SugarCraft: not for the faint hearted

My artistic capabilities leave much more than much to be desired. Painting my nails is the closest I should be allowed to painting, but as someone who loves to indulge my creative spirit I am greatly disappointed that I am completely inept when it comes to translating ideas into art. In April I spotted, off in the distance, a glimmer of hope: in the form of Suger Craft (otherwise known as icing cakes). Having spent the girliest day, possibly ever, fussing and faffing about how to use a piping bag and the best way to cut flowers from icing, I came home with my frighteningly fragile birthday cake, creatively inspired. I was ready to reattempt all sorts of artistic endeavours, from drawing to knitting and everything in between. This was in April, since then I have altered a jacket here, made a bracelet there but I have yet to brave the challenge of SugarCraft unsupervised and in the comfort of my own home.

This delay has been inevitable and frustrating, due to the arduous, strenuous, torturous (and many other -ous words too) never-ending revision spin class* which I have been pedalling since mid-April. *(for anyone not familiar with revision, you go round and round in circles until you are exhausted, sounds like a spin class to me!).

There is hope yet, a second attempt at SugarCraft made it onto my list of post-revision fun (and dangerous) things to try. You may wonder why I say this with caution and trepidation, the answer is simple - it all comes down to supervision.

The cake I decorated for my Birthday (see picture below, isn't it a beaut - proud), was decorated under the supervision of leading SugarCraft artist Rachel Mount, not only was she standing by for any sugar-emergencies but also - I'll let you in on a secret here - she had mixed the petal paste, which is what we used to create the flowers, of which I used a fair few! Considering that some ingredients of petal paste include liquid glucose and "Gum Tragacanth" you may understand my concern that this complicated concoction could go horribly wrong...

Optimistic and up for any challenge I am determined that I will succeed and I'll keep you posted on my progress (in the new Blake Bakes part of this blog) as I experiment with the techniques I learned direct from the master herself. Give me time and I'll be knocking out beautifully crafted birthday cakes at every opportunity, of course all of this in preparation for "Blake's Cake Bakery" someday, watch this space...

Link to Rachel Mount's website: http://www.rachelmount.com/
Yes those really are all cakes, she is certainly the coolest artist I've ever encountered!