CakesDecor Gazette: Issue 3.08 / August 2014

Hello my Lovelies,

It was with immense sadness and reluctance that I have to tell you that this will be my last issue as Editor of the CakesDecor Gazette. I have made the very difficult decision to admit that I am spread a little too thin to be able to give The Gazette the time and attention it deserves.

I have taken great pride and joy in watching The Gazette grow and was thrilled to be there at it’s beginning. I will still be doing interviews with all your favourite Cake Decorators as I travel around teaching and attending shows. It actually takes quite a surprising amount of time every month and I felt that I was starting to let you all down with the amount and the quality of time I could commit to it lately. The only thing that makes this decision bearable is that I will be passing the baton to my very dear and gorgeous friend, Calli Hopper of Callicious Cakes.

I want to thank you all so much for being such a wonderful and receptive audience. I would also like to thank Michal and Martin for the amazing opportunity and lastly I want to thank my beautiful friend Calli…..I know you’re all in wonderful hands with such a special and talented Lady at the helm.

Have a wonderful month, and please say Hi if you see me somewhere around the world! ;)

Raewyn xx

Welcome to the Issue 3.08 / August 2014 of the CakesDecor Gazette 

Click here to view the CD Gazette archives ~ Click here to view Gazette in web browser

Editorial

Hello my Lovelies,

It was with immense sadness and reluctance that I have to tell you that this will be my last issue as Editor of the CakesDecor Gazette. I have made the very difficult decision to admit that I am spread a little too thin to be able to give The Gazette the time and attention it deserves.

I have taken great pride and joy in watching The Gazette grow and was thrilled to be there at it’s beginning. I will still be doing interviews with all your favourite Cake Decorators as I travel around teaching and attending shows. It actually takes quite a surprising amount of time every month and I felt that I was starting to let you all down with the amount and the quality of time I could commit to it lately. The only thing that makes this decision bearable is that I will be passing the baton to my very dear and gorgeous friend, Calli Hopper of Callicious Cakes.

I want to thank you all so much for being such a wonderful and receptive audience. I would also like to thank Michal and Martin for the amazing opportunity and lastly I want to thank my beautiful friend Calli…..I know you’re all in wonderful hands with such a special and talented Lady at the helm.

Have a wonderful month, and please say Hi if you see me somewhere around the world! ;)

Raewyn xx

Raewyn's:  Profile on CakesDecor | Cakes by Raewyn Facebook Page

What's Happening

This month we have a brilliant Hand modelling tutorial by Barbie lo Schiaccianoci and a divine Light Fig and lemon Cheesecake Recipe from Edible Art by Sawsen for you to try. Have you used one of our tutorials? Why don't you submit it to CakesDecor.com and your creation may be featured in the next Gazette. 

I'm SO excited about our interview this month! My gorgeous and fabulous friend Shawna McGreevy of McGreevy Cakes has given me an absolutely hilarious interview that I'm sure you'll love reading as much as I did!

In Kitchen Talk this month, we have a wonderful forum post from Calli of Callicious Cakes about the design process called 'From sketch to cake' where you can share your process with us.

We would love to hear what you would like to see in The Gazette and who you would like us to interview. Just go to The Gazette Blog post and leave your comments there.

Enjoy! :)

Cakes Decor Gazette Editors Choice The Editors Choice for August is...

Gold and Black Cake with Lion

by 

Alina Vaganova

What a striking and original design! The combination of stunning hand painting to the brilliant use of molds gives this fabulous cake a sense of drama and majesty that really caught my eye!

Congratulations Alina Vaganova on being my Editors Choice for August 2014. 

Raewyn :) x

Cake Decorator of the Week The Cake Decorators of the Week for July were...

McGreevy Cakes

The Sweet Life

Torte Titiioo

With Love and Confection

CakesDecor Interview Series Interview #26: Shawna McGreevy

I have been fortunate enough to have been in touch with gorgeous Shawna for a few years now. I first saw her work here on CakesDecor and then followed her Facebook page. When I got to meet her at the Sydney Cake Bake & Sweet show in March, I realised an important thing...Shawna is as kind, loving and FUNNY in real life as she is in cyber space and on your video screen! I feel so blessed to count this amazing lady as one of my friends and it was an absolute pleasure to interview her for you all. 

Raewyn :)

BIO

I’ve always loved art…ANYTHING involving art. As a kid, I would sketch just about everything I saw, just to see how “real” I could make it look. My bedroom door was covered with my sketches (well, in the spots that Joey McIntyre didn’t occupy, anyway).

Not exactly sure what to do with that “love”, I gave it up for a while and went on to college for an Elementary Education degree. After teaching 6th grade for three years, I stayed home to have and raise my four beautiful babies… who are babies NO longer! (I can NOT be that old. Not possible.)

A few years ago, I decided to try my hand at decorating a cake for my niece’s birthday… I thought it might be fun to make her something special. I got myself onto YouTube to hunt down the buttercream and fondant basics.

I was so proud of my sad, strange little cake that I guilted my family into traveling through a snow storm just to come and celebrate the party that we almost cancelled! (Ok, that makes me look kind of pathetic. Whatev. I’d do it again.)

Little did I know how absolutely addicting cake decorating is! From that day forward, I just couldn’t stop.

I loved trying out new ideas and techniques I’d researched, and baking up new and delicious recipes. I was continuously making cakes and cupcakes for family, friends, and acquaintances. And, not long after, I decided to take a leap of faith and launch a little cake company called McGreevy Cakes. (So I’d have a good, solid excuse to have fun… and spend a li’l bit o’ money on tools, of course 

It’s been so ridiculously cool to see my cakes published in Cake Masters, Cake Central, Sweet! and Cake Geek Magazines… and to have one of my very own grace the cover of American Cake Decorating Magazine! (Whaaa ??) I’ve filmed a class for CakeMade, and one for Paul Bradford Sugarcraft School, and in March of 2014, I was invited to Sydney to teach at the Cake Bake & Sweets Show as an international sugar artist.

Enjoy! :)

Read full Interview here

15 Minutes of Fame

Cakenweenie turns 1!!!

Can you believe it has been a year since the Cakenweenie Collaboration was revealed in celebration of the incredible Tim Burton’s birthday??.

The brainchild of the extremely talented and a little crazy Tracey Rothwell of Little Cherry Cake Company involved 100 Burtonesque Bakers, hundreds of hours of creativity and a whole lot of fun!

You can revisit the pieces you have seen and experience some new ones at the Cakenweenie web and facebook pages.

Cakenweenie Website
Cakenweenie Facebook

Caking Around the World

Cake Shows and Competitons for August

We would like to bring you news and information about the many exciting Cake events around the world.

If you know of any Cake shows or competitions in your area, we would love you to share them with us

Brisbane Cake Expo 2014

Cake Decorating Competition

Entries close 11:59pm on 31 August 2014

Cake Masters Magazine - July Issue

----------------------------  Sponsored ----------------------------

WELCOME TO OUR GORGEOUS SUMMER ISSUE!

I wanted to dedicate this issue to warm weather and dreams of our summer holidays around the corner.

I am so excited that Carlos Lischetti has finally made it into our magazine with a special interview! His figurine models are works of art and we speak to him about his modelling and fascinating career to date.

To celebrate the summer, 8 fantastic cake artists from around the world were tasked with creating a cake that told a summer story – something that encapsulated a summer holiday emotion… Boy are you in for a treat! We don’t like to give too much direction when it comes to specific magazine projects, as we want each artist to literally take their cake wherever they want and REALLY go there! There really are some beautiful creations for you to be inspired by in this bright and breezy issue. I hope you get swept away into the summer holiday journeys!

We have 3 great tutorials for you too, one from Amber Adamson from Top Tier Cakes for All Occasions, showing us her method of stencilling on the side of cakes – it is really simple and I can’t wait for you to see how effective it is! Our second tutorial is from our other exclusive interview; the award winning, author, teacher and cake artist, Sharon Wee from Sharon Wee Creations. Sharon has put together an exclusive “Adventure Bear” tutorial for Cake Masters Magazine!

We also have the lovely buttercream girls, and authors of the new book, “The Contemporary Buttercream Bible”, Valeri and Christina from Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes, giving us a masterclass in piping perfect buttercream flowers.

Top it all off with our regular features, Cake Spaces from France, a family affair Afternoon Tea with Jen and lots more!

I hope it is sunny where you are!

Rosie

Get your copy now from: AppStore or www.cakemasters.co.uk

Monthly Top 5

Most Popular Cake for July

Vacuuming Minion Maid Cake

Caroline Nagorcka

Frozen Cake

Torte di Nadia

Lady Blossom Cake

Daniel Dieguez

Best of British

Chatter Cakes

Jungle Safari Cake for George

Julia Hardy

Cake This Tute!

Modeling Tutorial #1: Hands

Barbie lo Schiaccianoci - Barbara Regini

Find tutorial here

Bake This Tute!

Easy Fig and Lemon Cheesecake

Edible Art by Sawsen

Ingredients – makes 4 ramekins

For the base:

• 3 tablespoons coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon oats (or ground almonds)
• 2 tbsp organic unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbsp honey or 1 tbsp jaggery powder/ shakkar/ sucanat

For the cream:

• 300g cream cheese, full fat is a must unless you’re using pure stevia
• 2 tbsp honey or agave or sweetener of choice, to taste
• 1/4 tsp grated lemon zest or 1/8 tsp lemon essence

for the fig topping:

any no added sugar fig preserve (or preserve of choice – I used St. Dalfour High Fruit Content Spread which is delicious, has no added sugar and many flavours, and you can pick it up at most supermarkets)

1. melt the butter in a glass bowl, then stir in all of the other ingredients for the base until combined. Divide between 4 ramekins and pat down with the back of a spoon to achieve a flat, solid base.
2. tip the cream cheese into a bowl and soften it with a fork. Add the other cream ingredients and mix well, adjusting sweetness if desired until a light, creamy and subtly sweet mix is obtained- something predominantly creamy to offset the sweetness of the preserve.
3. Spread or pipe the cream mix evenly on top of the bases – no need to have refrigerated it in the mean time.
4. mix rounded teaspoons of fig preserve in a bowl until it is smooth and no lumps remain. spoon on top of the cream and spread in an even layer. Refrigerate until ready to eat, or enjoy now 

You can see the full blog post here, with discussion of vegan/paleo/gf tweaks:http://recitries.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/better-for-you-fig-lemon-cheesecakes-with-vegan-paleo-gf-options/

And you can see a few more photos at my page, www.facebook.com/FFEAbySawsen

Kitchen Talk

From Sketch to Cake

Callicious Cakes

I LOVE this forum thread by lovely Calli of Callicious Cakes! What a fabulous idea, share your process with us at the link below.

Thanks Calli! :) xx

Go to full post and comments

Cakesdecor stats & links

25 August 2014

We are 21,527 cake decorators making 718,610 comments on 151,305 cakes, 1,475 blogs, 94 recipes,796 tutorials and 1,664 forum topics

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