Once again, it was time to head to the big smoke to attend the Cake Bake and Sweets Show for 2015. As was the case last year, I attended with my mother and mother-in-law and we spent our Saturday morning looking at some amazing cakes, trying not to spend too much money, and buying some tasty treats.
This year also saw the Australian Cake Decorating Network (ACDN) follow up their wedding chapel made of cake from the Melbourne show with the entry way to Luna Park replicated in cake, and it was pretty spectacular.
But onto that in a minute.
After walking through the doors, the three of us parted ways to make our way through the show. To start the morning I wandered over to the dessert table showcase which was put together by Confetti Fair. Although it did not seem there were as many displays as last year, those that were there reflected a variety of themes that would cater for many different occasions.
There was a brightly coloured lolly buffet with cute button topped cupcakes, a Frozen-esque table and a sweet vintage dessert table using a dressing table which happened to be my pick of the bunch.
From here, I wandered through the variety of food stalls at the front of the show, trying not to buy/taste everything in sight, before making my way to check out the Luna Park entry way. Standing at over 5 metres tall, it certainly made for an exciting way to make your way into to view the edible artwork.
Each piece in the gallery was entirely edible made out of such mediums as fondant, buttercream and ganache. I wasn’t able to capture them all, but below are some of my favourites.
“Taronga Zoo” by Trish Barber of Cakicature
Top right is by Karen from Lick the Bowl
“View from the Coffee Cups” by Ritzy Roo of Ritzy Couture Cake
“A Day on the Harbour” by Jayne Baratta of Yummies – Cake and Special Treats
Next it was time for shopping! There were plenty of stalls with every cake decorating tool you could imagine, the Australian Patisserie Academy (who I had no idea existed and look like they have great courses which are on my wish list now), a variety cooking equipment, rustic cake stands, cake toppers and packaging.
As opposed to last year, I did not buy any new tools which probably isn’t a bad thing because I still have some things from last year I have not used – don’t tell the hubby. I did however purchase Janet O’Sullivan’s black and white vinyl backdrops from the ACDN stall and have already used them so purchase justified!
All of the demonstrations and classes being held were full to the brim, with additional people crowding around outside each area to catch a glimpse of what was going on.
At the back of the show were the cakes entered as part of the Australian Cake Decorating Championships. Needless to say there were some out-of-this-world spectacular cakes, ones I could only ever dream of creating myself. Brace yourself as I am now going to bombard you with some of my favourites, and this is the culled version, so just click on the picture for a better view.
In addition to the vinyl backdrops, the only other purchases I made were some macarons from Nic and Rocco, as I did last year, and a pack from SWEETNESS The Patisserie.
Yes, that Nic and Rocco box is empty. The hubby and I consumed the delicious macarons before I remembered I had not actually taken a picture as yet. Just imagine that the box is full with macarons in the flavour of passionfruit (definitely the pick of the bunch), turkish delight, vanilla, lemon, raspberry and jaffa (you know I love the jaffa macaron after making them myself).
For those who are not aware of SWEETNESS, they make amazing marshmallows and have won awards for a number of their products. The pack contained salted vanilla caramel bonbons, a 9 pack of marshmallows in various citrus flavours including passionfruit (the hubby and I are obsessed with passionfruit at the moment), and peppermint fudge. To check out some of the other amazing things SWEETNESS create, check out the video below and have those tissues handy to mop up the drool.
So that is the Cake Bake and Sweets Show for another year. If you are in Melbourne, head to the show from 23-25 October 2015 otherwise stay tuned for the review of the 2016 show when it rolls back into Sydney town.