Capital Confectioners

If your Christmas cookie looked at you funny…

kimberlychapman — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:49:29 +0000

FYI, I just made a blog post about eye placement on snowmen cookies, and they happen to be the cookies I brought to the Capital Confectioners holiday party, so you all ate these crazy things.

The Subtleties of Eye Placement

Call for Egg Shells!

chris — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:36:04 +0000

The following is a request from club member Angela:

EGG SHELLS NEEDED for Confetti Eggs at School Carnival in March. If you are willing to help I would GREATLY appreciate it. Please crack eggs leaving approximately 2/3 of the eggshell intact, wash, and returned to its original container. Please e-mail a note if you will be able to donate!!! I will then make arrangements to pick up the eggs from you!

Angela@SugarSweetCreations.com

With the annual cake show just around the corner, it’s time to get crackin’!

Epic Cake Structure

kimberlychapman — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:35:07 +0000

Oakleaf Cakes made a life-sized Storm Trooper cake for a sci-fi convention. Even better, they photographed many steps along the way so if you’ve ever wondered what kind of structures are inside one of these amazing cakes, go check out their blog entry and photo slideshow here.

I considered sharing an image but a) I’m lazy b) I’m busy and most importantly c) I really want you to go look at their page!

Photofrost Contest

kimberlychapman — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:42:51 +0000

We got a note from Photofrost to let us know about their cake decorating contest, so if any of you are interested, the details are here:

http://photofrost.com/contest/

And of course don’t forget to register to enter a cake in our cake show! You can also enroll for classes online or buy general admission tickets now, all at http://thattakesthecake.org. Our deadline for competition registration is February 19 with no unregistered entries accepted at the door this year, so sign up soon!

Club Meeting: January 2012

chris — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:17:05 +0000

Several new faces this meeting! Welcome, all!

Pearland had their Day of Sharing last weekend. The demonstrators’ handouts are now available online on their website: http://www.pearlandcakesociety.com On February 5th, the Texas ICES will have their Day of Sharing in Montgomery, TX. Please visit their website for more information: http://texasices.org/feb5thdos.html

The club is a buzz with excitement for our upcoming 8th annual That Takes The Cake Sugar Art Show and Cake Competition. We announced some volunteer opportunities and perks. Please use our online volunteer registration form if you’re interested: http://thattakesthecake.org/index.php/contact-us/volunteer-contact-form/ We’d like volunteers to work a minimum of a 5 hour shift. It’s a whole lot of fun, so don’t miss out!

Irene is hoping to get her hands on some of these darling cake pendants to sell at the show:

Our next monthly club meeting will be a little different. We bumped the date up to February 7th (to free up Valentines Day). It will also be at Make It Sweet‘s brand new location:

Crossroads Shopping Center
9070 Research Boulevard
Austin, TX

That will be our last club meeting before the big show! We’ll be doing some projects for the show at this meeting and also at several smaller meetings during the month. Lots to do and not much more time to do it in! Check back on our blog, Facebook, and MeetUp pages for updates on when we’re meeting and where.

This meeting’s demonstration was given by our new member: Kathleen Boyce. She shared with us some techniques for creating a purse cake.

Kathleen also brought in the dragon cake she learned to make in Sylvia Wilson’s class:

Big thanks to Kathleen for sharing with us and to Charlotte for the yummy desserts!

Come Volunteer for the Cake Show!

kimberlychapman — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:33:16 +0000

A week from today, Capital Confectioners will be hosting our monthly meeting. This time we’ll be focusing on organizing volunteers for our colossal cake show at the end of February.

So if you’re in the Austin area and want to help at the show – which can earn you some spiffy perks if you put in enough hours – come to this meeting and let us know who you are and what you want to do.

We will also have volunteer sign-up forms on the website soon, but what’s really important about next Tuesday’s meeting is getting more people involved in leadership roles. We want to meet you, discuss your strengths and expertise, and help you find the best and most fun ways you can help us. (Update: The web link for the volunteer form is here, so please fill in your available times asap even if you’re going to discuss specifics at the meeting).

What sort of things need to be done? Lots, including but certainly not limited to: set up and break down, competitor registration and management, hospitality, vendor care, supply management, event/class management and assistance, kids table help, general public management (including guarding cakes against poking fingers), and more. It takes a small army of volunteers to run one of the nation’s largest sugar arts shows!

If you’ve volunteered before, you still should come if you can, because we’re making changes to how perks are earned and other details.

Remember: the coolest volunteer jobs go to the most dedicated, long-term volunteers! For instance, getting to be the assistant at a celebrity class is something we reserve for someone who has also put in tons of hours doing other stuff. So come on out and join our team to not only put on the best cake show ever, but get your own fun slice too!

The meeting is 7 pm, Tuesday January 10, in the conference room at the back of the IHOP by Zilker Park (1101 S Mo Pac Expy, Austin, TX). Further details and RSVP are here. If you’re not already a member of the club, you may need to create an account here first.

We don’t require dues for the first meeting or two. You can definitely check us out for free first! So if you’re keen to volunteer for the show but not necessarily commit to being a club member all year, that’s fine. Come to the Tuesday meeting anyway. We’re happy to have you for what time you can share!

Beautiful Presentation of Strawberries with Shortcake

kimberlychapman — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:33:17 +0000

I haven’t had time to post Quick Bites lately (and in part because I’m not sure many were reading them…more comments would inspire more posts!), but I stumbled across this gem on Google+ and had to share:

Strawberry Mascarpone Cream Cake (or Ice Cream Cake)

Photo from SheSimmers.com.

Leela of SheSimmers.com has a brilliant yet simple methodology of assembling this lovely cake and she shows you how in photos on the linked page. Brava Leela!

Cake Wrecks Book Tour

chris — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:55:15 +0000

Cake Wrecks Book Tour

November 15, 2011
Austin, TX

Cake Wrecks, the famous blog of professional cakes gone bad, finished up its second book tour across the USA. They were promoting their latest book, Wreck the Halls, just in time for the “Hole Days”. Capital Confectioners was there to make sure we represent.

We had a gut-busting good time! Jen and John Yates, authors of Cake Wrecks, had several slide shows of unimaginable cakes and fun stories to share with us. Each book tour stop involved a cupcake wreck-plica contest and a local bakery that volunteered to feed the masses. There were so many fantastic cupcakes! Here are a few:

Blue Note Bakery from south Austin shared her “cake bars”, showing some true Austin colors.

The entire night, this handsome guy kept staring back at us:

This is Hugh Jackman’s head by Kimberly Chapman over at http://www.eat-the-evidence.com/. Pop over there for a better back story!

This really was a fun night, lots of laughs and sugar! We’re hoping Jen and John will be back in town in February for our annual “That Takes The Cake” Sugar Art Show & Cake Competition. Here’s the entire photo gallery:

That Takes The Cake 2012: Registration is now open!

chris — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:50:32 +0000

Early Contestant Registration for That Takes The Cake 2012 is now open online!

http://thattakesthecake.org/index.php/competition/registration/

Registration before February 19, 2012 is now required (except for Child & Junior division entries) to help us plan space needs. One registration fee includes all general competition entries for each participant. Competition registration includes General Admission to the show for the weekend for the competitor. Competition registration for entrants under 18 includes General Admission for the competitor and one accompanying adult. There will be no refunds of entry or registration fees. Entry fees for Child and Junior are waived, but registration prior to the show is encouraged.

Divisional Competition

Early Registration (ends January 15, 2012): $20
General Registration (ends February 19, 2012): $25
Child (12 & under) Registration (ends February 19, 2012) or at the door (February 25, 2012): FREE

Showcake Competition

For each 48″w x 29″h round table (ends February 19, 2012): $25

Tasting Competition

Any number of entries * (ends February 19, 2012): $15

*Entry fee is waived when combined with a Divisional or Showcake Competition entry.

Classes: Halloween Pumpkin Cake

chris — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:01:03 +0000

Halloween Pumpkin Cake with Chris Cantrell and Irene Hackbarth

Last Sunday’s students got a little spooky with the latest club class by Chris Cantrell and Irene Hackbarth! Halloween pumpkins were shaped by using bundt cakes, ice cream cones, and some handy buttercream techniques.

Scary spiders, worms, and rats made this holiday treat complete!

A big thank you to the instructors, volunteers, and students that made this another fun class!

Be sure to check out next month’s class: “Turkey Trot”