Hi there!
I´m a newbie here, but i´ve already found CC so helpful and inspiring, thanks to everybody out there.
I know most of you live in US and i would like to know if any of you are from Ireland, so i could get a little bit more of extra information on cake decorating, suppliers, and cake contest around here as well if any of you belong to any sugarcraft group or similar.
I´m mainly learning everything on my own (basically a lot of mistakes to get over), and is ok so far, but it would be great to know more people from around here who shares the passion about sugarcraft and try to get together from time to time.
Thanks,

Hi, welcome to CC. I'm from England. And I'm a member of the British Sugarcraft Guide. Here is the link if you like to join,

http://bsguk.org/forum/index.php

thank you,.

IrelandCakes,

Welcome, Im not from Ireland, but love it there. I did my study abroad their a few years ago for college. I stayed in Galway, then made my way to Dublin. If I wasnt engaged, I would have moved their, thats how much I loved it.

Good luck,

Pam

We were in Dublin last year for a couple of weeks. I managed to sqeeze in a class at The Cakebox in Dun Laoghaire. I thought the ladies there were really nice and I had a great time. They have supplies, but I thought everything was quite expensive. From what I gather, cake supplies on Ireland are expensive in general. You might just want to order from somewhere in GB.

Hi, I'm not from Ireland although my mum is from Co Cork. I live in England. Started decorating last year, not able to do much at the moment but I enjoy lurking on here! A lot of the hints and tips will help you, although the recipes may not be much use.
Thanks for the link bashini.

Hi Ireland cakes, I am Irish

The Cakebox is the only one I have come across but I am sure there are plenty of classes around if you look for them.

I buy all my stuff from the US and avoid the UK as it's too expensive when dealing with Euros.

There is a place located in Clane, Co. Kildare called Decobake, good for boards and boxes and limited lustre dusts, tools etc. They sell to the public and you can buy boards and boxes in bulk with a bit of a discount. Their opening hours can be a bit unreliable like if it's a bank holiday on Monday they might not open the Thursday and Friday before. They have a website so I would ring first before going!

I don't know of any cake contests at all!

I am still only learning too so I am addicted to CC!

Hope you have fun and learn lots

just wanted to add that I agree with zboo the recipes are a bit of a loss to us!

I would advise you not to even go there. Stuff we don't have.

The cakes tend to be very sweet and use a lot of suff like shortening (lard to you and me) pudding (angels delight) and all sorts of processed stuff too that we just don't get, which is not neccessarily a bad thing!

Cake flour... forget it! We don't get it, there are substitutions but I am not into substitutions otherwise it's a different cake you're making and don't let anyone tell you any differently!

Measuring cups, I hate! Although some do use weighing scales.

You can get great ideas for fillings and the likes though and candy recipes too.

WASC cake seems very popular but you need white cake mixes for this and we only seem to get chocolate Betty Crocker here and it's expensive.

A lot of cake recipes call for using only the whites which seems like an utter waste of food and money to me. Some could call for as many as 12 egg whites.

Everything is in Farenheit too! HTH

Hi, I am not from Ireland i am in England. I am also teaching myself and making many many mistakes along the way too. I do attend night school 2 hours per week mostly learning how to make flowers, which i love going to, i just wish it was more often. Anyway it's nice to meet you

With respect JanH yes you are correct lard was animal fat but now it is vegetable fat but we still consider it lard.

It's mainly used for frying food in or in some pastries.

Using lard in cakes is not something we generally do even if it is made from veg.

Butter and margarine are generally what we use in home baking. Using oil in cakes here is a reasonably new thing here and veg lard in cakes is really not used at all.

No matter how you slice it, lard is NOT a vegetable fat. It's an animal fat.

amaizing how the conversation develops.
Thanks everybody for your posts....
Yeap... i´ve already realise the difference on the "Baking" itself, such a messaures, temp, ingredients, etc... nothing to do with the things we normally do here, but reading different recipes, with such a different flavours, can give you an idea to experiment a little bit more... and specially for the fillings ( if something doesn´t work...just don´t go that road again...you never know!)
Now..Lard is lard...it comes from animals and that´s the genuanie one, what happend in this days everything at some stage get process, so the tradicional composition may vary.
butter is the queen in the pastry, no doubt (although margarine is being used more and more....well is in general a matter of choice...and yes...you can really taste the difference)
About the waste in the kitchen...no way...if you recipe needs 12 egg whites...treat yourslef with a nice custard, a warm quiche for dinner, creme caramel...great for savory and sweet pastry....you always can use your egg yolks in something...so go on...keep baking

[quote="banba"]Hi Ireland cakes, I am Irish

The Cakebox is the only one I have come across but I am sure there are plenty of classes around if you look for them.

I buy all my stuff from the US and avoid the UK as it's too expensive when dealing with Euros.

There is a place located in Clane, Co. Kildare called Decobake, good for boards and boxes and limited lustre dusts, tools etc. ....

Hey banba!

I knew already about CakeBox....haven´t been in any class yet, just buying a couple of things...and yes...quite expensive, my other option is kitchen complements in dublin city center, but still quite expensive.
i was getting most of my tools in UK, but not really worthy for the cake boards and similar, so thanks a million for the tip, i have to check out that website.
about the cake baking...i totally agree with you, I am not into substitutions either.
i can´t believe there is no cake contest around or cake fares or something....well...maybe some day we could start something...you never know