cake decorating2002.05.16

It all began when I was flipping through the Christmas issue of Food & Drink. In the recommended books area there was a cover that took my breath away. It was the cover of Cakewalk: Adventures with Sugar by Margaret Braun. The cover features a cake the likes of which I'd never seen before. It was phenomenal. This was not just cake decorating. This was Art.

I've always liked baking better than cooking; however, I usually limit my baking activities to the Christmas season. Certainly I'd never tackled anything one-tenth as complicated as this. But I added the book to my Amazon wish list (along with the dozens of other books I want to buy) and forgot about it for a few months.

Recently I started thinking about it again, and started looking around online for other examples of the kind of cake decorating I wanted to learn:

• Polly's Cakes: Whimsy Series
• Colette's Cakes (check out the gallery)
• Cake Couture
• Cake Divas
• Book: Debbie Brown's Enchanted Cakes for Children
• Book: Colette's Birthday Cakes
• Book: Cakes in Bloom

There's a twist to it, of course... I'd love to design and create specialty Christmas cakes, primarily. Small, individual ones for Christmas dinner parties. Elaborate, sparkling versions too. I have a dozen different ideas swirling in my mind as I write this.

A friend of mine (thanks Stace) even found me a great series of courses at George Brown University that I could take, and I may... though one at a time. They're relatively intense.

I think I'm going to explore this more, play, learn some things, be creative away from the computer as well as in front of it. Who knows? By Christmas I may have some delectable designs to show for it. I'll keep you updated. :)

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