I arrived on Saturday, to take in my entry for the Children's cupcake category. As I was one of the first 100 arrivals, I was given a Squires Kitchen goody bag with lots of useful equipment in it.
On the way in I was really impressed with the other entries that were already displayed, especially the wedding cakes that looked like works of art. While I was looking around, I was pleased to meet Charlotte White who was busy taking photos of the cakes. To see some of these amazing creations follow this link to her blog on Restoration Cake. Also on her website there are lots of nice recipes and we definitely recommend the vegan chocolate cupcake one!
My cupcake entry was The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. It took me three days to make the models, fitting it around my school and homework was tricky but I was pleased with the result.
I had a little look around the exhibition and then met Mark Tilling and talked about different things I had been involved in over the last few months.
I spent some time looking at the programme and decided to go to all Mark's talks and also Carlo Lischetti talks. Carlo's models were amazing as he added so much expression to the faces.
I really liked Mark's talks as he took us through his demonstrations step by step and explained things about chocolate as he was demonstrating. I learnt how to use chocolate transfer sheets to make lovely chocolate pots, how to colour chocolate and use it for Easter eggs, how to make chocolate flowers and mirror glaze cakes. I can't wait to try some of these things. I am looking forward to buying Mark's book called Mastering Chocolate that is coming out soon and will work my way through the recipes. Before we left we bought some chocolate moulds and colour powders ready to make some chocolate Easter Eggs at home.
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| Photo by Squires Kitchen |
On Sunday morning I was really pleased to find out that I had won my section of the children's category and had been awarded "Gold". Later when I met the judges: Mark Tilling and Jan Clement-May, they said that they really liked my cakes, and especially all the added detail like the trowel, spider and axe. I also picked up some tips on how to add character to facial expressions. At the prize giving I was presented with my certificates and a book, sugarpaste and colour pastes which will all be really useful.
I really enjoyed my first visit to the Squires Kitchen Exhibition and hope to come back another year to learn even more skills and be inspired by some brilliant sugarcraft.
