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...

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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!

Petalsweet Spring 2012 Classes Part One

Petalsweet Peonies in San Francisco

It was just a quick trip to San Francisco...but I was so grateful to have the chance to work with some truly lovely students who created some of my most favorite sugar flowers...the open peony and freesia blossoms! We also happened to enjoy some gorgeous and inspiring Spring weather, even though we could only see it through the windows...many thanks to Richard Festen for hosting me at his fabulous Baking Arts studio - one of my favorite places to teach!

Here are some photos from the weekend...

All the tools and supplies set up at the studio:



Many thanks to the lovely Claudia Castro for taking and sharing the following seven photos:

Dusting freesia buds:



Freesia buds ready for assembly:



Dusting a peony bud:



Dusting peony pistils:



The peony center created with pistils and stamens:



Assembling the peony:





Thank you Claudia!! You are a talented flower maker AND photographer! x

Somehow, I did not get a photo of the gorgeous freesia sprays the students created...but they looked like this spray that was photographed by my dear friend Erin Wrightsman of Nurture Nature Photography:



And here are the gorgeous peonies from class...many made by students who were working with gumpaste for the first time:





And an adorable class photo!



Thank you to all of my wonderful students for a truly lovely class. What a pleasure to meet and work with you all! And thank you Richard for sharing your studio...I can't wait to be back in May for The Wedding Cake Class and additional sugar flower classes in the near future! New dates coming soon...

For more of Richard's fabulous baking, pastry and guest Instructor classes and workshops, please check out the Baking Arts calendar here!

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


Thanks for stopping by! x

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!

Petalsweet Peonies in San Francisco

Craftsy Sugar Flower Video Update

Hard to believe, but it's been just about 10 weeks since my Handcrafted Sugar Flowers online video with Craftsy was launched in mid-January...and I cannot tell you how amazing it has been to connect with so many of you via your questions and beautiful photos on the Craftsy platform..and all of your lovely updates and comments on Facebook and Twitter! I'm so grateful to all of you who have registered and followed the Lessons in the class...and also for sharing photos of your wonderful projects! Thank you so much!!

It was my hope you would find the lessons, tips and techniques helpful for the Hydrangeas and Filler Flowers I cover in the video...but also in other flower-making you do on your own! I designed the course to be more of a foundation and introduction to good flower craftsmanship...and hopefully your new skills will transfer easily if you want to try to master new and different flowers!

These are the flowers I taught in the course...Hydrangea and Filler Flowers, along with buds and leaves:



I've happily collected some photos of student work from the Craftsy video and would love to share them with you...and if I have mis-spelled any one's name or you would like me to add a link to your photo - please do not hesitate to contact me via email. I'm more than happy to make changes!

So here we go...

Beautiful hydrangea and fillers mixed with a gorgeous pink rose by Tatyana:



Lovely bouquet by Cutiedoki:



Tammy's beautiful blue hydrangea mixed with a wonderful pink peony:



Bright and fun bouquets by ALdabra:



More of Tatyana's stunning work:



Adorable and sweet little arrangement by Lara (love the pink centers!):



And Ilona's gorgeous flowers mixed with a beautiful peach peony she created:



Tina of Sweet T & Cake used an incredibly fun and vibrant color palette to create her delicate flowers and this fabulous cake:





Carol created these fabulous bouquets...and then was inspired to make some peonies as well! Gorgeous!



Aditi created this wonderful anniversary cake with her stunning flowers:



Heidy's flowers mixed with some beautiful roses she created:



And she also created a beautiful wedding cake with a sugar vase on top filled with more gorgeous flowers:



Here are Evangeline's fabulous bouquets...one in purple and the other in blue! You can find her work at Sweet Sweet Blooms:





These are Mark's amazing hydrangeas with their beautiful leaves:



And one of my students was inspired by the lessons in the class as well as some of my peonies and created her very first wedding cake for her brother! This is Houn's amazing masterpiece:



I just received a lovely comment from Charlotte at Sugar Ruffles who was lovely to share her beautiful flowers...all arranged with a wonderful peony on a fabulous cake! Thank you Charlotte!

I had additional photos to share, but they were sized too small when I copied them over from the Craftsy site, so they were barely visible when they were posted here. I'd love for the following artists to contact me when you can and send me a new photo to share:

* Candianne
* Charismaza
* Love a Cake

Many many thanks to all of you for taking the time to post your questions and comments on the Craftsy platform...it's been wonderful to help you learn some of my favorite techniques and to see your beautiful flowers and projects! I'm continually inspired by your wonderful work...so please keep sharing it with me...

I hope to offer more online videos and instructional materials in the future...and would love to know more about the types of flowers and/or techniques you wish to learn?!

Thanks for stopping by!

If you'd like to know more about my Handcrafted Sugar Flowers video, you can read about it and register here!

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


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!

Craftsy Sugar Flower Video Update