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!
11 comments:
Make sure your soapbox is made out of fruitcake before you go out to war!
Yay, finally, while I applaude the fact the "decorators" for the most part have some sort of training, and the judges have spent "years" learning all (or some) of the intracacies of decorating, they seem to be at odds with the rest of the community. In Perth particularly, they seem hell bent on keeping themselves locked in the dark ages and seem unable to move forward, hence we have the likes of planet cake coming here giving workshops. They are clearly filling a market void that is not being met in Perth, and while the judges cannot seem to get their heads around the majority issue this trend will continue to the detriment of Perth Cake Decorators, perhaps they need a dictionary and some photos of very beautiful outstanding cakes that are created in the rest of the world and redefine their criteria.
Hi Ing
These are the sort of rules that turn off a lot of young, new and old decorators away from showing work. There needs to be a proper "Rule book" for showing cakes in Australia, separate to the individual show schedules. I asked about this once....and was pretty much laughed at!
I am quite a newie (3yrs) in my first year of decorating I blindly entered the Syd Easter show, only to be told by some in a cake "group" I really shouldn't have as I was way out of my league! Maybe I was! At the time I had to ask someone what a cleat was!! So trying to work out the schedule was harder work than the cakes! More by fate than anything else I only had 1 NAS, but also placed a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and HC. 3 short years later, many phone calls, heaps of show placed show cakes and some NAS'd, I am still trying to get clarification on the "interpretation” of some of those rules.
Personally I have learnt some things with show cakes, to know good basic, sound techniques and nail them, follow the "rules " on the schedule, then jump outside the "box" , let the imagination run riot, oh and an Engineering degree is handy! .. This theory doesn't always work.. I have been marked down and criticised for "thinking too much outside the box", "not traditional enough" "it’s a little too different" and a recent favourite "knowing what you can do, you shouldn't have used wires in those orchids, minus 5 points!" Mmmm can’t seem to find these rules in any schedule, they must be hidden with your "majority of" rule!
I love making show cakes as I can let my imagination run wild, I can practice new techniques and discover some new ones along the way, and I always have a heap of fun doing it! If I pick up a placing bonus if not I can always get a giggle about some of my crits!
Torki
Hi Torki
Yes it's a challenge all right! But strangely enough it's not unique to Australia. Even when we judged in NZ, there was an 'us / them' thing going on!
Many of the older, more dyed in the wool judges were quite dogged in their attitudes. And I recall many heated debates over entries at shows. Us 'newer' judges would say, wow great interpretation, or wow what a show stopper and the older judges would say, no too 'out there'.
We even had to fight hard to get 'chocolate' put into the judges manual, but eventually won the day on that one!
Unfortunately we live in a state, that doesnt like to move forward full stop!!!!!!!!! we all sit in darkness at 7pm in the summer, when our friends in the other states, get home from work and are able to catch a few more hours of daylight with their families! None of us can go shopping after 6pm unless it is IGA, so those that work on a weekend, do not get chance to go shopping later in the evening or Sunday, unlike our friends in other states! all because the people here are unwilling to MOVE FORWARD! WA definately stands for wait awhile, and that includes people that judge the royal show, and are "supposed" to be our top teachers in cake decorating. When will they get past lace extension work, fillagree tulle churches and wedding bells with ribbon loops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes it might come back in fashion, maybe it wont. We young uns are really missing out in Perth when the likes of Planet Cake, Fay Cahill, Greg Clarey etc are teaching modern designs and techniques, are in the bridal and cake magazines and brides see those and want a decorator that can exicute a great design in a great way, not just bodged, as they try and interperate a style or design without the correct instruction.
It is a global community these days and I agree - they need to start looking at what others in the world are doing and creating. Get your grand kids to show you how to use the internet, if you dont know how peeps! step out of your boxes - there is a big world of fantastic intricate cake creations out there, that are just as hard to create as extension work, but have a contempary designs!
Good luck Ingz with your quest to bring Perth to the 21st Century!
So true Anonymous! I must say that I'm somewhat heartened that there are other like-minded people out there! I had been concerned that I may be the lone ranger! But, have even had positive comments on my facebook account.
I guess the challenge is, how do we fix it? Is the rot too deep? Or can we bring cake decorating (and notably competitions ... the place where we SHOULD be letting the creative juices run free) into the 21st century.
Hey Ing, go forward young woman and conquer before we all fall into the"it can't be done category" I,m right behind you, lets make the change, before we have no industry at all...
Hey Don ... you can call me 'young' anytime!
It's my 7 year old daughter's birthday next weekend - yes she's turning 8! And we're sitting discussing her cake this afternoon - we're having an Alice in Wonderland theme - so we're going all out on a wonky cake. So I say to her, "I think I should do the second tier with a dummy cake, otherwise we are going to have too much cake?" Her instant reply is,"But mum, why don't you use krispy treats?" Now I've never made crispy treats and we've never talked about them in our house so I ask her how she knows about krispy treats. "But mum - in a voice as if to say 'dah'! Cake Boss uses them and you can sculpt stuff with them!"
So from the mouth of an almost eight year old you have it! Wake up Perth, it's 2010 not 1810!!
CW
I don't have a lot of experience entering the Show (and yes, I'm a Perthite), and I do agree that I wish someone would run courses here that are similar to those Planet Cake does over East...
But perhaps this year's wedding cake winner, Kayle Mitchison, can give us all hope... http://delicatelee.blogspot.com/2010/09/perth-royal-show-2010.html
Her cake was awesome, and you certainly couldn't call it traditional!
Thanks so much for your comments Sugary Flower, and watch this space, I'll update this story with the final outcome for my own cake at the show ... !
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