The 13th of November showcased the start of the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester at EventCity. 3 days of solid cakey goodness with celebrities, lots of stands and a plethora of competition cakes. Having not been to a show before, I thought I would toddle along to see what I was missing! I even treated myself to a ticket for a demo by the fabulous Danielle Gotheridge in one of the classrooms at the show on the Saturday.

It was like being a small child in a sweet shop seeing all the lovely stands crammed with cakes, sweets and baking goodies. It was tricky to know where to start. I decided to have a mooch around the competition bakes first. I have to say, there were some seriously good bakers and decorators that had entered. Some amateur, some professional and even a junior section! It was interesting to see how other people work with cake, icing and structural materials when they create their masterpieces. But it did give me a few ideas on new materials I can use for my future bakes! It has made me want to enter one of my creations into a competition. That'll come next year at Cake International I think!

The demo that was run by Danielle was very interesting and quite eye-opening when it came to her talking about the tools that she uses. There are lots of fancy gadgets, utensils and gimmicks that you can get to use when you are creating your cake masterpiece, but, in agreement with Danielle, I like using the bare minimum. Treating the cake and covering like an edible sculpture. It takes me back to when I was small. Playing with plasticine and Playdoh was the best thing ever! And that is what I class cakes as. Edible plasticine/Playdoh. A cake doesn't always have to be just a plain round or square shape. It can be turned into something spectacular! My favourite tools I use when I am constructing and carving my cakes are simply and small serrated knife, my icing smoother, pizza wheel and my hands. I always start with either a round or square cake as my base and then carve away from there! I still remember the first ever carved cake I was asked to make. This was going back at least 6 years ago or so and it was a Spiderman mask. I must have placed my knife on the top of the cake dozens of times before I finally plucked up the courage to chop away the first part of the cake! All it takes is time and confidence.

After watching the delightful Lisa Faulkner at the Cake & Bake Super Theatre, I came across one rather lovely stand that sells THE most deliciously naturally flavoured icing sugars - Sugar and Crumbs. When you get asked "Would you like to try a sample of the apple crumble icing sugar?". Of course the answer is a resounding yes! 

Oh. My. Goodness! It was absolutely divine. It was just like eating apple crumble. Who knew you could do that with icing sugar? I have now bought their pink lemonade and their Jaffa Twist flavoured icing sugars to try out on my cupcakes. (Which, by the way, if you fill out a Contact Form or give me a call, you can order some from me!).

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Cake and Bake Show this year and it is an experience which I would most certainly love to do again next year. Who knows, one year I may even have my own stand!......