Sugar Flower Classes - East Coast

I just returned from a fun and fabulous week in New Haven, CT, just outside New York City! The lovely and very talented Erica OBrien of Erica OBrien Cake Design just recently opened her new studio in Hamden and invited me to teach two sugar flower classes in her adorable new space!

Cute windows and details...love the outside lights:



Erica shares the kitchen with her sister Jessica...who has an amazing business called The Soup Girl offering delicious homemade soups and light entrees. We were very spoiled to enjoy her food for lunch each day during class...thank you Jessica for sharing your kitchen space!! x



Here's a peek inside Erica's consultation area...she's still unpacking some of her special details for the room, but it's already adorable with her lovely furniture and that fabulous blue hutch:





Setting up for class:



My fabulous students in the Open Peony and Parrot Tulip class:



Southern Magnolias and Gardenias from the second class:



And a few of my talented and adorable students with cute Erica (on the right):



Many thanks to Erica for the wonderful invitation and for hosting me, and for all of your help before, during and after the classes! Thanks to your lovely intern Kalan for all of her assistance as well! I'm very grateful to Jess for sharing your delicious food with all of us...it was amazing!

And to my really fabulous students, and it was such a pleasure working with all of you! The flowers were gorgeous...and you were all so kind and very gracious. Thank you for sharing your time with me! I hope to be back for more classes soon...x

Thanks for stopping by!

If you are interested in receiving updates about future classes and workshops in your inbox, please subscribe to our Petalsweet Newsletter below...

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For more information about our Sugar Flower Online Video Course with Craftsy, you can read all about it and register in this post here!

Copyright © 2012 by Jacqueline Butler of Petalsweet Cakes. Content of this blog (including text, photographs and layout) is the property of Jacqueline Butler - please respect copyright laws. If you want to link to my blog, or post any of my photos, please contact me - it would be great to have the opportunity to connect with you. Thank you!

Sugar Flower Classes - East Coast

San Diego Cake Show Entry 2012

This past weekend the San Diego Cake Club hosted their annual cake competition here in San Diego. As always, it was a wonderful event with almost 300 entries this year...all for a good cause to raise money for the amazing Ronald McDonald House! Congratulations to all of the winners and all of the competitors!

I've loved being able to participate in this local show over the years...it's so much fun to view all of the beautiful work the competitors display, and I always see lots of cake friends too! Some years I am traveling and unable to attend the show, but this year I knew I would be in town, so I planned my design and set to work!

Here are a few photos from the process...

First making some of the hydrangea and filler flowers and dusting the larger buds:





And now with all of my flowers, buds and leaves ready...it's time to start arranging the topper in Styrofoam. This year I used peonies, parrot tulips, freesia, ranunculus, hydrangea, filler flowers and sweet peas:



A few flowers added (and I changed to a smaller dome of Styrofoam)



A few more added:



And the finished topper! It took me about 4 hours to arrange all of these flowers..I divided it up between two sessions...most of the flowers on Day One, and then filling in gaps and adding the leaves on Day Two. Whew!I loved how it turned out...mostly green and white with just a touch of pink Sweet Peas this year:



Just about finished here...with the addition of two other arrangements, including a large open peony on the lower tier:



I went back and forth about adding a simple bow to the ribbon on the bottom tier...and finally decided it was a YES:



I was thrilled and honored to receive first place in my category of Professional Tiered Cakes! Looking forward to next year...

Thanks so much for stopping by!

If you are interested in receiving updates about future classes and workshops in your inbox, please subscribe to our Petalsweet Newsletter below...

Subscribe to our newsletter


For more information about our Sugar Flower Online Video Course with Craftsy, you can read all about it and register in this post here!

Copyright © 2012 by Jacqueline Butler of Petalsweet Cakes. Content of this blog (including text, photographs and layout) is the property of Jacqueline Butler - please respect copyright laws. If you want to link to my blog, or post any of my photos, please contact me - it would be great to have the opportunity to connect with you. Thank you!

San Diego Cake Show Entry 2012