The pink carpet is laid, the stalls are ready and waiting, it’s that time of year, time for the biggest cake show in the UK to open its doors and let all of us crazy cake folk in to spend far too much money and get sugar-drunk on all the cakes. The unstoppable juggernaut that is Cake International is back for its yearly cake fest at the NEC in Birmingham with over 150 exhibitors, countless cake celebs roaming the pink carpets and over 1,000 cakes entered into the prestigious competition. Our roving reporter Vicky Turner, an award winning UK based cake artist spent two days at the show, photographing an impressive collection of sugar art, sugar-installations and interviewing some of the world’s greatest cake artists.
Competition Time, By Vicky Turner of the Yellow Bee Cake Company
Gold award – Decorative Exhibit – Tanya Ross of Novel-T cakes
If you’ve never been to the show before, get your hotels, and flights booked for next year when the show returns to the NEC on the 3rd to 5th of November 2017. If this year has been anything to go by, it’ll be worth the wait.
Best in Show – Fantasy Flowers Class – Anjali Tambde
The competition has yet again surpassed itself with the skills and designs kiching it up a notch on previous years entries. Entries come in thick and fast from hobbyists to professional bakers from all over the world. The 19 categories ranged from Celebration Cakes, to Cupcakes and Wedding Cakes to Decorative Exhibits. There’s even an International category, so you really have no excuse to hop on a plane next year! All award winners listed here (http://www.cakeinternational.co.uk/birmingham/winners)
Silver award – International Class – Michelle Chan, Scrumptious by Michelle. The cake was wrapped in bubble wrap and travelled all the way from Malaysia.
Photo credit Sarah Sibley @ www.bakewithsarah.com
I caught up with some of the cake artists entering the competition, so without further ado, here are some of the award winning cakes from the show. Round of applause for them all, getting a cake to the show alone is an achievement, but to then pick up a coveted award, it deserves some serious clapping!
Cara from Cara Rose @ The Polkadot Teapot entered the Wedding Cake class, the largest class with over 200 entries, and came away with First place and a Gold award.
Clara notes, “My inspiration was an old Indian Proverb ‘ All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today’ I wanted to do something different that portrayed the start of something for a newly married couple. Many wedding cakes are adorned with flowers, I wanted mine to be adorned with seeds.” Her advice on entering the competition, “Only enter for yourself, not for the competition and don’t judge yourself against others, dare be different but keep your designs clean and icing immaculate!”
It’s November, so it’s time to start getting into the Christmas swing, and with two Christmas themed categories at the show, there was definitely a little bit of Christmas sparkle going on.
One of my favourite cakes from the show was by Hayley Wisken from Hayley Wisken Cakes and Fabricake Sugarcraft LTD, that lady has some serious Royal Icing skills. I can barely pipe a straight line! Hayley was awarded Gold and 2nd in category and a Silver for her Christmas themed entries. “Both entries combined took around 200 hours.” said Hayley, adding, “I’m happy with my awards, I got gold and 2nd place for my Noel box and a silver for my stringwork Christmas tree. Of course I will enter again I will never stop competing, it’s a big part of my life.”
Her advice for those looking to enter, but sitting on the fence, “I’d advise others to go for it! Read reread and reread the rules! Learn and grow, the judges are amazing and their feedback is so valuable.”
Lesley Marshall of Hip-pop Cakes, a first time entrant came away with two shiny Gold awards and First place for her Santa Claus in the Christmas Decorative class.
My first question for Lesley, how long did your cake take? “60-70 hours in the evenings and weekends. You have to be prepared to start early, don’t leave it until the last week and make sure that your exhibit is structurally sound.” advises Lesley.
My absolute favorite class at the show is the Cupcake category. Michelle Becker won not only 1st place, but also bagged 2nd place as well for her cupcakes and 1st place for her Christmas cake.
Reflecting on her incredible win Michelle notes, “I feel Amazed, fantastic and in utter shock!”
Describing her inspiration she adds, “The cupcakes were inspired by a brooch and a hanging decoration I spotted in a shop. One of the Christmas ones was from a card and the other one was purely down to my love of cats.”
Vicki Smith from Incredible Edibles entered the Sculpted and Wedding cake categories. Coming away with 1st place and a gold award in Sculpted and Gold for her Wedding cake.
“My dolphins I’d say took around 55 hours to complete. The apple geode cake took around 60 hours, growing my own crystals from scratch.” explained Vicki, “My inspiration for my wedding cake cake from a design I recently created for a lovely couples wedding. Their surname was Appleton and living on a street with orchids in the name made the theme of their wedding so fitting. I designed the idea for the client, but loved it so much in wanted to recreate a similar idea for cake international, but I wanted to try my hand at a geode cake as I’ve never made one before. So decided to make the crystals flow down the cake and have the apples and coral swirl down and around with it. Most of the coral colored crystals are hand grown at home.”
For more coverage of Cake International, tune in tomorrow!
