As promised, here are the pictutres of my window.. in progress :-)

Studio Window

I dropped my cakes off this evening at the Just Darling Cake Studio, in preparation for dressing the window tomorrow afternoon... I'm a nervous wreck! All of a sudden I'm really nervous about putting the cakes in the window. Although the studio will not be open until next tuesday 30th November I thought the window being dressed may provoke people's interest for the actual opening.

I'm patially nervous because Alisa who owns La Fleur floral and bridal who I lease my studio and the window space off has done an amazing job with her window and mine is going to look a lot less festive. However, the decision not to go too festive was a conscious one and as I can't see many Christmas brides having left their cake ordering until now :-) I'm hoping to appeal to 2011's brides and wanted to showcase what I can do for them. Initially I will display one of my own creations and one from the Ruby Bloom collection and depending on how much space is left, a cupcake stand and a Christmas cake. There will also be at least 6 more cakes on display in the Studio upstairs.

I will post pictures of the dressed window tomorrow evening, fingers crossed it will be as eye catching as I hope.

Cake International

I'm a little hyper after today's expedition to Birmingham :-) Cake International at the NEC is heaven for Cake geeks like me! I have definitely made a dent in my budget but have bought some absolutely gorgeous things and I can't believe it but I actually got an airbrush! It's been on my wish list for ages but was nervous about buying something I have no idea how to use. After a quick demo at the NEC I'm ready to go and the effects are so cool.

I also bought some beautiful lustres in colours that are to die for, can't wait to use them, will be experimenting tomorrow night when the girls are safely tucked up in bed... I'm such a spoil sport their eyes lit up when they saw all my goodies :-) I have got lots of pretty stencils and impression mats to try too, I'm not going to know when to start. Now all I need is for my flaming dummy cakes to arrive so I can get to work on my display cakes for the shop... they've only been on order for TWO weeks!

Thanks to Jayne Walsh of The Little Fairy Cakery in Newcastle for the lift and lovely company... did we stop talking at all today??? :-)

Classically trained versus self taught ?

I've never made a secret of the fact that I did not go to college to learn how to decorate cakes. Apart from a term at night school to learn how to decorate a Christmas cake I've had no 'training' at all. I have however, wondered if this would be a handicap in the professional world where qualifications are so important. As I'm on the verge of moving into that professional arena it's been on my mind more often but thanks to an eye opening conversation with Craig my new baker I'm feeling a lot more confident that my work will speak for itself.

Craig is both a baker and decorator, he is classically trained to ice cakes through Thomas Danby College and his piping is amazing, he's fast and accurate and the results are fabulous. My piping stinks, it's something I'm working on but to be honest I hardly ever need to do it and that's where I've realised the distinction is. I'm not trying to be classically trained my cakes are vastly different in style from the traditional piped creations. It's almost like two entirely different products, people who want one of Craig's cakes would not look twice at mine and vice versa.

Craig was shocked at how long I spend icing a cake, he looks at decorating from a completely different perspective, he pipes the borders, the names etc... applies ready made models and hey presto his cake is done. A typical cake would cost in the region of £27 whereas my basic is £70 and the difference is not training it's time. My details are painstakingly created to the clients specific requirements. The models are hand made and details such as wedding dressing can reflect those worn by the brides themselves. I absolutely revel in the detail, I guess it's where my passion lies.

It was fascinating to swop methods and ideas about how things can be achieved and I think we both learnt a lot. I'm really looking forward to working with Craig and his team at Hoffmans. The cakes I tasted were absolutely delicious and the range of flavours fabulous, I'll be updating my website with these shortly.

I think I can safely say that although I do not have certificates with my qualifications emblazoned across them to hang on my wall, I will have stunning (if I do say so myself :-)) examples of my work for everyone to see and hopefully those cakes will tell you more than any qualifications can.