knew who I was […]
Wow Emma, thanks for sharing! All the bakes looked so fabulous! =)
[…] without any hassle. I met Karen at The Squires Cake decorating show a few years ago and again at Cake International when I was with my mum this year. Both times she was doing demonstrations on how to use her moulds […]