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The icing on the cake
Pat Lock develops another string to her bow in later life
Having worked part-time as a cookery tutor for many years while bringing up my three sons, I decided to progress my love of cooking and took baking, patisserie and sugarcraft exams, which led me to teaching sugarcraft in Adult Education for twenty-five years.
After retiring, I often received calls from former students needing advice on their cake decorating, which I was always happy to help with.
Then one day I had the idea to set up a website giving advice on sugarcraft and cake decorating. So I sat down and typed all I knew about the problems I’d met and overcome throughout my career in the hope that it might help others.
The many skills involved in cake decorating make it a unique activity. For instance, making flowers in icing involves the study of natural flowers, knowledge of calligraphy helps when piping a greeting, and modelling, painting and embroidery techniques are just a few of the many talents which can turn a cake into a work of art.
I always liked the chatty, informal style of Delia Smith’s writing, and I tried to write it in the same way, as if I was talking to a student. And, like Delia, I also discussed some of the challenges that I’d faced. For instance, when asked to decorate a cake for a famous actor, I was rather nervous about the ‘message’ that would be requested, imagining having to pipe out a long Shakespearian speech. I was quite relieved when it turned out to be nothing more than ‘Happy Birthday Trev’.
One of my sons helped me to find a web designer, and I enrolled for computer classes to bring myself up to speed with the technology. It was certainly a steep learning curve. The result is that for the past three years my website www.cake-decorating-tips.com has been up and running, and doing quite well.
It contains over 1,000 hints and solutions on cake decorating and sugarcraft, as well as plenty of photographs. Knowing how everyone loves to read about other peoples’ problems, I also included a Question and Answer section.
The website has certainly brought a new dimension into my life. I now have instant access to cake decorators all over the world, some of whom I have visited. One reason I enjoy the website is receiving emails such as the one that came over the net recently. It read, “Your site is just what I have been waiting for”. This makes it all worthwhile!
This article was created: 21 September 2006.
This article was last edited: 5 February 2007.
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