What national conference? So I guess I'm not going. LOL!! A cake conference? That would be amazing.
My hamburger cuppies turned out really cute. They were at hit at school and sold out in seconds with some parents walking around with 4 on a plate. I made 4 dozen minis. I'll put a pic up in a little while, it's on my phone and I'm on the computer right now.
I haven't even started on my friend's birthday cake yet!! We are so broke this fortnight, I think I'm going to have to buy the orchard white icing and try my best. I'll knead some gum paste into the fondant for the ruffles to give them some more stability. I don't have a very good feeling about this one.
AHere's my cupcakes. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3249473/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
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Who is going to the National Conference at the Gold Coast next year? I am hoping to pay my deposit on payday. Mind you, if I had kept away from Cakes Around Town I could have had it paid already.
I was thinking about it - $600+ though - plus airfare and accommodation
I have fun at them - but can honestly say - the only value I got for my money was catching up with people - the dems were nothing out of the ordinary (not bad by any stretch) but with all the avenues available to us now its pretty hard for them to get the WOW factor. From what I have heard in the past - QLD knew how to do it best - Food in Tasmania was appalling and Sydney not far behind - missed Adelaide
I know it's expensive but I haven't been to one in about 20 years and that was a state one. Even more expensive flying from this side of the world but that's life. It's the excitement of that sort of event that really gets to me. And hubby shoots off to country week bowls every year and I just sit at home so next year is my thing.
Nadiaa, they look fantastic. Cake and hamburgers are two of my most favorite things in the world so to combining the two is making me drool.
There is a national conference held every two years. It shifts from state to state. Next year it is at Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast from 23-28th August. The deposit is not payable until the 31st October so you still have plenty of time to think about it. PM Mimimakescakes (Chelle) and she will sent you the registration forms and details if you are interested.
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I was thinking about it - $600+ though - plus airfare and accommodation
I have fun at them - but can honestly say - the only value I got for my money was catching up with people - the dems were nothing out of the ordinary (not bad by any stretch) but with all the avenues available to us now its pretty hard for them to get the WOW factor. From what I have heard in the past - QLD knew how to do it best - Food in Tasmania was appalling and Sydney not far behind - missed Adelaide
We are known for putting on a really good show . I think this one will be no exception , well it better be with all the endless fundraising we have been doing for the National and State committees. I just about look like an Anzac biscuit after all the ones I have made for bake sales at Bunnings.
The Venue is great and the food there is also usually pretty good. I am staying in for the week even though I only live ten minutes up the road. I NEED a holiday.
I am working on a couple of cakes for the wedding cake table at the QCDA sugar craft show next weekend. I just have to make some leaves for my peonies and decide if I want to make some cherry blossoms for the other cake I have planned . The lady in charge of the wedding cake table is from our club so we do try hard to do her proud with the amount of cakes for the public to vote on. I also have to transport and set up the branch display.
Cazza , cakes around town is such a trap . I just got my latest parcel today. Sugar sheets and silver leaf for a new project I am working on.
Nadiaa, I love the hamburger cuppies . They look great.
I'm in rural NSW :) I'm new so it's good to see so many Aussie's to help with all the things like food laws and prices in $AU.
Cakes around Town should be banned. My most recent purchase included the butterfly mat from Claire Bowman, I think. The butterflies are sooo beautiful. I made them in sugarveil. I stuck one of the butterflies on a baby to make a cabbage moth baby but then it rained and when I went in the next day the humidity had made them collapse.
Totally agree Cazza
I popped down to Brissy on the weekend and gave hubby the biggest puppy dog eyes. Needless to say, my purse is feeling a bit lighter now. I bought three Marvellous Molds because of the cakes I've seen here in the galleries. The staff are awesome and so helpful. They even take me into the warehouse as not everything online is on show at the store.
Honestly, I was like a kid in a candy store. A very expensive, overwhelming candy store. I'm now trying to talk hubby into turning a bedroom into a Caking Room just to keep it all contained. 
Hey Aussies :D sorry i didn't reply had internet trouble then moved house and life gets in the way........
I ended up buying a 7kg tub of bakels for $72 from local shop. will order online before i run out again!
so its my birthday in a week :) and my sister wants to buy me cake stuff YAY :D but wants to get me something that i couldn't afford to get myself (haven't worked it months due to chronic fatigue) would an airbrush be the best option? i have a collection of basic cheap stuff e.g. non-stick mat & rolling pin, turn table & modelling tools.
How hard is airbrushing to do?
Does airbrushing cost less then colouring fondant?
Any info would be greatly appreciated or if you have a better idea what i should ask for :D
I don't know that airbrushing is any cheaper (Suspect it might be more) but it is a lot of fun and you can get really deep colors and varied effects without all the effort. I am a real beginner but if you look in my gallery the bird in the tree cake was airbrushed with a piece of cardboard used to get the cloud effect. The green cake next door was done with about 4 different shades but my favorite (and one of my all time favorite cakes is the cabbage moth baby one. The tree stump is airbrushed in multiple colors. I started with a really cheap airbrush and compressor from ebay but did not have very much control. I did love playing, though, so did quite a bit of research and ended up with a Grek trigger action, side loading airbrush. It wasn't cheap but I absolutely love it. I really wish that I didn't keep getting side tracked and would spend more time learning. I did learn a lot about how airbrushes work from the Craftsy class on airbrushing. I think it is well worth buying and would suggest it before you actually purchase as there is quite a lot of good information that can help you make the decision on what sort to get.
Shazza, I have converted my sewing room in to a cake room. All the sewing stuff got shoved in a cupboard in another room, I bought 3 large pantries and it is much better than pulling everything out onto the dining room table. Not that that doesn't happen as well when I am needing space to spread, like when the sugarveil comes out (my dining room table is really big whereas my cake room table is only desk size). It was a bedroom originally when we bought the house. It also means that hubby doesn't have to be confronted with the mess all the time and it actually keeps me tidier too as everything is on shelves rather than shoved in boxes that keep having to be tipped out.
I love my electric pasta machine, but that is just pure laziness, and something that you should put off until you have more money.
Are you into making flowers? Silicone double, sided veiners for leaves and petals make an incredible difference to how fabulous you flowers and leaves look. They are not absolutely necessary but do turn something ordinary into something fabulous. And of course there is a myriad of flower cutters out there. I do have a real mix of good and cheap cutters. OK I just went and looked at your photos and see that you have not tread down this path yet. If and when you do you will need a good petal pad (I recently updated to a Celcraft one and love it).
Good modelling tools make a difference to whatever you are doing. A ball tool and a bone tool are a must. They are generally double ended. I have good and cheap ones but I tend to break the cheap ones so would not buy them again.
Go and have a look at websites like www.cakesaroundtown.com.au The amount of amazing stuff is overwhelming. And sooooo tempting.
As well as Cakes Around Town, what are other good supply stores either bricks and mortar or online? That's probably a really basic question but I'm new at this and need Australia specific recommendations. I'm especially after the white cake boxes that comes flat and you assemble them. Cheers :)
hi cazza thanks for the tips
i have a pack of maybe 8 double ended modelling tools i can assume the ball tool but whats the bone tool
yes cakes around town does have lots of amazing stuff i would love to buy :D
do you think the dinky doodle airbrush from there site would be ok?
thanks for all your lovely advise and looking at my cakes :D
Ninja this is the first link I came across when I put bone tool in to google. It shows it well http://sweetwise.com/bone-modeling-tool.html You will definetly have one of these in with your tools.
I'm sure that a lot of people love their dinky doodles but I can't really comment very much. I have got the impression that it is only a single action airgun, rather than a double action one, and this will limit what you can do with it as you improve. The compressor is also a set pressure as far as I know, which means that you cannot adjust the airflow for different effects. I am sure that most people would still find it perfectly suitable for their needs. Seeing how inexperienced I am, at airbrushing, I went way over the top with my airgun but I love the trigger action and it is so easy to feel when the color is going to kick in and guide it better. I have so much better control now. I am lucky now, though, and do not have to watch my pennies so much. When I was young I could afford very little but I still managed to turn out appealing cakes. And in all honesty there was very little to buy 25 years ago. The market has exploded.
I have bought a lot of stuff off ebay from England and China. Quality can really vary from China and some of it it utter crap. I do really like most of the plunger cutters I have bought from China and can't tell the difference between them and the shop ones. As mentioned above the cheap modelling tools I bought have a tendency to break if I am not careful. I have good ones but I am so scatty that I put things down in front of myself and then can't find them so I fixed the problem by buying another couple of sets. I also buy things from America. I love internet shopping. Unfortunately the US put their postage up aboardout 12-18 months ago and now it can be cheaper to buy some stuff locally whereas 2 years ago when postage was cheap and the dollar was high it was like being in a candy shop.
Bakeboss.com can be good, depending on their sales but generally I prefer Cakes around town.
We have very little access to cake stuff here in Geraldton, apart from Spotlight.
Celcraft products are really good quality and my basics tend to be this brand; petal pad, small rolling pins, rolling out board etc.
Craftsy.com has some fabulous classes for beginners especially. They do have frequent sales, though, so you never pay full price. Living in the country I am mostly self taught and it is so much easier watching classes on the net that reading it out of a book. I think I am addicted and will buy classes on things that I already know how to do but some people go to the pictures, and some people go out for coffee etc, and I buy craftsy classes. You don't have to have money either as they have a few free classes, one on buttercream, one on fondant that are well worth watching for a beginner.
http://www.designer-cakes.com This site also has some really good free tutorials for beginners. I actually have a subscription here and love looking each Friday to see the new cake that they have added.
The other thing that I would suggest is that you look into where your nearest cake decorating association is. They are a wonderful source of information and friendship from people who share your passion. Where abouts in Qland are you? There are a few Banana Benders on here.
Good luck and enjoy.
AHello everyone :) I've been missing for awhile haha. My little boy is one now wow I have been gone awhile!
Hope you are all well. Making a HuGe (300 people) slab cake for family party this weekend. I have never made slabs nor worked much with buttercream so hoping it's not too bad. Still havent worked out how I'll make that much decorators buttercream or which one I'll use yet. It's just a plain iced cake at least :)
Haven't done many cakes this year. Just did my sons cakes and a couple of family cakes.
How are we all? Never did that Perth catch up. It's well over due :)
Hello,
Im am Aussie Newbie!
Hoping to chat and learn all about cakes from everyone.
Ive been decorating for about 2 years as a hobby, and I think I learn something new with each cake I bake.
Have started reading the threads, so many things to look at.
So many Beautiful cakes to envy!
Thanks for the info, Cazza1!
Hi Bunny0410. I'm new too :)
Hey Freckles, great to see you back. I have thought about you a few times over the last year but figured the new baby was taking up all your time.
Hi Bunny and Emma. Welcome. Cake decorating is a fabulous hobby to have. It is also one that constantly evolves so there are always new things to see, learn or try. I started 28 years ago but have had quite a few big breaks, especially when I was working away from home. It is the sort of thing that you can keep coming back to and if you get out of practice you can just move on to a new technique. Funnily enough, like fashion, alot of the old techniques are starting to crop up again.
I do think it is much easier for beginners nowadays. There is so much information on the internet and videos to watch. This is much easier than trying to learn out of a book. If you have time find and join your local cake decorating group, they are a wealth of information and constantly have demonstrations from which to learn.
Enjoy
Waves to everyone
OMG..I have just seen all the online tutorials... I didn't even know they existed!
Have just signed up for the free one, see how that goes and may pay for some of the others.
I haven't really ever spoken to anyone about cakes, its just something I squirrel away with. I seem to get enough requests from friends and family to keep me busy, but not so busy that its every weekend.
I don't know where to begin to try and find a local group, but it sounds like fun
I have also booked in to watch my first demonstation by Sharon Wee at the cake decorating shop. So Im looking forward to that.
Hi everyone, haven't posted on this thread for ages, just dropped in to say hi. Cazza1, loved your teddy bear cupcake toppers you posted the other day.
Ha, the teddy cupcake toppers were from my new book, Cake Decorating for Morons. You push the fondant into a mold, pop it out, and stick it on a disc of fondant left over from another project and swirled with white to stretch it a bit further. Oh and I may have added a bit of dust.
Easy Peasy
I'm on the mid-north coast of NSW, formerly from Newcastle and before that, the central coast. It's a small world.
AThanks Cazza. Yeah I feel like I'm always on my phone for this or Facebook cake pages etc so I had a little break :)
Me_me I would love to soon. We haven't ever been able to organise one.
Hello all the newbie. You will be hooked soon if not already :)
Any cakes to share? Or trying any new techniques? I have a list of things I want to try. Never seems to get shorter haha. I got an airbrush for chrismas and it's still in the box
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