Friday, May 18, 2012

Petalsweet Spring 2012 Classes Part Two

After a fabulous trip to Toronto, I was home in San Diego just over 24 hours...long enough to do some laundry, re-pack my bags and then get myself to San Francisco! Once there, I met up with my amazingly talented and very lovely friends Viola Doyle and Mav Georgeson from Faye Cahill Cake Design in Sydney, Australia and we finished our last bit of prep for The Wedding Cake Class at Richard Festen's amazing studio at Baking Arts.

Viola, Mav and I taught this same wonderful class last year...4 days to create a two-tier wedding cake using the beautiful Australian techniques of chocolate ganache and fondant, as well as completing the tiers with an exquisite pearl finish and beautiful stenciling. Decorations for the cake included an open peony, hydrangea, buds and leaves...all in soft tones to complement Faye's beautiful original design:


After having so much fun last year and seeing the beautiful results from our students, we just couldn't wait to get back together to teach the class for a second time...and once again, we had a truly wonderful weekend. Here are some favorite photos...

Mud cakes covered with chocolate ganache:


A single tier covered with fondant...beautiful!


All of the tiers covered with fondant and stacked...ready for their finishing touches:


Teaching hydrangea, buds and leaves:


All set up for flower making:


Working on buds, filler flowers, and peonies:


Students putting the gorgeous pearl finish on their cakes:


Lovely Mav helping with the stenciling process:


Fabulous Viola and Mav helping me dust flowers to arrange on our demo cake:


Arranging sugar flowers:


And the gorgeous class with their amazing work:



Many, many thanks to all of our fabulous, kind and very talented students for the wonderful weekend! It was such a pleasure to meet all of you and work with you!! Your cakes and flowers were stunning...we are so proud!

And thank you to my lovely colleagues and very dear friends...Mav and Viola...could NOT have done it without you both - I so love working with you and spending time with you!

Thank you so much to the wonderfully talented Faye Cahill for your beautiful cake design and allowing us to share it with the students. And I am so honored to use my flowers as a finishing touch!

And we are all grateful to the ever fabulous Richard Festen for hosting us and making us all feel so very well cared for...we love teaching in your beautiful studio Richard - thank you again for having us!

Mav, Viola and Richard:




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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!







Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Petalsweet Spring 2012 Classes Part One

It has been a busy but wonderful Spring...lots of traveling to fabulous locations to teach some of my favorite sugar flowers to the most lovely students! Truly a special time.

First stop was in late April when I taught a three day class at the amazing Flour Confections studio in Pickering, outside Toronto. My wonderful friend and colleague Lisa Bugeja and her husband Scott hosted me at their beautiful shop and studio where I taught 12 fabulous students how to make open peonies, hydrangea, filler flowers, ranunculus flowers, buds and leaves as well as how to arrange them in a sweet sugar vase! Lots of photos to share courtesy of my host Lisa, who was so gracious to quietly capture some wonderful moments during class - thank you Lisa!

Teaching under the amazing camera and television screen in the Flour Confections classroom:



Buds and filler flowers drying:



Hydrangea and peony petals drying:



Buds, hydrangea and ranunculus flowers:


Dusting demonstration:


Putting together the peony flower:


Demonstrating how to arrange flowers:






Students working hard to arrange all of their flowers and buds:





OK...well when we weren't working really hard we were laughing...a lot!







Beautiful student work:




Class photo with all of their gorgeous work...wow!!


Many, many thanks to all of my wonderful, kind and very talented students for sharing your time with me and for working so hard to create your fabulous vases. I'm so very proud of all of your work...and what a pleasure to meet you and work with you! 

I'm also so grateful to Lisa and Scott for hosting me and taking such good care of all of us during class! What an incredible space and environment for learning...and let's not forget the amazing lunches too! We were VERY well fed and treated to some of Lisa's amazing sweet treats each day...

I hope to be back next year for more flower workshops...thank you, thank you all for such a wonderful first trip and experience in Toronto...I can't wait to come back!

Thanks for stopping by...more class updates soon from my recent trip to San Francisco for The Wedding Cake Class...and I've got lots of fun projects to share soon...

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


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!