Sunday 20 September 2009

Lindy Smith Workshop

Well I cannot believe how time flies! Two weeks ago today I spent 2 days with Lindy Smith at a workshop here in Brisbane.The workshop was organised by Mary Reid- of Merivale cakes and Crafts- for a group of local Brisbane professional decorators.
There were two days of two different workshops- the first was one on Lindy's Op Art cake design. This cake is Black and White in Lindy's "Cakes to Inspire and Desire" book. I wanted to replicate the cake as per the course instructions- keeping the cake black and white, but I was torn, as I would have liked to do a latte and cream version, and also our main supplier in Brisbane was out of black colour paste for ore than 4 weeks and I was down to my last pot( but that is another story in itself- funny how I can order more from the UK and have it arrive in 4 days- but our Brisbane supplier cannot stock it for more than 4 weeks?????) So after lying awake all night weighing up colour palettes in my head versus using my last bit of black- I decided to go with the black, so I could recreate the original.
Armed with a huge tower of foam dummies, I set off to Kitchenware plus for that days demo!
On the first day I was beside Amanda from Deliberately Delicious- and while we had been told that we may not get to finish more than one tier of a four tier cake on the first day of the course- we were adamant that being "professionals" and being able to make many cakes in one week- that we would surely be able to finish one cake in a day- wouldn't we??? Well for those of you who have met me- I like a chat- and so does Amanda, and with this coupled together- (I am sitting here giggling to myself)- were unable to complete the cake! More concentration- Less talking!
Lindy was a great demonstrator, and seemed to survive the barrage of questions, and a room filled with cake decorators who could talk the leg of an iron table ( well some of us anyway- those who couldn't get a word in -sorry ;)))

Lindy was a trooper- hopefully she had as much fun as we did!

The Opt Art cake design was inspired from some textured wall paper Lindy had seen. Each tier balancing over the edge of the one underneath. Striking and a definite "statement" cake- it was certainly great fun to make.

My two partially finished tiers- once complete should look fab!
I still have not had time to finish this cake- but will do ASAP so I can have it on Display in my cake room!

The Second day Amanda was unable to make, as she was Super busy as ever, so I was beside Mary, and was still on fire chatting away all day! Along with Jacki from Contemporary cakes, I met Nic from "Wicked Nic's" in Toowoomba, and also Sam and Jodi from the Bayside. we had a great day exchanging cake stories, whilst actually completing a cake- yes a whole one!!
The Second day was for "wonky cakes"- aka Mad Hatters! Lindy has done some truly gorgeous mad hatter designs, so today's demonstration was all about the technique, with only our imaginations limiting us to the outside design.
Lindy also demonstrated using stencils and also using them to decorate the board- I love how getting together with other decorators really opens your mind to using tools in other manners than what you currently do!

Lindy's cake was a mixture of textured stencil and cutter patterns, with a fuchsia pink black and white colour palette.
I went a bit left field with my design, instead of pretty and girly- I thought I would like to do something a little bold and a bit more masculine. So often cake designs are geared towards what girls like- I thought this would be a great opportunity to make something funky- that a boy/man could appreciate too!
I also wanted to use up some chocolate paste- I love this stuff- it tastes just like Space food sticks- YUM!! Anyway- so after carving the shape, covering and stacking the cake- I had a blank canvas to work with.


Then I had seen and done an off center circle design before, but wanted to use a bold colour combo. What looks like it won't take long- usually means that it will take allot longer than anticipated, but after a while I was able to finish the cake!

I went with a deep red bright orange and almost bright teal blue for my coloured circles! The lighting in the shot really doesn't do the brightness any justice.

Lindy Kindly posed with me for a picture!

We all got to finish our cakes, each very different from the next!


A huge Thank you to Lindy for taking time out of her Australian tour to come to Brisbane and spend two days work shopping with us! Another massive thank you for Mary Reid for making it all happen! To all of the other Fabulous decorators I met over the two days- thank you too for being so lovely and wonderful, and making a pleasant change from the usual solo days spent cake decorating at home alone- I look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Lindy travels all over the world decorating- so if you too would like to attend one of her demo's check her website for details.

Across the two days Lindy was telling us all about Twitter and what a great benefit it is to her business- I am still yet to be converted- I have enough distractions already ;))

Thanks for reading
SJ




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