The Beginning

The Beginning

I've always enjoyed cooking and started baking with my Mum and Gran from an early age.  I even won a Christmas cake competition at my school Christmas Bazaar when I was about 7 years old.  Mary Berry was the judge apparently, although I'm afraid I don't remember too much about it!  ha ha!

I've made a few silly birthday cakes for friends and family for fun over the years and having made a couple of cakes for a friend, was challenged with making a wedding cake.  I thought at this point I had better get some proper "training" so I wouldn't make a fool of myself, so I attended a course with Tracey Mann.  Mum came with me and we had to invest a fair amount in cake decorating equipment.  Some essentials like a big non-stick rolling pin and a turntable together with lots of cutters and tools.  The course was specifically about working with chocolate paste and it was a bit daunting because pretty much everyone else on the course was already a seasoned cake decorator and Mum & I were complete rookies!  

We did OK though and were pleased with our first attempts at decorating.  From this point on I became really hooked and found other courses to learn more skills and techniques.  Courses have included various sugar flower making courses, a second chocolate paste one, cake covering, piping and modelling.  I like to try new things and having some of the basics equipment and knowledge wise you can achieve some interesting things with a little bit of imagination and creativity.  You do, however need a lot of patience!  Things don't always go according to plan and it's easy to under estimate how much time is involved in making things, especially flowers or figures.