Nicholas Lodge!!

Oh My Goodness!! My first Cake Celebrity!! Nicholas Lodge! WOW!!

He came to Charlotte for a two day master class in the art of royal icing.

He was amazing!!

When I first heard about this opportunity, I was not able to make the weekend work out. Then on Wednesday, I received a phone call from Carol Gunter, a South Carolina ICES cake decorator who knew how eager I was to attend this class and was offering me a chance to go. Instead of actually participating on a dummy cake, she asked if I would be interested in video taping and helping out with logistics for the weekend.

Hmm....let me think about this....

YES!!!

So I got the chance to attend the master class Saturday and Sunday from 8-5. I was able to chat with other cake decorators, as well as be up front and close with Nicholas as he taught and demonstrated his amazing skills!

The class was open to the first 25 or so people who were able to send in their deposits. There were two ladies from Virginia, one lady from Pawley's Island a few from Raleigh and the rest of us were from a variety of areas close to Charlotte in both North and South Carolina.

The class was going to cover the art of royal icing and different styles of piping.

Nicholas started with a bit of history about cake decorating

and different styles of how people would decorate cakes.

He also talked about the differences between

cakes in England and cakes in the US.

Everyone started off with decorating two cakes with rolled fondant.

I helped covered this green one here!

Nicholas introduced his personal choice for fondant, Massa Grischuna a brand he endorses along with the company Albert Uster Imports, (AUI).

After covering the cake everyone went to prepping their royal icing decorations.

These are Nicholas'.

Here is the swan he created, we made the first side on Saturday, let it dry, then removed it and turned it over and re-flooded it with more royal icing to make a 3D swan.

The master at work!!

He is adding bridgework to the side of his cake! He made this look so easy!!

An amazing steady head with amazing accuracy!

Ta Da!

A side view!

The rose piping he did is super tiny, I'm super close with the picture.

He piped this with a PME tip 1.5 for the string work,

and a PME tip 1 for the rose scroll.

His attention to detail and beauty astounds me!

All royal icing piped on a fondant cake. I learned you are not able to pipe royal icing on a buttercream cake, because the butter/shortening will break down the royal icing.

This is unbelievably tiny! The doves are made with tip zero!!

With teeny, tiny wings.

sigh....

I unfortunately had to leave right at 5 on Sunday, so I was not able to see the final product of the 2nd cake, but he was working with showing different styles of piping with the Lambeth Method.

What an amazing weekend, I learned so much,

despite me not actually piping on a cake.

I also spent small fortune on NEAT cake tools and an

autograph Nicholas Lodge Book! (hehe!)

but it was worth it!

Thank you to Carol Gunter and Penny Cunningham who helped put this weekend together. I am super stoked to continue with my piping skills and can't wait for the ICES National Convention 2011 here in Charlotte.