Cake International

Cake International came to the Excel last weekend so Steph and I toodled down to see what it was all about.

Cake International is the sugarcraft, cake decorating and baking show and although I’m a keen baker, my presentation skills leave something to be desired. I’d love to be able to knock up impressive looking cakes for my friends and family’s special occasions and Tuesdays but I can just about knock up a drizzle of sauce or runny icing to drizzle on the top of my bundt cakes. Due to my lack f skills in this area I’m always in awe of some of the impressive creations people can create in their own kitchens.

This is why the first place we headed once we arrived at the show was to see the cake competition entries. This one above was amazing. It actually looked like real cheese and crackers on top of the cupcakes. It wasn’t, it was made from icing and sugarcraft. How incredible?

With it being Easter Sunday, I couldn’t not show you these amazing Easter cakes too. It just astounds me that these are made by amateur bakers.

It wasn’t just cupcakes though. There were cakes of all shapes and sizes in the competition section. This Harry Potter cake was one of my absolute favourites. How do you make Hedwig out of cakey stuff?

It wasn’t just amateurs exhibiting at Cake International though there were a number of schools and colleges there too. This KFC cake from a student at Brooklands College was pretty impressive. I think I’m most fascinated at the thought of where people get their ideas from. I mean why recreate an entire KFC meal in cake form? Madness, I love it.

It wasn’t all gawping at beautifully decorated cake creations though.We got a chance to taste some blummin’ good brownies too. I can highly recommend The Brownie Bar. They make awesome peanut butter brownies and white chocolate and pistachio brownies too. These were a rather big downfall in my diet disaster I mentioned earlier.

I also picked up a cupcake courier case and got a chance to chat to Danielle Gotheridge. I picked up her book too because she convinced me that this cake decorating malarkey isn’t as hard as it looks. She doesn’t use any specialist tools, just things that you will find in even the most average of kitchens (i.e. mine). I’m hoping to get a chance to speak to her in a little bit more depth soon. Hopefully after I’ve had a chance to try out some of the techniques in her book, so I won’t go into too much depth about her right now. However, I will show you one last photo from the show which is one of Danielle’s cakes.

It was a brilliant day out. I could have spent a few more hours there just mooching about.

Did you go to Cake International? What did you think? Are you any good at decorating cakes? Can you give me any hints and tips of where to start?

Kisses,