any pro cake decorators around?

[cremeeggsrock]

just seeking advice on training courses ect! for beginners. love baking but dont know best way to start decorating? any advice welcolmed:) i would prefer intense courses or weekends as have dd. thanks in advance for your replies!

My personal view is that the best way to start decorating is start practising and see how you get on.

There are some good books that cover basic techniques but it really is one of those things that you need to actually do again and again and again.

The courses come in to their own with the more advanced techniques IMO.

I did two years 'sugar craft' evening classes run by my our local council (Brum) until our teacher retired. She was brilliant. She focused on sugarcraft flowers etc but also taught us how to marzipan, royal ice, rol-out ice a cake and lots of other techniques for decorating.
I used to really enjoy it.

I agree with Nancy. I'm a cake 'pro' in that I make cakes for money but I'm primarily self taught. I did a year of evening classes (one night a week) to master the more advanced techniques that I had never tackled but, tbh, most of the cakes I'm asked for don't use many of them.

This is a fantastic book for getting started. Carol Deacon's books are also good for simple ideas for decorating them and have clear instructions.

I started off making them for my dcs' birthdays, then for other friends/family which is a great way of practising the basic skills like covering with sugarpaste, simple modelling, etc without having to worry too much about mistakes.

Your best bet is to practise, practise, practise. Start off with covering round cakes - they're easiest, then go on to square cakes.

Beware though, it is a VERY expensive hobby .

I agree with Nancy and Olihan that the best way to start is by practising yourself using a good book and doing it for your dcs/ or other family member's birthday. I would love more opportunities to practise but like Olihan says, it is expensive and very time consuming.

When decorating a cake with sugarpaste, start with 2D designs by cutting templates and assembling them like a jigsaw on a sugarpaste covered cake.

If you want to do intricate models then you will almost certainly need to invest in some tools. In my opnion, it's the models that take a long time rather than the cake itself.

This book by Carol Deacon is a good one to start with.