Convention - day 2

The 2nd day of the convention was packed with learning for me! My first class was at 9am and it was all about sugar jewelry!

I was so excited to have Wayne (pictured) and Chuck of Swank Cakes (from North Carolina) be the teachers of this class. I learned about Isolmalt (poured sugar) and pouring silicone molds! Wayne has been on TLC's "Fabulous Cakes" as well as a few of the Food Networks cake challenges. How cool is that? He was a great teacher and when I was done I walked away with 4 pieces of sugar jewelry!

As soon as my jewelry class ended it was time for me to attend the "Celebrity Demo Panel". This was another "class" that really consisted of several "celebrities" (in the cake world) talking about a variety of techniques. Their job was to look on Cake Wrecks and find a "wreck" that they could make better. So all the cakes you will see with the celebrities were inspired by some wreck that they saw. The first celebrity is Mike McCarey - of Mike's Amazing cakes out of Seattle. He is simply AMAZING - you should check out his website! Holy COW! He's been on several cake challenges and he is considered a leader in structural cakes. He made this pizza and spaghetti cakes - in about 20 minutes!

Next up was Marina Sousa & Jay Qualls. Marina was featured on Amazing Cakes and on a few cake challenges as well. Jay was on "the Next Great Baker" in season 1 and he is from Nashville, TN. Jay didn't start making cakes until 1992 - he is completely self taught. They made this cake with texture added in - also inspired by a wreck!

See...they were awesome! They stopped for a quick picture with me! I was so excited! I watched both of these guys on the Food Network! As soon as I saw them, you didn't have to tell me who they were!

The first person pictured here is James Rosselle - he make a "fun-fetti" cake - another inspiration from Cake Wrecks. James is so amazing. He took 2 years of pastry school and was immediately offered a position with one of the top cake decorators - after a year with him he was offered a position with Ewald Notter - THE top sugar artist in the world. James has been well taught and now he owns a shop in Los Angeles!
Next in line is Roland Winbeckler (and I have 2 classes with him!). He and his wife are known around the world for cutting edge techniques, Food Network Judges, books they've written, and new tools and gadgets that they've developed. WOW- I love the skull cake he made (you can sort of see the "wreck" that inspired him in the last picture!) He did this cake in 10 minutes flat!

This is a picture of the Sugar Piece that Ewald Notter did at the show (in about 3 hours). It was a live demo if you wanted to sit for 3 hours and watch him. I was in a class - so I saw him setting up - and I saw the finished product - WOW!

 These are just a few more cakes at the show that were impressive to me!

 The "trophies". I didn't stay for the awards ceremony but I do know that the giant dragon (you know - the REALLY IMPRESSIVE ONE from yesterday's post) won 1st place. Was there any doubt?
Oh - it was so great to be here!
I have 2 more classes and then back home I go!