Posts Tagged "cake international"

Rocky Horror Sugar Show

22nd June 2015
by M-admin-bakehouse
blog, , , , , , , , , , ,

rocky horror sugar show

Have you heard about this yet? Have you been to like the facebook page? If not you’ll find it here. I highly recommend you go and view it, because there will be a lot going on there in the next few months. Let me tell you a story….

A group of like minded cake artist friends were chatting together on a facebook group many months ago, when one of them, Laura, mentioned that it was the 40th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Show and wouldn’t it be a great idea for a cake collaboration to take place to celebrate it.  Well no further encouragement was needed and the ideas began to flow. Whilst one of the members of the group, Rhu, was chatting to Cake International, she asked if this group of cake makers could possibly have a table at Cake International in November 2015 to show the collaboration. They thought it was a marvellous idea, and the idea began to snowball…….

What started off as a table, then became a stage, then became a walk through installation!! A 9 x 6 metre installation in fact, housing several rooms!

So let me introduce you to the admin team….

rocky horror sugar show

Here we are, sporting our red lipstick ready to take our lippy pictures to create the banner for the Rocky Horror Sugar Show  facebook page (remember the link above? Have you clicked it yet?) I’m the shorty in the middle Marie McGrath of Marie’s Bakehouse , on the right is Rhu Strand of Pimp my Cake with Mama Rhu  and the other beauty is Laura Edwards of Mamma Jamma Cakes . Being spread around the country we decided we needed a planning weekend, and this was us after working from 9am to after midnight!! But, hey, it’s going to be sooooo worth it!

So, there’s the 3 of us, and another 37 cake artists, some well known but many not, but all incredibly talented. We’re introducing them at the moment on the Rocky Horror Sugar Show facebook page, so go there and find out who else is involved 🙂 And you can also find out about all our contributors here on the Cake International website! Focusing on the strengths and loves of each individual, the project encompasses large sculpted work, detailed sugar models, flower work, tiered cakes, and everything in between. And you’ll be able to see some sneak peeks and progress shots as they are being made!

Things are moving along nicely. The plans are drawn up and submitted, the dummies are being ordered (one of our fantastic sponsors in Dummies Direct,) supplies ordered from another of our sponsors The Cake Decorating Company, Cakes Craft and Decoration magazine are writing their first article about the project, and this week we took delivery of over 300kg of sugarpaste and flowerpaste from another of our sponsors Renshaw Baking!!!!!!!

I’m beside myself with excitement about this project. It’s going to be fantastic, and we want to have you come along with us for the ride. So come and join us on The Rocky Horror Sugar Show facebook page (did I mention that yet?) and if you are a fan of twitter we’re over there too @rockysugarshow . So, come and join us, fill your senses, and let us see you shiver with antici…pation!!

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Gold Winning Wizard Of Oz Cake From Cake International Manchester 2015

22nd February 2015
by M-admin-bakehouse
blog, cake, cake international, celebration, cheshire, decorating, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

dorothy model
 
You may have seen all of these photos before, particularly if you follow me on facebook or on pinterest, but I thought it would be a good idea to have all the pictures in one place together. And here’s Dorothy. I chose this theme in the end as I’d had a cake order for a Wizard of Oz themed cake and really enjoyed making Dorothy, so she’s the little lady that started it all. You can see the detail on the yellow brick road here. I scored the yellow paste with a Dresden tool and then used dusting powder to add the shadows to give more depth to the cake. There was a lot of work in the dusting on this cake! Hours and hours!

front view of cake

The front view had all the main characters in together so they could all be seen in one shot, but the story continues around the cake…….

side view cake house

On the side here I added Dorothy’s house with the witch’s feet poking out. I decided to take the shoes off her- not something you often see on other Wizard of Oz cakes, or in pictures, but the Dorothy figure was wearing the famous shoes, and I thought it would be odd to have two pairs on the cake. The roof tiles were dusted with a dark brown colour in the joins, and the white of the house was given a dusting of light brown to pick out the detail of the scored bricks. All the grass you can see is hand rolled, and all the leaves under the rainbow are also individually scored with detail, and then dusted. The rainbow on the top tier also has a dusting of a darker shade of each colour, on the bottom half of each strip of colour, to tie it in with the rest of the cake. The blue birds are there as a reminder of the famous song. The Emerald City you can see is dusted with sparkling gold dust.

side view trees and sweetcorn cake

The other side has all the detail of the corn field for the scarecrow, complete with crows, and the orchard underneath is from another part of the film. I glazed all the apples to make them shiny.

sweetcorn and apples close up

You might be able to see the detail a bit better on this picture. The tree bark detail was made using a Dresden tool and a ball tool, and then dusted with dark brown. The leaves on the trees and around them were all individually modelled , scored with the Dresden tool and then dusted to pick out the detail. I used the Dresden tool (my most used one- can you guess??) to create the mud/soil texture under the sweetcorn, and the sweetcorn was textured using the end of a piping nozzle.

lion named

The Lion- I love his cute face. Obviously the most time consuming part of this one was his mane! All hand twisted and stuck on individually.

scarecrow model

The Scarecow, with all his straw poking out of the sleeves and his trouser legs. He was deceptively time consuming with his details, including the twisted belt, and getting his hat just right to sit on his head.

tin man model

The tin man. My favourite! But absolutely the most time consuming! I made the accessories to go with him, which the others didn’t have, but the most time consuming part was getting a good coverage of silver paint. I think he was painted at least 11 times!

I really enjoyed making this cake, despite the fact that it took over 40 hours, and I’m really proud I got gold 🙂

You can come and learn how to make these characters with me. We’ve made Dorothy in our Monthly Modeller Class already, but if you’d like to make the others, you’d be more than welcome to come along. Our classes are held at The Croft on Church Road in Flixton, Manchester. The dates for the modelling classes are:

The Lion- Monday 9th March 2015 7-9pm

The Tin Man- Wednesday 1st April 2015 7-9pm

The Scarecrow-Monday 11th May 2015 7-9pm

They are £25 each, with all materials, equipment and refreshments included. All you need to do is bring a box to take them home in. If you’d like to book, you can email me on marie@mariesbakehouse.co.uk or contact me on facebook or phone me on 07940121872.

 

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Cake International Manchester 2013 – my experience of entering the competition!

19th March 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
1 comment
blog, cake, cake maker, cheshire, decorating, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Have you been to Cake International? It’s been running for many years, but I’ve been to the Birmingham one for the last three years.  The first one, I drove there from Manchester with my mum, spent a fortune on goodies and came home full of ideas, and totally in awe of anyone who entered the competition, thinking it wasn’t anything that I’d ever do myself.

The second and third years I went with cake friends and stayed over near the NEC. It was a really social experience, spending time in person with ‘real live’ cake friends, not just chatting to them over the internet! Each year different friends entered the competition and, with them, I lived through their anguish beforehand whilst making their competition piece, their nerves when waiting for the judges to announce who had been awarded what grades, and their joy and sometimes disappointments at how they had been scored.

But I hadn’t ever entered the competition myself. Well, I lived in Manchester, and the cake had to be delivered to Birmingham before 8.45am on a Friday morning, and I had work, or had to take the children to school, so I couldn’t possibly get it there, could I?
Good enough excuse I thought.

Then Cake International moved to Manchester. And not just Manchester- to Event City, which is less than ten minutes away from where I live in Urmston. So the ‘I can’t get it there’ excuse was no longer relevant. Hmmmmmmmm.

So, when the time came to think about buying my tickets for CI, it was crunch time.  Was I going to buy a three day pass? Or enter the competition and have a three day pass because of it? So I entered the competition. I read through the rules of each class and decided on Class B: Celebration cake with all edible decoration.

I decided to stick with something I knew I could do. Some people enter CI to really challenge themselves, and hats off to them for doing it. There are some absolutely fantastic pieces there, such as this amazing piece from Rhu at Pimp My Cake By Mama Rhu. But I thought I’d make a cake which I’d make for a customer, and just have fun making a cake I enjoyed. Which is exactly what I did.

I like making cakes with lots of detail. Cakes which make you look a little bit closer. Cakes which have decoration at the back as well as at the front. So I kind of went to town with it on this cake.  I didn’t stress, I didn’t worry, I just enjoyed making a cake that I wanted to make.  So far so good I thought.

On the morning of delivery I was still fairly relaxed about the whole thing. Until the point of putting it on the table. Then I started to feel nervous. Lots of people would be looking at my cake over the next three days. The judges would be scrutinising it in a matter of hours. People might wander past it and criticise it. I might be there and hear them! Suddenly I wasn’t quite so calm! But I felt confident enough in my cake to think I might be awarded a merit, and if I was lucky enough to get a bronze, then I’d be thrilled.

After taking the children to school, and going home to bake for a order, I returned to CI at about 11am. As soon as I arrived I went to the competition area and saw a judge with my cake! Suddenly I felt very sick.  Suddenly it really mattered to me what this person thought of my cake, and I needed to know as soon as possible. 

Then I, and other cake friends, waited for the results to be announced. And waited and waited and waited. Three o’clock came round and I had to leave to collect my children from school. On returning home I was glued to my laptop, waiting for Rhu to let me know what the results were. Then Rhu posted a picture for me.

Stunned. Totally stunned. In fact I think my first response was ‘Noooooooooooooooooooo!’ But completely and utterly pleased and proud. Thrilled that one of my cakes, one I’d make in the same way for a customer, achieved a gold at Cake International!
Quick jump to Sunday afternoon, and the award ceremony, and not only did I manage to meet John Whaite (winner of GBBO) who presented my certificate, I was also awarded best in my class. Here’s me with a daft grin, and trying not to cry!
Happy caker 🙂
And just because I have one, here’s a picture of Mary Berry with my cake. Well, almost with my cake. I’d like to think she was at least looking at it!
Would I enter CI again? Yes I think I would. I might even step out of my comfort zone and enter a class I’m not so confident in. I have a few ideas forming…….
So that’s it, my journey to Cake International Manchester.
Any ideas how many eggs the Easter Bunny hid in the garden?? ;0)
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