Monday, January 25, 2010

Exploring Cake!

The dues renewal form in my mailbox this weekend reminded me about ICES which stands for, "International Cake Exploration Societe".

Last year around this time I joined the Massachusetts chapter of ICES and it has been one of the best steps I could have taken towards trying to learn more about cake decorating. Check out the Massachusetts Chapter! We have quarterly meetings where there are guest speakers, demos, raffles, and classes taught by instructors from all over the country. We were even lucky enough to have Nicholas Lodge, renowned sugar artist, offer a few classes to our members. I took the sugar rose AND the fall arrangement class. It was GREAT! I will post pictures of my stuff later this week.

Anyway, after all that rambling, the main point of this post was to encourage anyone interested in cake decorating to take a look at the ICES site and think about joining your local chapter (hopefully you have one). I have met some really terrific people and have learned so much just from chatting with people at our luncheons, let alone all the other opportunities I've had to attend classes. It's really worth the $60 per year. You also get a great newsletter.

Pictures to come...

Here are some of Nicholas Lodge's books and a DVD or two. His DVDs are super! They really do step you through the process of making wonderful gumpaste flowers and figures.







Tuesday, January 19, 2010

My very first post...

Well, after viewing what seems like hundreds of fantastic baking blogs out there, I've been inspired to create my own. I am an amateur baker who is hoping to become a professional baker soon! I'm not sure if that will entail my heading off to culinary school (a tough thing to do while working full time) or just baking lots and lots of things in my own kitchen. After watching "Julie and Julia" I'm tempted to just try and work through a bunch of cake, cookie, and cupcake books from start to finish. This would certainly be less expensive than culinary school but much much more painful for my waistline!

So, hopefully, I'll have some pictures and things posted soon so come on back!