my buttercream and cake pops class!

i really love teaching! i find it so, so rewarding and i am always so proud of my students work! i thought i would share a few photos from my buttercream and cake pop class that i taught yesterday to give people a bit more of an idea of the set up. the essential ingredient newcastle have an amazing classroom kitted out with an amazing kitchen (+ kitchen aids!!)- everything i need to be able to teach the first step of baking, which i think is just as important as decorating. 

the day started with me demonstrating my vanilla cupcake recipe and then my students mixed up their own and popped them into the oven. i then demonstrated how to work with fondant and make cute little sugar decorations- then they worked on their own. we then had a super delicious lunch provided by the essential ingredient cafe and got back to work mixing up our buttercream icing. explaining how to pipe a buttercream swirl is actually quite tricky, but with a bit of practice everyone got it right. we then mixed up our cake pop mix, melted chocolate, dipped and decorated... it was all a lot of fun! 


i will be listing a couple more classes soon, keep an eye out on my blog and facebook for dates or email me (contact@hellonaomi.com.au) to register your interest!

my children's class at the school

i had THE most wonderful day on tuesday teaching my first children's decorating class at the school by megan morton. with the rain pouring outside it was a great day to be tucked away inside decorating cupcakes and cookies! my small students did a wonderful job decorating rainbow cupcakes and flower cookies and they showed so much creativity designing their own! 

i will be teaching another children's class on sat the 26th of may, book your little one in here !!

photos courtesy of the school

childrens decorating class!

next tuesday (april 17) i will be in sydney teaching a childrens cake decorating class at the school- book your little one in now! places are limited!

ph 96932782

www.theschool.com.au

the school is open! i will be teaching a kids school holiday class!

 

the school by megan morton is now open! i will be teaching a school holiday class for kids on the 17th of April- how fun!! one of my best memories from kindergarten was when i did a cooking lesson and we covered milk arrowroot biscuits with pink icing and smarties.... that and our excursion to the zoo to see the pandas fifi and xiao xiao ... i also used to love reading mums aww childrens cake book dreaming about the castle cake... anyway in hindsight i can see that i was destined to be a cake decorator... so hopefully this might give your children some confidence in the kitchen and teach them that your job can be something fun when you grow up!

for schedule and booking info see the school
for grown ups classes please see my current newcastle schedule here

megan morton, the school and the propery

megan morton is just amazing, i am so incredibly in awe of everything she does.  last week i was lucky enough to catch up with her and check out her AMAZINGLY beautiful new space for the school, the studio and the propery... it is just heaven! 

the school will be releasing the first schedule of classes this week and it sounds so, so wonderful with styling, craft and children's classes with some amazing teachers... i really can't wait to see the class list!

oh and i have included some pics from the propery, again this place is just heaven- every cute little detail you could possibly want- colour coded!!

AND when i was there i got to meet holly hipwell, whos blog- the flower drum- i totally adore! lucky me! she was setting up for the school's launch class where she taught how to make super cute flower bombs... i wish i could have gone!

anyway, so the key word of this post- amazing... or heavenly... they are the only words i can find to describe it all. thank you megan for creating such an amazing, dream-like place. 

newcastle!

 

newcastle baths

 

nobby's beach

 

estabar

 

sprocket

 

colliseum antique centre

 

 

betty mim

wow my classes are fast approaching! it is really great that so many people are making the trip to newcastle to attend- thanks so much!! i thought i would do a little blog post about how wonderful newcastle is so that you guys know what to do while you are here... and maybe to encourage a couple of more people to come aswell...?!  

newcastle is such a fantastic place to live, it is just so so beautiful and such a relaxing city. over the past few years there has been a really amazing change in newcastle, there has always been fantastic beaches and a relaxed cafe culture but with the renew newcastle project there has also been a real creative buzz growing.

to be honest, i dont want too many more people to know how fantastic newcastle is but it was kind of given away when it was listed by lonely planet as one of the top 10 cities in the world to visit in 2011... damn! but anyway, here is a little summary of my favourite things to do...!

relaxing

the best thing about newcastle is definitley the amazing beaches- a swim, jog or walk around the beach is just the best. and i always love a picnic! king edward park is my favourite place for a picnic or to just lay under a tree for the afternoon

coffee, coffee... more coffee...

there are so many really cute coffee shops with fantastic coffee, my absolute favourite is estabar- they have the most amazing coffee and simple, really delicious food. some of my other favourites are scotties, sproket, good brother, suspension

eat, eat...  eat

breakfast at estabar, sunday morning farmers market, fish and chips from scotties,  dinner on darby st, japanese at honeysuckle, fine dining at bacchus ...

cute little boutique shops and antique shops

darby st, betty mim, high tea with mrs woo, emma soup, the centenary centre, colliseum antiques...

day trips

the hunter valley vineyards and port stephens are both about an hours drive and a really lovely day out.

there is also heaps more to do, i found a really fantastic website- precinkt, with a great summary of things to do in newcastle here!

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS!

below are my class descriptions to be held at the essential ingredient, newcastle. i will be announcing more dates shortly, please email me to register your interest in a class and to be added to a mailing list- contact@hellonaomi.com.au
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Cupcake Basics- buttercream and fondant

Baking
-bake your own cupcakes using my favourite vanilla bean cupcake recipe
- make buttercream icing

Decorating
-buttercream swirls
-working with food colours to dye fondant
-become confident working with fondant
-covering cupcakes with a smooth fondant finish
-making various sugar decorations
-perfect piping
- assembling

You will go home with 12 gorgeous (and delicious) cupcakes and skills to last a lifetime. The skills you learn in this class can be applied to decorating cupcakes, cookies and cakes. This class is suitable for all skill levels.

Cookie Basics- Easter Cookies

In this class you will learn how to bake and decorate my popular easter design. These make the sweetest handmade gift and the skills that you learn in this class can be applied to any shaped cookie for any occasion.

Baking
- my favourite sugar cookie recipe
- rolling and cutting out perfectly neat shapes

Decorating
-working with food colours to achieve the perfect shade for each part of your design
-become confident working with fondant
-perfect piping

Presentation
-packaging

You will go home with 12 super sweet cookies and skills to last a lifetime. The skills you learn in this class can be applied to decorating cupcakes, cookies and cakes. This class is suitable for all skill levels.

Baking Basics- buttercream cupcakes and cake pops!

 

Baking

-bake your own cupcakes using my favourite vanilla bean cupcake recipe

- make buttercream icing

Decorating

-buttercream swirls

-making little sugar decorations

- technique for making cake pops and decorating

You will go home with 6 cupcakes 8 cake pops and skills to last a lifetime. The skills you learn in this class can be used to bake delicious and beautiful sweets for friends and family. This class is suitable for all skill levels and perfect for beginner bakers.

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The following classes are not scheduled yet but may run later in the year, please email me to register your interest- contact@hellonaomi.com.au

extended tier wedding cake

the extended 8’’+ 6’’ 2 tier cake is my most popular wedding design style. Decorated with a sweet piped design on the side and a delicate feature flower it makes the dream cake for modern brides.

It is also perfect for learning the basic skills for wedding cake designs- preparing a cake with ganache, structuring a tiered cake, covering with fondant, professional finish and edges, perfect piping on the side of a cake and creating delicate sugar flowers. The skills that you learn in this class will take you to a professional level and increase the value that you can charge for your wedding cakes.

With the right technique ganaching creates a perfectly smooth and even base and allows for a perfectly smooth fondant cover, sharp professional edges and strong and even structuring. It can be a time consuming process but essential for the neatness of your cake. In this class you will learn the methods to achieve perfect results.

Preparing the Cake

-measuring and torting the cakes

-the secrets to a perfectly smooth and level ganached base

-structuring and assembling a 2 tier cake

Decorating

-scheduling

-colouring fondant with food colours to achieve the perfect shade for your design

-covering an extended tier cake with fondant

-achieving professional edges and finish

-preparing flower paste

-making delicate wired flowers

-making a template for your piped design

-perfect piping techniques for the side of a cake.

Presentation

-covering a cake board

You will go home with a professionally decorated wedding cake valued at over $600. The skills that you learn in this class can be applied to all of your future cake endeavours including smaller and larger cakes. basic knowledge of working with fondant is required for this class. The new techniques that you will learn in this class will help you gain confidence in achieving consistent, professional, perfect results.

** you will need to bring 3x 8’’ + 2x 6’’ mud cakes** recipe will be provided

Cupcakes 2- garden cupcakes

 

Cookie Basics- tea party cookies

 

Beginners Cake Decorating- cake with cherry on top!

 

Advanced Decorating- bouquet of sugar flowers

my classes at fair cake london- part 2!

london was just so fantastic, it still feels a bit unreal that i was asked to teach .. sometimes i still feel like a bit of an amateur ... but everyones results were so fantastic and i was so proud of what they achieved and so proud that i taught them! many of my students hadnt worked with fondant before, never piped before, never piped on the side of a cake, never ganached and/ or never covered a large  cake before... i didnt realise how exhausting it would be- it took alot of energy running around the class room trying to catch people before they made mistakes, but in the end it was just so rewarding!

the pics above are from my daily walk to work through the cute suburb of greenwich to fair cake's vanilla workshop *sigh* i was lucky enough to arrive at london during a 'heat wave' which meant a week of totally glorious weather- i didnt understand what everyone always complains about! oh and i had the best lunch made up from products i picked up at the cute delicious bread, cheese and fruit + veg shop... swiss cheese, avocado, tomato and fig sandwiches- yum!!

and below are some more photos from my classes... these pics are from my second cookie class and my 2  day wedding cake class- i only had time to snap a few pics in between my running around, but i think they still capture everyones concentration, what a fantastic workspace vanilla workshop is and how fantastic their results were ... !

 

 

 

while i was in london i also had the chance to catch up with some of my internet cake friends! i was lucky enough to meet up again with my lovely flickr friend chris (abbietabbie), i had the pleasure of meeting her when she visited sydney a few years ago and it was so nice to see her again! she has always been so encouraging, she is just so lovely and really is one of my most favourite people!

i also had a chance to meet up with natasha from nevie pie cakes at the fancy department store selfridges where she was delivering her sweets to. we have been friends on flickr for ages, i have always admired her beautiful hand painted sweets and it was so nice to finally meet her.. oh and she gave me  a gift!

it was also so lovely that some of my friends were able to attend my classes!! i was so happy that my long time flickr friend louise (swissy missy) was able to come to my wedding cake class! it was only her second time covering a large cake in fondant and piping on the side- her results were amazing!! louise wrote a great blog post about the class here!

 

and my super lovely, sweet french friend eloise also came to my wedding cake class! i met eloise earlier in the year when i traveled to paris (a little blog post here) she has the cutest blog la dinette and is just one of the cutest, sweetest people i have met! she wrote a really lovely blog post about my class here!

i had such a fantastic time teaching at fair cake, i feel so lucky and honored that i was asked to visit! i feel so lucky to have met all of my wonderful students and make so many new friends! i am also so lucky to have worked with such a wonderful team at faircake- shikhita, jess and jess are just the best, i really miss them already and can't wait to head back there...  soon... !!