monstar cakes: September 2011

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

LIVE CAKE COMPETITION at The Gourmet Experience

October 8 & 9, 2011!

http://www.thegourmetexpo.com/

The Gourmet Experience is a two-day cooking and home entertainment showcase featuring the best in culinary solutions, appliances, culinary travel, home products and specialty foods for the gourmet lifestyle. The Gourmet Experience is not your average tradeshow, it's a chance to discover, test out and taste the latest products and innovations for your gourmet lifestyle.

O'Brien Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds

General Public: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

In two action-filled days, consumers will have the opportunity to:

Test out and purchase kitchen equipment and gadgets
Review the latest in home and outdoor entertaining products
Plan their next dinner party
Learn new trends in casual and fine china, flatware and crystal
Get up close culinary instruction from some of San Diego’s most celebrated chefs & presenters
Research new destinations, resorts and hotels catering to gourmet aficionados
Taste from among the newest gourmet foods available today
Sip on a selection of luxury wines, spirits and craft beer
Explore appliance purchases and kitchen remodel options

So besides meeting different Celebrity Chefs, watching their demos, and checking out all the awesome gadgets, there will be a LIVE CAKE COMPETITION!

Watch as haunted houses, spooky ghosts, and pumpkins adorn professional cakes at the first annual Confection Artist Competition. On October 8 and 9, two teams of 12 contestants will gather at The Sweet Discoveries Pavilion to decorate elaborate Halloween themed cakes to impress a panel of judges with their confection craftsmanship and creativity. Bring your whole family to enjoy a day of fun, education and excitement!

Check out the bios of the Wicked Cake Ladies of the North Team! (me included ;) )

and bios of the South Team!

If you love food, entertaining, and CAKE DECORATING this won't be an event you want to miss! Buy your ticket now at http://www.thegourmetexpo.com/index.php/purchase-tickets !

Single Day Pass is $25 and "The Weekend Gourmet" Pass for both days is $40.

Free Admission for 12 years of age and under.

and.. because you are my friend ;) enter the code CAKECOMP15 at checkout for $15 OFF!!!!!!

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

<3 Mon

Carlsbad ArtSplash 2011

The Carlsbad ArtSplash was this past Sunday! It was such a fun event from seeing some AMAZING cakes to awesome demos, this year definitely surpassed last years event. The cake booth attracted more than 1,200 people!!! and a total of 1,125 Peoples Choice votes were counted! Congrats to all the winners and entry's!!

A BIG THANK YOU to Ro Zinniger, all the talented girls from the Creative Confection Club, the Carlsbad ArtSplash for having us and all the friends and family who came out to support us! LOVE YOU ALL!!

All the blood, sweat, and tears (okay maybe not blood... but definitely some burns.. cutting styro foam with a hot knife is a challenge! for future advice, wear a good mask.. makes you dizzy/lightheaded from all the fumes lol) and after a month of planning out, prepping, making gumpaste flowers everyday, the obstacles of making part of the cake spin and play music, it all PAID OFF!!

I WON 1st place from the Judges Vote!! I have to say I feel super accomplished and I'm actually really proud of this cake :P I try my hardest to up my game and challenge myself after every cake show I enter.. This was the first time I used a motor to make a part spin, made music play, made hibiscus and plumeria gumpaste flowers, aaand used an airbrush.... I can't wait to learn more techniques!

To all my friends (Ang & Shay my BFFs yes its cheesy but I love you guys, Jackie for helping me color fondant!), my Mom (for all the Sh*t I put you through ;) and believing in me), all my cake peers (Leah you frickin rock, thanks for dealing with my late night texts LOL, so much talent from all my cake peers you help me strive to be the best I can be when I look at the amazing work you guys do), Ro (for starting it all and helping me discover my love for cake!), and anyone who has complimented my work or has said anything nice to me :) THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support and encouragement!!!!!!!!! I'm definitely my biggest critic so you have no idea how much it means to me to hear good things about something you put your heart and soul into. I feel so blessed to have so many of you in my life!

I will post more pictures up and video soon... (I'm trying to edit the video... now THAT's a challenge lol definitely don't have a career in video editing..)

3 CAKE CONTESTS ENTERED. 3 WINS IN A ROW!! :D

Whats Next?? THE GOURMET EXPO Oct. 8 & 9, I will post more info later!

<3 Mon

Thursday, September 22, 2011

4 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!

till... the Carlsbad ArtSplash!!

The event is this weekend, September 24 & 25, and located on Armada Dr. above the Flower Fields.

It is a FREE non profit family event that promotes and benefits arts within the community. Come check out the crazy awesome chalk art street paintings, dozens of talented artists showcasing their art and the Creative Confection Club booth (Sunday only)! Go to carlsbadartsplash.org for more info!

On SUNDAY September 25 from 10am to 5pm is when the Cake Competition and different cake demos will be held every hour or half hour starting at 10am to 3:30pm at the Creative Confection Club booth. From cookie decorating, to gumpaste molds and flowers, if you are a cake enthusiast or just have an interest in seeing some of the technique and tricks of cake decorating come by and check it out!

Winner for the Cake Competition is chosen by judges but there will be a People's Choice Award!

*hint hint* come vote for my cake!! ;) Winners will be announced at 4pm on the main stage.

Hope to see some of you there!

<3 Mon

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Hibiscus!

My first gumpaste Hibiscus flower :)

And started airbrushing some leaves for the Plumeria Flowers..

Flowers flowers flowers...

and more flowers! Plumeria and Hibiscus flowers to be exact... These flowers are one of the elements to my Art Splash cake! I've never really done gumpaste flowers before, except for roses, so I looked online for instructions and so far it seems like they are turning out okay!

Here are the links to the instructions I followed :

Plumeria: http://www.wilton.com/technique/Plumeria-Flowers
Hibiscus: http://www.duskyroseveiners.co.uk/page_1511102.html

I also invested in an airbrush machine!! Duff from Ace of Cakes is now selling an airbrush machine at Michaels and you can use the 40% off one item coupon on it! (If its not on sale) I've never used an airbrush machine so I'm not a great judge on what to look for, but I thought it worked really well! The only thing that I thought could of been better is the different settings, there's only high medium and low. To me I didn't really see a big difference on the amount of airflow on each setting therefore it might be harder to do detailed work in my opinion, but for the price who cares! Another con would be there are no instructions! so surprising... I had to look online on his website which kind of gave me more info and tips on how to use and also how to clean... Its actually very easy to clean and very easy to use, so overall I'm really happy with it and it seems like a good basic starter airbrush machine. We'll see how long it lasts!

Plumeria Flowers

Before Airbrush