How to get your SC State Fair Competion Results...

Hi Everyone-

I know many of you are headed to the Fair Grounds on Monday to deliver those cake entries. If you would like to see how your cake fared with the judges you can go to the State Fair Web Site at www.scstatefair.org and click on the big blue square that says "SC State Fair" once you move to the next page click  the blue ribbon that says " Competitive Exhibits" and then click on " Judging Results. The winners are listed by department.

Of course, I like to be surprised I always just go down and see how my cake did. This year I did not enter the fair . So I am going down to see how all of you did with your cakes.

If you want to show off your cakes on my " Tara's Cake Club" Face Book page, go ahead and post them. I would love to see what you did for the fair.

Tara

My favorite cake show ever...Halloween Wars Season 3 Sunday night at 9:00 pm....

Shameless plug for my favorite cake decorating show ever, " Halloween Wars". I had a long day making scary cupcakes at Michael's so tonight I am going to enjoy watching some scary cake making. I really get so inspired by the pumpkin carving, cake decorating, and candy making that go into the creations on this show.  If you want to join me " Halloween Wars" is on Food TV tonight to see all the old episodes and then it premieres Sunday at 9 pm.

Plus www.foodnetwork.com has recipes for all of the "tasting elements" that you can print out from their web site.

The Fly from Halloween Wars 2012

Cheap Thrill and a Cake tip all in one. Loading bags with Glad wrap , 1./2 the mess....

Hello Everybody-

This is a link to the "glad wrap method" of loading your cake decorating bags from "Dollar Store Crafts" - a site that I love because it is full of good ideas to do on the cheap. You can follow this link and scroll down to the video that shows you how to load a bag using glad wrap to minimize your clean up. This is not something I do all the time because disposable decorating bags take care of most of the clean up issues for me. This tip does come in really handy when I have a bunch of family or friends helping me decorate and we need to use a lot of colors and lots of bags. I use this method every year to load bags of royal icing for Xmas cookies. All you end up cleaning is the end of your tips.

Of course, if I were doing it I would be using Wilton Colors and a Wilton Bag tie ( much better than a rubber band).

http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2011/09/mind-blowing-cake-decorating-tip/

Cheap Thrill .. Crisco is now making 1 cup " butter flavored" sticks..

Hey Everyone-

This is not so much a cheap thrill as a lazy way to cake decorate. Many of you are making lots of batches of Wilton Course 1 Butter Cream Icing and so you are using lots of shortening. I find that shortening is the one item I least like to measure, if you have been in class with me you know I like using the Crisco sticks because they are pre measured in a 1 cup portion. Of course, 1 cup is exactly the amount you need for 1 batch of icing and using a Crisco stick means I do not have to clean out that dirty shortening covered measuring cup!

Now Crisco has come out with a new 1 cup stick- you can now buy the one cup stick in  butter flavor! Please remember if you use this to make your icing it will be yellow- but, it will also have nice butter flavor.

Here is the link from Crisco if you would like to learn about it. While  you are there sign up for the Crisco emails, they will send you recipes and "cheap thrill" - coupons for their product!

http://www.crisco.com/products/ProductDetail.aspx?GroupID=17&ProdID=1358&utm_source=CRISCO&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=OctoberNewsletter2013

Use the link above and not the learn more button to check out the Crisco site!!

Using Pinterist for Cake Designs

Hello Everyone-

I know many of you are on the look out for new cake designs. As I have mentioned in class, Wilton has a great Pinterest page for you to use at:

http://www.pinterest.com/wilton/



Enjoy!!!

Decorating Basics on October 6, 2013 is full. Here are some alternatives...

The October 6, Decorating Basics class is full. I cannot add another class at this time so I thought I would post some alternatives for those of you that want to take the class before November, 2013.

First of all, I still have Course 3 and Course 4 openings. You are welcome to start your education with those classes since you do not need decorating experience to take either class. The dates for these classes are:

Course 3 Gum Paste and Fondant October 3, 2013 10 am - 12 pm

Course 4 Advanced Gum Paste Flowers October 1, 2013 10 am- 12 pm


Kim also has a night class with a couple of openings available. She is a phenomenal teacher and would love to have you in her class:

Decorating Basics - October 2, 2013 6:30pm - 8:30 pm

Demonstration Cake done by me.

Tall Cakes Class Oct. 6 with Kim at Michael's on Harbison.....

Hey Everyone -

I know a bunch of you wanted to take the Tall / Tiered Cake Class before Christmas. I am unable to teach this class right now but, Kim A. is teaching one next week: Sunday,  October 6th from 3:30- 6:30 Pm. The tuition is $20.00.  If you want to sign up go on in to Michael's and get signed up. If you have questions for her she can be reached at kimbocraig@juno.com or you can contact me at sweetcakes@sc.rr.com and I will forward your questions to her.

This one was done by Meloney, a student from a past class.