Cake International - Birmingham 2012!

Cake International - a baker's dream! I've always wanted to go but have always been busy as it usually falls right on my birthday but this time I was able to spend a whole day there. Tickets for the saturday were completely sold out so it was PACKED! The queue to get into the NEC was a bit brutal in the car but without a doubt - worth it.

Once inside the place was buzzing - and heaving! Everywhere you looked you saw nothing but cakes, glitters, cutters, rolling pins - bliss! Some women go shopping for shoes, I go shopping for glitters and rolling pins. If you went and say you didn't see anything that took your fancy then I'm sorry but you are a liar :D. I had to physically restrain myself from spending nearly £90 on some topsy turvy cake tins.

But more on the shopping in a minute, the cakes showcased themselves were incredible, they were everywhere and there was even a special competition area where you cool 'ooo' and 'aaaah' all over various cakes and cupcakes of different technical abilities. I have to say I could never enter anything myself it would be far too daunting I've never seen anything like some of these beauties.

 

Don't be fooled thinking cakes are all bunting, flowers and butterflies oh no... check out the Dark Knight, Ghostbusters and The Avengers cakes.

There were also a few odd ones I have to say...the phrase "happy as a pig in ...." comes to mind...really don't think I could have a slice of this one. And while the clown is brilliantly done...it freaks me out! As does the pregnant belly one if I'm completely honest.

See what I mean?

There were so many amazing ones I especially loved the VW campervan and KFC cake.

Now for the shopping...well I got a little carried away. And I'm afraid I can't even tell you the exact places I bought them from as it was like a feeding frenzy on a chicken farm - but I can tell you that I shopped until I dropped, getting everything from chocolate transfers to metal ball tools.

So here's a list of my goodies anway
Ribbons - you can never have too many
Piping nozzles, one to make grass and two teeny tiny ones for piping
Cake pop sticks - worse ones I've bought as they were fairly hollow
Cake pop bags and ties - pretty standard as anyway
Two tiny painting brushes - for when using gel colour as paint
Dusting brush - for glitters
Glitters! - in red, gold, pink and bright pink
Gold and silver metallic edible paint - perfect for Christmas
Ball tool - First saw these on Cake Boss, great for smoothing edges of fondant and using with gumpaste.
Chocolate transfers - in star, rose, swirl and snowflake patterns
2 pack of cookies boxes (with 4 boxes in each) - comes with bags, boxes, ribbons and tags perfect for Christmas presents.
Silent Night Christmas stencil - this will be lovely on a chocolate cake with icing sugar or cream with cocoa powder
Wilton green piping icing - always handy to have some ready made

So that's the list, here are the pictures...I could easily have bought much more but I've got so much other stuff I have enough for a new Baking Buys post already!

The next Cake International is in April and I will be running a competition for tickets to those also where I believe Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood (beaut) will be attending - eek! So stay tuned for that post!

There were of course lots of demonstrations and book signings but I have to admit I spent all my time shopping and gawking and looking at the demos going on around various stalls. It's great to have all of your favourite suppliers in one place...now to Sew White there next year also and you'll never need to go anywhere else.

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