Well the sun was out and the sky was blue for the long awaited first day of the Cake and Bake show 2012. And the queue was massive! it went all the way around the corner and almost as far as the Warwick Road entrance.
I had arrived at the show the day before to prep a few bits and bobs. I happened to come across a rather large chair and couldn't help but leap into it.....anyway, back to the more serious things I should be doing.....I had a cake to set up in the Wedding cake showroom and a teatime display to create on the Great Cake Places stand.
Great Cake Places is a fantastic guide to Londons 100 best and finest cakeries and Rachelle's is in the book! So we decided to do a little cake display on the stand to help draw the punters in to buy the book.
The lovely Daniella from Classic Crockery brought along some gorgeous teatime china to enhance the table display. And Rachelle's made some delicious cakes :)
Here is a cheeky peek at the gorgeous Peggy Porschen stand. Despite being one of my competitors I think her cakes and work are fantastic.
On my travels pre-show I also happened to run into Mr Paul Hollywood. I think he was preparing himself for the thousands of women that were about to throw themselves at him. Luckily I got to throw myself at him first.
Back to the job I should be concentrating on....I was also at the show to talk and demonstrate my skills as a cake maker and designer. Here I am teaching and doing a demo in the Wedding Cake Showroom.
This particular demo was all about how to apply a side design to your cake. I have to admit I have never done a demo in front of a live audience before but I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The other side of the demo area were 10 Wedding cakes on display from 10 different cake designers. Mine is the black and white one to the centre. As the area was pretty much swamped the whole time I didn't really get a great photo, but I will be re-photographing my cake soon. It was based around a designer Wedding gown by Caroline Herrara.
The Pretty Witty Cakes team were also at the show, from left to right, Me (Rachel) , Harriet, Amy, Suzi and Paul the baker. For those of you that don't know, I'm a guest tutor at Pretty Witty Cakes. I currently teach Big Cakes, Cookies, Minicakes and a Vintage three tier cake class.
Another vital part of the Rachelle's team is my lovely assistant Hannah, here she is catching up with two of the contestants of The Great British Bake Off. There were so many lovely cakey bakey people at the show and so nice to meet so many of them.
Finally in-between all the socialising I did actually have a job to do and that was my classroom demos. Over the weekend I taught both minicakes and cookie decorating to the masses.
Here I am in the classroom pre cookie demo!
For anyone interested in learning more, I teach on a regular basis at Pretty Witty Cakes and I also teach privately from the Rachelle's South London studio. For more pictures of my work please go to www.rachelles.co.uk or click on Classes.
I hope to see you at the Cake and Bake Show 2013!
Rachel x
