Three days of Cake Heaven…

Cake International – The Cake Decorating & Baking Show arrived at ExCeL, London 27-29 April in a flurry of cupcakes, cake pops and all the cake baking and decorating supplies you could dream of! The long-awaited sister show to Cake International – The Sugarcraft & Cake Decoration Show at the NEC in November, had high expectations to meet – and meet and surpass them they did!

Winner of the Great British Bake Off, Jo Wheatley, opened the show to a raucous reception and crowds of people who had been queuing for hours to be some of the first people into the show.  After cutting the ribbon with a flourish, the eagerly awaiting visitors descended onto the halls, and into cake heaven!

Over 80 exhibitors from across the UK offered cutting-edge cake decorating and baking supplies, and plenty of expert advice to the scores of cake enthusiasts. One area which drew many gasps of admiration and delight was the Competition Area – with classes ranging from Wedding Cakes and Novelty Cakes to Cupcake Class and A Decorative Exhibit, there were so many wonderful entries to be amazed by. The coveted Best in Show Prize went to Terry Tang from Liverpool for his stunning ‘Chinese Tree’ inspired creation entered into Class K – a Decorative Exhibit. The Best in Show, International Exhibit, went to Deidre Kavanagh from Ireland for her incredible ‘Cat tied down by mice’ cake which certainly did look too good to eat! This cake was entered into Class E – Sculpted Novelty Cake.

Jo said, “It has been really fantastic being a part of Cake International, especially at its
first show at ExCeL.  There were so many fans of baking and cake decorating and it shows just how much of a revival home baking has had over the last few years. Since winning The Great British Bake Off I have had the most amazing year, what with my cookery school, blog and new book coming out, but there is nothing quite like getting into my kitchen and whipping up a delicious treat.  I hope that people will be racing home to try my macaroons as well – they are my favourite recipe at the moment!”

We completely fell in love with the Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes exquisite buttercream artistry – and we were lucky enough to sample one of their cupcake creations! Now to say they were delicious would be an understatement – we could have quite happily lived off their cupcakes for three days! Here’s Valeri and Christina from Queen of Hearts, posing with their cakes.

There’s almost too many highlights of the show to mention! Visitors flocked to A Taste of Sugarcraft Workshops run by Inspired Creations, where they could learn Royal Icing Skills, Modelling Skills using Sugarpaste and Marzipan, plus Sugar Flower Skills. The Demonstration Theatres were once again very popular, with our International Guest Kelvin Chua and Stephanie Weightman both hosting exciting demonstrations amongst many other prolific industry experts. Chocoholics were easily tempted by the Chocolate Workshops run by David Leslie Cakes, plus the Giant Pink Flamingo Cake by Tracey’s Cakes, made completely out of chocolate, drew in many gasps of admiration. Renshaw also hosted a varying array of Workshops daily, plus the LIVE PME Team Challenge Extravaganza produced some amazing results. There were also plenty of Jubliee themed cakes and supplies to enjoy!

As you can see from this selection of pictures, there were some truly outstanding creations to be seen at the show. Keep your eyes peeled as we will be uploading a full gallery to our webiste in due course.

Don’t forget, Cake International – The Sugarcraft & Cake Decoration Show is coming to the NEC, Birmingham from the 9-11 November, and you can expect another three days of cake heaven! There will be an abundance of cake decorating supplies to discover and a host of demonstrations, workshops and special features to enjoy, plus prestigious competitions for both beginners and experts alike – just like the recent London Cake event, the show really will be a true cake enthusiast’s dream! What’s more, this longstanding show will also be running alongside three other successful ICHF shows, Hobbycrafts, Crafts for Christmas and Art Materials Live.

We hope you enjoyed Cake International – The Cake Decorating & Baking Show as much as we did. The world is going cake mad, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that!

Until next time,

The ICHF Team x