05 February 2013

Cake School Is IN!

  With a few classes under my belt, I thought I should at least do a blog - as promised to my students - about the time spent teaching and some of the wonderful people I've met through this experience.
Lets start with a lovely girl - Suzy - who has a real passion for making cakes. Obsessed with cake shows on television and wanting to learn more, her Mum booked in a beginners' class for her
We completed her 'Fathers' Day" dedicated cake by the time her Mum arrived and she was so proud of her work! And who wouldn't be when she had never made an iced figurine prior to this.
During a six hour day, she managed to try her hand at piping, using cutters and making a figurine! Wow!

  With this hand-bag class held at "Your Cake Kitchen" in Ormiston, the kids took over the experience. The students were allowed to make their bags in the colours they wanted using the bag I had created to inspire them. Each one reflects their own personality.
I like to encourage the students to open themselves to their creative side. If I tell them exactly the colours and style of what they need to make, it may not be what they wanted to make.
Along with the bag was the shoes...now of course, ladies love high heels but the boys in the class were obviuosly not interested.
So the boys had a little extra attention and made sneakers to match their gym bags. Very bright and funky.


  Over the Xmas period, Jenny held another class for me to teach. This time a Christmas theme was the order of the day and you can't get more festive then "The 12 days of Christmas". I had focused on the items in the poem and researched on google the cakes other poeple had made. Sketching out some ideas, I used these to create my inital cupcakes for the class and had them copy mine from start to finish. We started with the hardest ones that required setting time and moved on to easier ones.
At the end of the day, everyone has 12 cupcakes to take home and share with their loved ones.

  A follow-on to this class, one of the ladies who had completed "The 12 days of Christmas" course - Trish - booked herself in for a basics personal class.
Wanting to be able to make home-made cupcakes was Trish's main objective for her family on special occasions so we covered the basics in fondant and buttercream.

  Signed on to work for a large Supermarket chain in their bakery section, Colleen needed an express class in piping. She was really good at following my instruction and by the end of the day Colleen was more than capable of taking on piping in a hospitality environment.


  Coming from overseas to study in Australia is not an easy prospect and many of our apprentices need to find jobs here whilst studying in their field too. Going to TAFE & learning to become a pastry chef is not an easy prospect and the classes don't cover most of cake decorating.
  Linh works in her boyfriends' bread bakery and was hoping to expand his business to include her specialty cakes...Great thinking! Check out her fabulous cake!
  So if you're interested in a cake decorating class - just give me a call or shoot me an email and we can discuss your experience and what you would like to accomplish with your cake decorating! It's one on one so no hassles competing with other students.
  Happy Baking.