I spent a morning researching trends at the Cake International exhibition at London’s lovely Alexandra Palace: do you now see why I love what I do?
There’s such an amazing array of tools and materials available to cake decorators today: I see that you no longer need to spend years patiently honing your skills. The ability to create work of precise details is on offer to anyone taking up this hobby or profession. I imagine that it speeds things up for professional pastry chefs in the kitchen, too. The cutters are now so precise and intricate. You can use edible wafers for flowers to give that ultra-realistic effect. And you can now get finely-detailed moulds for face, limbs and bodies of models on your cakes.
Everything’s more accessible – even airbrushes. You can make intricate and realistic gumpaste models of metal clasps and buckles for your handbag and stiletto cakes. And there was even an implement that helped you get clean frosted edges.
There was so much amazing talent on display all around the exhibition. I can imagine how much of patience and dedication these artists put into building their repertoires. These were a few of the competition entries. The great part: some of the entries were crafted by men.
This one was my favourite: I love it when sugarcraft is about real food!
In the end, I came away craving for some ‘real cake’. No disrespect to the hugely creative and inspiring work on display, but I wish the exhibition was also about ‘real’ cake, too. This cute creation was the closest it got!