Some forty years ago, when at the age of 11, I started obsessing with cake decorating, anybody who was anybody in cake decorating was an author ... and the books consisted of various techniques in royal icing. There was piping, filigree, bridge and extension work. There were piped flowers done on flower nails, and fruit cakes were covered in royal icing ... which dried as hard as rock. There was no fondant icing, only 'Americans' used buttercreme, and communication was, well, by snail mail. BUT, back then if you wanted a state of the art, customised cake, you called on a cake decorator. We knew the 'secrets' of cake decorating and you were assured of a spectacular creation. Back then, bakeries were providing the 'low budget' cheapies. You know, the cakes that us decorators looked down our nose at.
Fast track four decades. Who's who in cake decorating now? Well anybody who's anybody is an author. In no particular order: Lindy Smith. Alan Dunn. Colette Peters. Debbie Brown. Nicholas Lodge. Jill Maytham. Kerry Vincent. The list goes on. All worthy of our admiration.
So what has prompted me to put opinion to blog on this issue? Well, tonight I attended our local cake decorators club meeting, and learned that we may not use Rice Krispie Treats for cake sculpting in the Perth Royal show. "You must use fruit cake, check the schedule" said a judge. But, I contended, the schedule states "the majority of the entry" (that's 51% or more when last I checked my dictionery) must be fruit cake. To maintain edible components the rest of the world is sculpting with, well, Rice Krispie Treats. But this is not an AMERICAN show said our esteemed judge. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking judges ... after all, I trained as a judge in New Zealand.
So what the heck has happened? What's changed? Driving home I mulled it over. So much has changed. Now we have Ready to Roll fondant icing ... pick a brand, any brand. Stacks to choose from. Bakels, Regal Ice, Orchard, Satin Ice, Fondx, marshmellow fondant ... you get the idea. We have gumpaste, modelling paste and wired flowers. We have edible jewels, and anything you can imagine to cut, sculpt or create edible decorations. Stainless steel cutters, plastic cutters and silicone moulds. Clay guns. And we can get it anywhere we want it. JEM Cutters. Lindy Smith. Geraldine Randlesome. FMM. Squires. Designer Stencils. And we can buy it direct. Or we can buy it from a myriad of suppliers. Over the internet. sugarcraft.com, globalsugarart and caljavaonline to mention but 3 of my faves. And then, there's E-Bay and Trademe.
Hmm rethink who's who. The best decorators now are ... facebooking-blogging-reality TV-YouTubing-bakers. Ron Ben Israel. Duff Goldman. Greg Cleary. Petalsweet cakes. Again, the list goes on. All totally worthy of our admiration. Gone are the days that the heroes of cake decorating 'only wrote books'. Now I can interact with my heroes. I can chat with them on their blogs, their facebook pages and on Flickr forums. And I can do it with my laptop on my lap via my wireless network while watching my 50" plasma.
So it occurs to me that those who are taking our art form to new heights, are the people who are stretching the boundaries. They are the ones challenging us to new levels of excellence.
And this leaves me thinking that us cake decorators better buck up or buck out. If we stubbornly demand the sale of fruit cakes (the bride wants white chocolate and macadamia); round cakes (the bride wants it hanging upside down from the ceiling) and only edible components (the bride wants bling), we run the risk of being left behind in the dust asking 'what the heck happened'? It's true ... this is not an American world down under in Perth. It's a GLOBAL world!
