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Capital Confectioners,
I have loved being a Capital Confectioner (almost) from the very beginning! I’ve been decorating, teaching Wilton, and a club member for 8 years now, and I owe so much to the club and the WONDERFUL and incredibly (unbelievably, really) talented and generous people I’ve met through the club.
Alas, it’s time for me to leave Austin where I’ve called home for 20 years. If you haven’t heard, we’re expecting our third boy(!) in August, and we’ll be moving to Andrews, TX (near Midland) this summer. That means…
I have to part with much of my cooking, baking, decorating, serving, displaying, etc. tools before we move. We will have a series of yard sales, eventually selling almost everything, but this wkd., I’ll be clearing out most of my extra cake stuff at good prices. Many Wilton and other brand products, cake dummies, some stands, NICE kitchen stuff (crystal), some appliances. The Yard Sale is Sat., 4/21 8:00am-Noon, but you are invited to a special Open House “Pre-Sale” this Fri., 4/20 11:30am-1:30pm & 6:00-8:00pm South Austin (off William Cannon near Manchaca).
It will be like a fun party where you can shop, too… I want my stuff to go to good homes! I’ll have tea, coffee & dessert ready. Kids are welcome. Hope to see many of you there so we can catch up… rsvp for the address & so I have enough sweets. Thank you, and I’ll miss you very much!
Theresa Pipes
text or call (512) 293-7476
theresapipes@hotmail.com
RSVP here: http://www.meetup.com/cakedecorating-132/events/54137192/
Capital Confectioners Club Monthly Meetup
Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 7:00 PM
Make it Sweet
9070 Research Blvd, Austin, TX
The meeting starts off with introductions and club business and ends with a dessert and a demonstration.
This month’s demonstration will be by Ellen and Chris Cantrell: techniques for wedding cupcakes.
Dessert will be brought by Suzanne Sabin.
PLEASE NOTE THE NEW LOCATION! Henceforth we’ll be meeting at the new location of Make it Sweet (formerly All in One BakeShop) at the Crossroads Shopping Center, 9070 Research Boulevard, Austin, TX 78758-7004. This is just down the street from their previous location. They are located between Pluckers and Tabu (if you look on a Google Street Maps view, it’s where the furniture store used to be).
New folks always welcome! We’re okay with people checking us out a few times before signing up for membership, so come on by and see what we’re up to.
Looking for more photos from our recent show? We collect visitor photos in our Flickr pool each year. This year’s link is here:
Pools from previous years:
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!
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!
Cake Wrecks Book Tour
November 15, 2011
Austin, TX
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:
Austin, TX
November 15, 2011
Round Rock High School Library
301 Deepwood Dr.
Round Rock, TX 78681
Jen and John Yates from Cake Wrecks have launched their 3rd USA tour to promote their latest book Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks get “Festive”. They will be in our area on Tuesday, November 15th (7:00 PM) at the Round Rock High School’s Library. Expect to see many club members’ shining faces!!! RSVP at the eVite here!
NEWS: If you have a professional licensed kitchen, the Cake Wrecks tour is still looking for someone interested in donating the official cake for the Austin event. Please contact them via their Cake Wrecks site.
Here are just some of the things I’ve prepped in advance for the gummy class I’m teaching on July 24:
Fondant-covered mini cakes, fondant flame bases, and blue gummy sheets.
There are a couple of spots left. Remember, all proceeds benefit Capital Confectioners. I’m not being paid anything despite the hours of work going into it. This is the way all Capital Confectioners classes are run: volunteers put in tons of hours all for the club, which in turn benefits the community. So sign up for this class or another one on the list in the sidebar to learn some great techniques and support a group that works to make Austin a tastier and more fun place to live!
Today on Quick Bites, peach recipes!
- First, check out how the home-made gummy goodness is spreading: Nature of Grace has a recipe for Homemade Chipotle Peach Gummi Bears (via CraftGossip). She says she found her bear mold in the clearance section at a craft store. I have the same mold (some of you at our Day of Sharing ate bears from it) and I found it in the kids’ section of Hobby Lobby in June. You can also Google around for molds of all kinds! And of course if you want to learn advanced gummy techniques, there may still be spots left in our Gummy Class on July 24. If you’ve made something creative with gummy, be sure to tell us and we might feature you on a future post!
- Here are three options for grilled peaches: Evil Shenanigans turns them into Grilled Peach and Vanilla Cake Trifle with Golden Syrup Whipped Cream, and Dessert for Two (a great blog that scales down desserts into smaller versions) serves Grilled Peaches With Cinnamon Ice Cream. Good Life Eats shares a recipe for Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Whip and Fresh Raspberry Sauce plus links to more peach recipes on that page.
- Kraft suggests this recipe for Peach Shortcakes.
- Bless Her Heart whipped up a delicious-looking Peach Bundt Cake with Peach Glaze and shared the recipe.
- Brown Eyed Baker found a pile of peaches a couple of years back and posted a recipe for Peach Crumb Bars.
Got another peach recipe? Post it in the comments! Meanwhile, pardon me while I go out back and water my old show cake.
During my demo at Day of Sharing, someone asked if, instead of turning gummy repeatedly in a silicon cup until it solidifies, could one cast a mold of a cupcake cup made of gummy by using one silicone cup pushed down into another with gummy in between.
This was an excellent question! I tested it yesterday. The answer is not really. The turning method, while tedious, produces a more structurally sound result with better user control.
To see lots of photos and much more data, visit my blog’s experiment post.
I think having a “You Asked, We Answer!” feature would be fun on this blog. Capital Confectioners has several members who love to experiment. Send those cake decorating questions that haunt you and can’t be answered by a simple Google search, or post them in comments, and we’ll do our best to hunt down answers or run some experiments for you!
And if you haven’t signed up yet, you can learn lots more about home-made gummy treats and advanced applications at our class on July 24.
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