I'm looking into starting a cake club in my local area. I was curious what people love about their cake club meetings, and what they really could do with out?

What do you go to the club meeting for? What are basic things you would like to see a the meeting? If you could or would add something to your club, what would it be?

I'm open for to any words of wisdom, advice or suggestions anyone has about cake clubs.

Thanks so much!

I used to go to one, but it was less about cake and more about the woman who started it trying to pretend like she knew more about eveything than everyone else, and a few members using the whole meeting to gossip. Obviously, I'd have preferred to actually have the opportunity to learn something new, see demos by members, that kind of thing.

I would love to start one in this area as well. There are not a lot of opportunities out this way. I lurk at newyorkcitycakedecorators.blogspot and wish that I lived closer! They are my inspiration!

Try a meetup group

check newyorkcakedecorators meet up group.


Or start an online cake club

I prefer not to attend the traditional cake clubs.

I would love an online cake club - I tried to start one here but there just wasn't enough interest. Those who wanted to do it had no experience and wanted free lessons

Our club has been going for a little over a year now, and I love it. The first half hour is business stuff, the other hour and a half is always a demo - 4x a year it is a hands on one. We have had gumpaste flowers, gelatin techinques, cricut demos, buttercream techniques, this month it is a blown sugar demo!

My ONLY complaint is that there are a select few members who NEVER offer to demo anything. They always come to learn when it is something cool, (and they are very talented) they do not want to share anything they know! We are currently working on making it mandatory that each person has to share SOMETHING. That is the whole reason for the club - for us to share our talents with each other.

There is no "gossiping" with the group we have, we are all about the cake when we are there! We have all walks too, from novice to store front business owners.

I've only been to the one here once, but it was kind of like a PTA meeting but with a little cake demo at the end.

I've thought that it would be fun to start a cake group/playgroup, at least in the summers, so that the kids could play together while the moms did cake stuff, but I'd have to figure out some way to keep it from being just me giving free lessons...not that I mind doing that, but I'd like to be able to learn some new stuff too.

the cake club , i go to is like loucinda's. been going to it for 14 yrs. 4 a year right now. will go back to 8 a year soon. the 4 a year is from 10-5. the 8 a year is from 2-5. we all take part in sharing. no, not everyone shares. we have a business meeting. we have a social time. then back to demos. it is fun. and really no gossiping. as far as i know. some members have business's and sell . that is nice. i like that. hth

how does an online cake club work? sounds like just a message board.
Do you get everyone on there to chat at the same time? My group has yet to meet this year and i also have trouble getting members to volunteer to help. going online might be something we could look into. Texas sugar - that was what i was thinking about with the TX decorators group.

I have been totally wondering the same thing.

I would like to start one here as well. I just don't know where to start.

I tried once to get in touch with someone who was a member of ICES about 1.5yrs ago, and nothing ever came of it.

I know that there are some decorators around here, and a few businesses within an hour or two.

I will watch this thread and hope for some ideas to get one started.

Thank you TexasSugar for starting this thread, you beat me to it.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I totally agree with wanting it to be something that isn't one sided and everyone does get a chance to learn something. I'm thinking it is getting that right balance for everyone.

I'm not giving up on it, and will work through things and see what interest I can get about and go from there.

I'm not sure about the online cake clubs, that does seem kinda like what we have going on here. It would be cool to get a chat room thing going, but when there are many people in there conversation can be going many directions, plus like a live meeting trying to cordinate times may be a hassle. I don't have internet access at home, so it'd be hard for me to join in on a chat kind of conversation as well.

One thing I like about the actual cake club idea, is that my students (I'm a WMI) often get close to their classmates and enjoy having someone else to talk to about cakes. It gives them a break from their lives, husbangs, kids, work and anything else they have going on, where they get to spend some time on them and what they enjoy doing.

i forgot to say, that we get nicholas lodge here often. we have had bronwen webber classes here. we have had earlene moores's classes . mercedes from fla. here also. also toba garett. we are involved in a lot of things. again, have had several big cake shows. lots of fun. meet new people and make new friends.

Hi,
I attend both cake clubs here in Arizona. One club has about 35-40 members and about 15-30 show up each month so it's a pretty good turn out. We start with refreshments when people are arriving. Then the club President starts with welcoming everyone including new guests. Goes over any business & treasurer's report. Next we have at least one, but often times 2 demos which last 10-20 minutes each. Everyone chats, asks questions, shares tips, shows off new tools or things like that.
Any new things are brought up like cake shows, events, classes, etc.
People bring in pictures of their cakes too. Then it's pretty much over but people tend to hang around and "talk cake".

The other club is smaller with 10-15 members of which 5-10 show up each month. This club does hands on demos each month that everyone particpates in. Whomever is doing the demo shows everyone what to do then we all get to make the thing. This club also hosts the annual cake & Sugar art show we we always talk a lot about that. We have refreshments and a lot of chatting too.

I personally could totally do without the business end of it all. Frankly, nobody cares and people tend not to pay attention when that's going on. That should be left up to board members and if anyone cares to know that stuff, they can get the reports from them.

I would love to see more hands on each month. Like mentioned above, it seems to be the same few people who do demos and all the rest don't do it at all. I'd also love to see more of everyone's work.

Both clubs have a monthly newsletter and website ( I run both for both clubs) so that's a way to get info out too.

Hope that helps!

KimAZ

Good luck!!!!!!

when we do our business part. we are all very attentive and ask questions about each thing. we are very courteous to whomever is giving their report.(not talking while they are). we take it very serious. whatever the report is. we eat. we talk. we laugh. we play. also. sometimes, its handson. sometimes demos. ever whom the host or hosts are. they plan the day. we can have famous teachers like nick lodge or our members. its great.

WOW! I would like to have a cake club here in La Habra CA. Not enough people who are interested in baking or cake decorating. Bummer.

I love cake clubs! The ones here that KimAZ is a part of are both wonderful and a good model of what a cake club should be. I always have a lot of fun when I go! The only downside is schedule compatibility. I'm lucky if I can make it to club twice a year. It always seems like I have something going on the same time.