February 11, 2012

Flower posy cake class in Rome 2012

My first class, for this my third teaching trip to Rome, was the pretty flower posy cake – a current favourite with our UK students. Walking into the teaching room was a lovely experience, lots of enthusiastic students very pleased to see us including many familiar faces: Rosaria, Angela, Teresa, Gaia, and Francesca, two of whom have also attended my classes in the UK.

I usually find Italian students slightly more adventurous with style and colour than some of my UK students and today’s class didn’t disappoint. I do however think that maybe some of this experimentation is because certain students only half listen to instructions and others are just too keen to start…..the outcome however is often exquisite.

Student flower posy cake

Students flower posy cake - Italian style!

For colours, quite a few students used the original posy that appears in my ‘contemporary cake bible book’ for inspiration, others used the examples from our previous classes in the UK. One of my students brought her 3 month old daughter with her and we noticed at the end of the class that she had inadvertently used exactly the same colours as the baby’s pram toy!! This proves we all tend to choose familiar colour combinations without thinking about it and certainly for this class I played safe…What did I use? Well I opted for bright spring colours. Our classroom was on the slightly chilly side, so I need colours to make me feel warm!!!

Lindy's Posy cake created in Rome

Lindy's posy cake created at her class in Rome

The students were all very exciting about using flower moulds, it was the first time for many of them and the room seem to resemble florists in no time at all!! They enjoyed being shown how to use more than one colour in a mould to create beautiful realistic flowers in next to no time.

The forecasted snow started to fall mid afternoon, so unfortunately a few students decided to leave the class early and missed adding edible dusts to their flowers. However everyone else finished and was thrilled with their creations.

Warm colours on this student's flower posy

Love warm vibrant colours!

If you’d like to join me on a similar class in the UK, the next date in our class calendar is the 20th April 2012. click here for more information.

Introduction to Celebration Cakes Workshop 27th Jan 2012

We’ve all got to start somewhere and Lindy’s ‘beginners’ class is a brilliant way to get you started with Sugarcraft. This is back-to-basics stuff but as Lindy is quick to point out “even if you have many covered cakes before this class will help you achieve that sometimes elusive professional finish”.

I am writing this blog ‘live’ sitting amongst our 10 lovely students. We had such good feed-back from… Continue reading

Sugarcraft Inspiration at Cake International 2011

The cake show at the NEC is always very busy, but this year I seemed to have less time than ever to see all the amazing cakes and sugarcraft creations and unfortunately only managed to have a really brief look at some of the tables. Here is a selection of what I saw, I hope you find them inspiring.

I love the colours used on this cake and the… Continue reading

Lindy’s new cake stencil designs prove extremely popular

As many of you know, I’m currently addicted to cake stencils….no seriously I am, I simply can’t seem to get enough of them. They are so easy to use and so versatile, whether you use them to subtly emboss your sugarpaste or to make bold statements on the top of your cakes or anything in between.

Last weekend, at Cake International 2011, Lindy’s Cakes  launched a further eight NEW… Continue reading

Lindy’s NEW cake bible book goes down a treat

I had a feeling that my new book ‘The contemporary cake decoratoring bible’ was going to prove popular with my students, fans and fellow cake decorators but nothing had prepared me for quite how popular it was to be at last weekends ‘Cake International 2011′ show at the NEC. I have never in my life signed so many books all… Continue reading

Wonky Cake Class October 2011

From all accounts a fabulous time was had by all at Lindy’s  ‘Wonky Cake’ workshop last Friday. A masterclass in carving, and covering, and adorning this iconic cake! Here’s a few photos from the day

Wonky Cakes in Production!

And here they are…

Wonderful 'Wonky' cakes and a class photo!

Cake Stencil Technique Workshop: October 2011

Our increasingly popular technique focus cake masterclass featured again this week with Lindy’s ‘Stencil Technique Workshop’. This type of class allows you to focus on one technique and spend a whole uninterrupted day practicing it… and we love it! This class is so much fun and produces fabulous results, this class has the ‘WOW’ factor!

Lindy is a big fan of stencils, in fact she loves them so much… Continue reading

Introduction to Celebration Cakes 2: Sept 2011

Here we go again! Lindy’s ‘Introduction to Celebration Cakes’ workshop is so popular we decided we just had to run it again. Nine eager students, nine naked cakes ready for the Lindy Smith treatment!

This is the most fabulous course for the beginner sugarcrafter. It is basic cake covering at it’s best, the humble beginnings of sugarcrafting, and that’s exactly where Lindy starts.  Her ’back to basics’ approach works equally… Continue reading

Lindy’s ‘contemporary cake decorating bible’ has ARRIVED!

It’s so exciting my ‘Contemporary Cake  Decorating Bible’ is here! It’s big, it’s heavy and it’s jammed packed full of techniques to try and ideas to inspire. Over the last couple of days, I’ve been receiving some lovely comments via our Facebook page, twitter, email etc so I thought I’d share a small selection with you…….

Roses are red cupcakes

Lindy’s passion fruit cupcake recipe

I have always adored passion fruit, such a fabulous flavour,  exotic and tangy. So I thought I’d share this delightful recipe for passion fruit cupcakes, which I picked up in a supermarket in Singapore! I have tweaked it slightly. Passion fruits are now readily available in UK supermarkets so there is no reason why you also can’t enjoy this recipe.

Beautiful passion fruit – yum!

Carving cakes successfully – a few tips from Lindy

Having a cake of the correct shape is fundamental to any good cake design. If, like some, you shy away from carving you are limiting yourself to just basic shapes and yet with a little bit of courage and armed with a sharp knife it is perfectly possible to sculpt a shape from cake that can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

[caption id=”attachment_7674″ align=”aligncenter” width=”400″ caption=”Students carving handbags… Continue reading

What is Gum Arabic used for?

We sell a selection of edible gums here at Lindy’s Cakes, all with their own specific uses, which can lead to a little confusion as they all look very similar.

We guess you wouldn’t expect that the a substance used in incense, shoe polish and make-up could also be used to to help add sparkle and shine to your cakes. It’s an all natural product, from the African Sahel… Continue reading

Amusing Pingu Cake Story – Competition Winner

Birthday cake, Pingu, edible food colour,  small children, what could possibly go wrong…? The winner of our Creative Writing Competition – Amusing Cake Story, Tracy Tomlinson tells us

We hope her story makes you laugh as much as we did!

The Pingu Family Cake

“It was coming up to Lloyd’s 3rd birthday and he didn’t want any of the cakes that the supermarket offered: No clowns, footballs or… Continue reading

Bake a Chocolate & Guinness Cake for Morning Coffee!

Morning tea or coffee is a very important part of a Lindy Smith workshop. Our expert assistant Sally is well known in our student circles for her baking – her Lemon Drizzle cake is divine.  But  today we were treated to the most glorious cake,  it wasn’t baked by Sally… oh no…she  is on vacation, but by our very own workshop co-ordinator, Jane, who came up with a beauty. A… Continue reading

Lindy 11th cake decorating book is at the printers!

“The Contemporary Cake Decorating Bible”

by Lindy Smith

This book encapsulates 20 years of sugarcraft knowledge coupled with fresh unique contemporary designs and Lindy’s exquisite use of colour…all bound tightly into 164 glossy pages.

150 techniques, over 80 projects…page after page of stunning colour photographs, step by step instructions, recipes, tips and advice…everything you need to know to create cakes, cookies and cupcakes with the wow factor.

With… Continue reading