I can’t believe it was a week ago already, but last week we travelled up to Birmingham to visit Cake International. I was so excited; last year I didn’t get to go as I was quite pregnant by that point and it’s a 3 and a half hour drive from where I live.
If you don’t know, Cake International is the biggest cake show in the UK and for someone who loves cake it is the most amazing show to attend. This year it ran from the 3rd – 5th November at the NEC in Birmingham and whilst we were there I was going to be running my own workshop at Cake International on the Sunday.
Visiting Cake International
As I was doing a full days workshop on the Sunday I didn’t want to miss out on the show, so myself, Alex, Hendrix and my Mum travelled up on the Friday. We stayed in a sweet little converted barn and my Mum and I were ready to get to the show early on the Saturday for a full day of looking around. The show is split into different areas; the shopping area which sells everything you need to make amazing cakes, the most incredible exhibition pieces, the stage, competition entries and the workshop spaces.
We had the most amazing time walking around on the Saturday. It was so great catching up with some of my cake friends who were exhibiting at the show, meeting people I had only admired their work on Instagram and best of all it was amazing meeting some of my subscribers. I can’t tell you how much it meant to me that I got to meet so many people.
Thank you so much to everyone who came over and said ‘Hi’. Working from home, filming my tutorials, it can sometimes be hard to imagine people watching them, so meeting everyone at the show was incredible and one of the best experiences.
Here are just a few of the things from Cake International and some of the amazing people I got to catch up with. Some of my favourite things from the show were the cutest life size dragon, created by the amazing Zoe from Zoes Fancy Cakes. You probably already follow her, but Zoe is a fellow YouTuber and it was great to catch-up with her at the show (check out her YouTube channel if you haven’t already).
I also got to catch-up with Amy, Niamh and the team from Sweet Stamp. You know I love everything they do, and they had the most incredible looking stand, filled to the brim with all their products.
Allie from Pinkaliciouscakes; you have to check out her cakes, she is not only an amazing cake artist, but the loveliest person too.
I also got to see my lovely friend Christina from Tasteful Cakes who always has the most amazing figures and characters on display from her Masterclass.
As well as meeting everyone at the show you have to see the incredible flower shop display by Immaculate Confections. It was amazing; all the flowers were sugar flowers. It was so inspiring and made me want to rush home and start making sugar flowers too. There was also the life size King Charles by Emma Jayne. The detail was incredible. It was like the King was there in person. There was so much to see at the show and I could post so many photos, but the last few photos were of me and my Mum in the Sugar Screams does Stranger Things walk through, which was created by a collaboration of amazing cake artists from around the world.
The Competition Entries
I think one of the highlights of the show, for me, has to be walking around the competition entries. There were hundreds of entries and to get a chance to walk around so many incredible cakes was so exciting. There was so much to look at, and take in, and everyone who entered did an amazing job. Here are just a few of my favourites…
These decorated biscuits were incredible. Look at the detail! They looked just like embroidery. I couldn’t stop looking at them. (If you know the Instagram account for Monika please let me know so I can add it as I couldn’t find it).
There was such an array of different styles, here are a few more of my favourites.
I think I honestly stood in front of this piece by Elaine from @gingercatcakery_ for so long. The amount of detail was incredible. It went all the way around, with these little mice going about their jobs. It was so much fun to look and I can’t imagine how long it took to make.
Running my own Cake Workshop
You may have seem on my Instagram and Facebook over the last few months I’ve been mentioning I would be doing a workshop at Cake International. It was such an honour to be asked to be a part of the show and something I never would have imagined happening.
Now I won’t lie, I was a little nervous leading up to the class, but it was the most fun day. I arrived at 8am and it was the most surreal experience walking through the show, completely empty with no one around, heading to set up. I have to thank my amazing students, who were incredible and made the day so enjoyable, and also the amazing Claire. Claire works for Cake International and was there to help me setup and help me all day. Also a huge thank you to Melanie Underwood who runs Cake International for asking me to be a part of it.
We had such a great weekend. Alex and Hendrix visited the local sights (when it wasn’t raining) and my Mum and I had a lovely time attending the show. Again a massive thank you to everyone who came and said hello, it was so great to meet you all. If you attended the show I hope you had a great time. I can’t wait to attend next year!
