Planet Cake Update - Week Ending 21.02.09

It has been a really busy week at Planet Cake as we have reached some really important dates and are on our way to reaching others Firstly a BIG happy birthday for Planet Cake’s baby boy Cam Carter who turned 30 yesterday, I believe Cam celebrated this auspicious birthday with a class of milk and an early night – Cam we wish you another fabulous 30 years! We are also one week away from Planet Cake’s book being released (1/3/09); we will be making some props in the shop this week for book store window displays in Sydney CBD, very exciting!! Another important count down: it is exactly 1 month until Planet Cake teaches its first series of workshops in Melbourne. Don’t worry I am starting to take my rescue remedy!

The cakes this week were excellent, Margie surpassed herself with the most gorgeous Ariel mermaid ever, and another beautiful cascade. The castle was for a very lucky 4 year old, made beautifully by Anna Maria and figurine by Margie is confirms for me yet again that I was possibly born into the wrong family, what a fabulous cake. The interesting figurines on the extended cream one tier cake, were for a couple celebrating their marriage in Malaysia by hosting a party in Sydney, the bride is wearing a contemporary version of her traditional Malaysian wedding dress and the dapper groom sets the mood, figurines by magical Margie. A figurine with a camera by Margie is a great example of a very complex figurine.

Just two more things before I go to amuse you, the first is a photo of the Hydrangea cake made by Fran & Jess which nearly forced all three to slash their wrists, the photo was sent to me by Susan Stanford and I think is exceptionally beautiful – well done guys!

The send item is a link to a Planet Cake wedding cake competition being hosted by Polkadot Bride, people had to design their own wedding cake and Planet Cake is tol make the winning cake design– check out the design submissions.

Planet Cake wedding cake competition entries: http://www.polkadotbride.com/wp/index.php/2009/02/17/win-your-dream-wedding-
cake-the-entries/

Thank you for the magic.

Planet Cake Update - Week Ending 14.02.09

Hello Everyone

I hope everything is well in your world, it has been a really sad week in Australia and all our thoughts have been with our friends in Victoria this week as we have seen the fires unfold on the news. Fran McGregor who lives in Melbourne has assured me that communities and survivors are already working together and starting to re-build and go home, it is very uplifting to hear. On a far less dramatic note this week at Planet Cake, Handi & Anna Maria managed to teach 2 workshops.

I attended the opening of ESMOD a French fashion school opening in Darlinghurst in Sydney on Tuesday night. It was a great night, the school itself was fabulous and the opening event was attended by every fashionista in Sydney. Our cake (made by Anna Maria) was at centre stage and cut by celebrity fashion designer Akira Isagowa.

The cakes this week were absolutely sensational, Anna Maria surpassed herself first up was some corporate cakes for Westpac, travelling to Brisbane and Maitland, using a combination of cut-outs for the big cake and edible images for the cupcakes tags, Anna Maria did a great job and the client was thrilled. The double newspaper stack looked incredible, the client was delighted as it was for a 70^th birthday and the client loved the SMH. The vegetable cupcakes we so gorgeous I found myself cooing over the cupcakes we made for a Green Grocer, I thought the potato was by far the cutest. Then we moved on to our big cakes this week, both of which made me laugh a lot during the course of making them, Anna Maria did a fabulous job with these cakes, both in the detail and the difficulty, they looked awesome.

After making a few million cakes Anna Maria taught a piping workshop on Friday afternoon, I love the piping workshops b/c the students always get a thrill from all the different techniques AM teaches and how much they gain in such a short space of time.

Have a great weekend everyone, enjoy your decorating. Our new forum and members lounge is still being worked on and should be ready shortly, it is coming!!

It was wonderful meeting so many students this week, thank you for the magic.

Paris Cutler

Testament to the heat in Australia

These are photos from a friend of my Husband who lives in Adelaide. Normally Koala's are quite shy but due to the incredible heat this little guy turned up on their back porch to cool down!

Planet Cake Update - Week Ending 07.02.09

If you are in Australia then you would be feeling a tad hot today over 40 degrees in Sydney and Melbourne and fairly revolting elsewhere, this is not great for cake decorating and makes deliveries a nightmare, I hope everyone out there faired okay with no disasters only a few limp cakes. Antony had a brilliant day in sales, where he designed cakes for Philippino wedding, nudist beach goers, zodiac followers & master carpenters! The variety of wedding cakes people order these days is testament to the kaleidoscope of different tastes and interests people have, which is fabulous, I feel as cake decorators we are so lucky because it’s like being an emotional spice shop! Here is a picture of Antony in all his fabulousness, what is Antony holding?? Just teasing, it’s the only one we have, the book will be out in March!

Besides the excitement of seeing our first copy of the book, Planet Cake had some great workshops at Planet Cake this week, we had fun teaching the handbag in Novelty 103 and Anna Maria had a lot of fun teaching Novelty 104 the T-pot. The courses have been rewarding to teach and the classes during the week have had a smaller number of students than on the weekend which has allowed us more time to get to know our students a lot better and teach more intimately, the results of the classes speak for themselves, I don’t have a picture of the handbag so I threw in a photo of Stephanie from Basics 104 last week.

Photo from a client: I think these photos represent the best layout for cake photos I have seen for some time.

We sure had an unusual cake this week, it was designed by the couple themselves to celebrate their 10^th Anniversary, created by Anna Maria who followed the clients design instructions to the letter, added to the complex figurines, the result is quite astounding! Jessica worked on beautiful orange and red cake, I love bright colours and I think this cake will look fabulous in a modern Sydney venue. I have attached a lovely full cascade created by Jess last week.

Courses: Next week we start off with Beginner Sugar Flowers and have Beginner Piping on Friday, then Basics 103 on the weekend!

Okay have a great weekend everyone and a big thank you to the team this week for a great performance – well done.

Thanks you for the magic

Paris x

THANK YOU Chris Philpott, Cake Decorators Guild

I have a BIG thank you I need to make. Like all cake shops sometimes we make a mistake (sheer horror) and like all decorators it is the worst thing imaginable when it happens as it usually involves someone’s wedding day. 2 weekends ago we spelt a name incorrectly on a cake that was sent to Carcoar. I rang the President: Secretary of the Cake Decorators Guild in Orange: Chris Philpott. Could Chris drop everything in the middle of 40 degree temperatures and go and fix this cake for us? Chris finished her day job running “Sugar Craft’ in Summer Street, Orange and travelled to Carcoar on the Friday night to inspect and fix the damage. I guess we need to be reminded sometimes how important it is to have decorating friends out there, especially when the chips are down, I could have kissed Chris and I certainly huge thank you to say to her and the Cake Decorators Guild. THANK YOU!!

Planet Cake Update - Week Ending 31.1.09

This week was hot and sticky in Sydney as we battled temps over 30 degrees each day. We had some great courses Basics 104 (the cube) , we had Basics 102 (square) on Thursday and Mini Cakes on Friday, however I think the highlight for the week was definitely Novelty 101, this was the first time Planet Cake has taught this beginners program and 10 little Circus Tents looking absolutely amazing emerged, from students, some of whom had never touched icing before, it was fantastic to be there and I am incredibly proud of the results, much better than many commercial cake decorators out there, well done Novelty 101 students you outdid yourselves!

The Planet Cake book will be arriving in Sydney book stores in March; it should be arriving in the UK in April and USA in August in know that it is already available on Amazon in the UK for pre-sales. After nearly a year in the making I must admit to feeling a tad nervous about the whole thing. However I am genuinely excited about your response and what you all think about the book, yours are the opinions that matter to me the most!

Due to so many workshops this week I will not bore you with cakes for too long (ha ha) however there were some beauties this week from Margie. I think John’s mates would have been impressed with this cool cake and teddy bears represent all things lovely about babies for a big christening.

We made this very simple but gorgeous soft and elegant wedding cake the other week, 3 tiers of extended white chocolate that had to be delivered in 40 degree temps – people wonder about the reality of cake making, well the stress of deliveries can keep to cake decorators talking non-stop for hours, this cake gave me a fitful nights sleep with Handi’s words ringing in my ears “watch that cake Paris” – yikes, lucky for everyone concerned it was looked after like a baby.

This cake has a very unusual story; it was a surprise gift for a couple who DID NOT WANT A WEDDING CAKE. Risky stuff indeed surprising a couple at their own wedding reception with something they did not want and I felt a bit of trepidation. I do know from experience that if a couple has a special image created for them they are usually very attached to it. We only had the couple’s invitation to go by and using Margie’s incredible painting talents recreated the cartoon image of them from the invitation by painting it with edible colour onto the cake. The image is really gorgeous but may be a bit small for you to see, it is the bride and who is not falling to his knees but rather in a wheel chair speeding in to propose. I have on great authority that they loved the cake as did the guest – phew!!

Planet Cake Update - Week Ending 24.1.09

I hope you have a great week; we had a super hectic week at Planet Cake, in fact I am still recovering and I am sure the others are as well! Firstly we had our first Foundation Class which involved 8 students some who had never decorated a cake before arriving at Planet Cake for a week of training. All of the students did exceptionally well after getting over the initial shock of how physically demanding and difficult cake decorating can be. The reality really hit when they did Basics 102 and the square proved to be their nemesis. Basics 103 saw them really shine and the results can be seen for themselves – Something really special took place on Thursday and Friday with all of the students leaving on a high and very proud of their achievement, that’s what we want!

Last week despite the Foundation Course, soaring temperatures and Anna Maria being away, Margie and Jess managed to produce some great cakes.

Have a great weekend everyone, check out the attachment for the cake we made for a new Anti-Child Abuse campaign, although contreversial it is for a cause very close to my heart and we will be making a real life version of this cake to be presented to politicians in Canberra by asca.