Our last teaching evening for the end of term was not as hectic as I had imagined it to be and was rather leisurely if I'm honest.
When I arrived Linda was already seated and happily pasting royal icing around her Christmas cakes, I think she had about five of them in total. She also had lots of plastic decorations, candles, ribbons, pins etc. and was telling us about the penguin rubbers she was using as decorations for the cake. "Not bad from the pound shop are they, they look good," she says! Cath and Sue were also there too, and happily got to work designing. Not long after I arrived, Jean arrived then quickly followed by Cheryl, Michelle and Jill. Shirley was unable to make it as she was busy prepping for her new house and Sharon couldn't make it either.
Cath had made some Christmas cake that we could cut up and share, so I picked up a piece and took a bite. After chewing for a moment I asked Cath what spirit she had put in it, as it was, shall we say very festive; she replied Vodka to which I replied oh no, I'm sorry and headed straight for the bin, spat out the cake and scraped my tongue sharpish! The reason being after having a bad night on vodka many years ago, I had vowed never to touch the stuff again. Sorry, Cath!
:doh: :focus:
Back to the lesson...I had brought all my tools and icing for the ladies to use and brought my Christmas models with me to give the ladies some inspiration for their cakes. Super Sue was ready prepped as always and had pre-made her letters, holly and pre-iced her cake, both her and Cath had found a lovely Robin design and decided Robins were the way to go with their cakes. Cath was also eyeing up Sue's stash of Christmas holly so she could add more decoration to her cake.....unfortunately she didn't end up getting any as there weren't any left! :shock:
I felt slightly redundant in a good way as the ladies were happily getting on with their own designs without any assistance from me other than an odd comment and a few tips here and there. Linda was decorating one of her Christmas cakes for 'Auntie Doris' who is 80, so we thought it would be nice to jazz up the cake and put her name and age on too. I finished it off with some gold pattern dusting to add a bit of glitz to it!
Jean was covering her very first Christmas cake, so I assisted her and showed her the techniques to use when covering a cake and then how to cover the cake and board. Then I showed her and Michelle how to whip up a quick snowman and add extra definition and character to it.
Cheryl was busy making Christmas gingerbreads, and Jill managed to bake some Viennese biscuits and decorate a square Christmas cake all in one go! I showed Jean how to make some snowflake decorations using my cutters and showed her how to fix a scratch in the icing after I caught it with my nail! I also watched Michelle do some lovely piping using the icing syringe.
The ladies were definitely in full festive swing, and I'd brought some Christmas songs, so we had a bit of a sing-song too. Linda and I had our usual banter about cake decorations, hygiene and the dos and don'ts of what's tolerated and what's not (we have a very different scale on this)! She's all slapdash, and dollops and I'm all faff and fizz! I banned her from shoving anything in her cake and made her roll big snowballs whilst I made her some snowflakes to hide where the decorations had been inserted. We're always like this, we have a great relationship, and our diverse skills compliment one another.
Ooooh nearly forgot I also confess to shoving my finger through Linda's lovely piping!
We were re-arranging the cakes on the table to get a good photo! Unfortunately, because one the cakes was so heavy, it stuck to the table so when I went to move it, it stayed in position and I stuck my finger straight into the piping. It would happen to be the front of the cake where I did it as well! :sarc: This is where it comes in handy where Linda is so chilled whilst I'm having a mini-meltdown and looking for the piping bags and decorations to try and fix it! 
It was a lovely evening finished off with lots of wonderful creations. I even managed to get a pic of Linda and me together!
This was my last lesson at college as I will be running more of my own programs next year and need to concentrate on those, however; Linda has already snapped me for a few guest slots already just in case anyone misses me! I've had a wonderful time at the college and am grateful for the opportunity of teaching there!
Here are the pics from the lesson:-
Linda's creations!
Check out the penguins!!!!
Jean:
This is a fabulous first attempt for Jean from start to finish on a Christmas Cake.
Michelle:
A straightforward Christmas design, love it!
Cheryl:
Cheryl was baking up a storm in the kitchen with these goodies, sweet treats for her teacher friends!
Jill:
Jill's brilliant first attempt at covering a square cake and her lovely Viennese biscuits
Sue:
This Sue's fabulous fully decorated Christmas Cake, I'm looking forward to the other ones she's making too.
Cath:
Cath finished her design off at home because she didn't have enough decorations! Looks great though especially the beading.
Linda & Angie:
Here's a lovely pic of me and Linda for you!
When I arrived Linda was already seated and happily pasting royal icing around her Christmas cakes, I think she had about five of them in total. She also had lots of plastic decorations, candles, ribbons, pins etc. and was telling us about the penguin rubbers she was using as decorations for the cake. "Not bad from the pound shop are they, they look good," she says! Cath and Sue were also there too, and happily got to work designing. Not long after I arrived, Jean arrived then quickly followed by Cheryl, Michelle and Jill. Shirley was unable to make it as she was busy prepping for her new house and Sharon couldn't make it either.
Cath had made some Christmas cake that we could cut up and share, so I picked up a piece and took a bite. After chewing for a moment I asked Cath what spirit she had put in it, as it was, shall we say very festive; she replied Vodka to which I replied oh no, I'm sorry and headed straight for the bin, spat out the cake and scraped my tongue sharpish! The reason being after having a bad night on vodka many years ago, I had vowed never to touch the stuff again. Sorry, Cath!
:doh: :focus:
Back to the lesson...I had brought all my tools and icing for the ladies to use and brought my Christmas models with me to give the ladies some inspiration for their cakes. Super Sue was ready prepped as always and had pre-made her letters, holly and pre-iced her cake, both her and Cath had found a lovely Robin design and decided Robins were the way to go with their cakes. Cath was also eyeing up Sue's stash of Christmas holly so she could add more decoration to her cake.....unfortunately she didn't end up getting any as there weren't any left! :shock:
I felt slightly redundant in a good way as the ladies were happily getting on with their own designs without any assistance from me other than an odd comment and a few tips here and there. Linda was decorating one of her Christmas cakes for 'Auntie Doris' who is 80, so we thought it would be nice to jazz up the cake and put her name and age on too. I finished it off with some gold pattern dusting to add a bit of glitz to it!
Jean was covering her very first Christmas cake, so I assisted her and showed her the techniques to use when covering a cake and then how to cover the cake and board. Then I showed her and Michelle how to whip up a quick snowman and add extra definition and character to it.
Cheryl was busy making Christmas gingerbreads, and Jill managed to bake some Viennese biscuits and decorate a square Christmas cake all in one go! I showed Jean how to make some snowflake decorations using my cutters and showed her how to fix a scratch in the icing after I caught it with my nail! I also watched Michelle do some lovely piping using the icing syringe.
The ladies were definitely in full festive swing, and I'd brought some Christmas songs, so we had a bit of a sing-song too. Linda and I had our usual banter about cake decorations, hygiene and the dos and don'ts of what's tolerated and what's not (we have a very different scale on this)! She's all slapdash, and dollops and I'm all faff and fizz! I banned her from shoving anything in her cake and made her roll big snowballs whilst I made her some snowflakes to hide where the decorations had been inserted. We're always like this, we have a great relationship, and our diverse skills compliment one another.
Ooooh nearly forgot I also confess to shoving my finger through Linda's lovely piping!
We were re-arranging the cakes on the table to get a good photo! Unfortunately, because one the cakes was so heavy, it stuck to the table so when I went to move it, it stayed in position and I stuck my finger straight into the piping. It would happen to be the front of the cake where I did it as well! :sarc: This is where it comes in handy where Linda is so chilled whilst I'm having a mini-meltdown and looking for the piping bags and decorations to try and fix it! It was a lovely evening finished off with lots of wonderful creations. I even managed to get a pic of Linda and me together!
This was my last lesson at college as I will be running more of my own programs next year and need to concentrate on those, however; Linda has already snapped me for a few guest slots already just in case anyone misses me! I've had a wonderful time at the college and am grateful for the opportunity of teaching there!
Here are the pics from the lesson:-
Linda's creations!
Check out the penguins!!!!
Jean:
This is a fabulous first attempt for Jean from start to finish on a Christmas Cake.
Michelle:
A straightforward Christmas design, love it!
Cheryl:
Cheryl was baking up a storm in the kitchen with these goodies, sweet treats for her teacher friends!
Jill:
Jill's brilliant first attempt at covering a square cake and her lovely Viennese biscuits
Sue:
This Sue's fabulous fully decorated Christmas Cake, I'm looking forward to the other ones she's making too.
Cath:
Cath finished her design off at home because she didn't have enough decorations! Looks great though especially the beading.
Linda & Angie:
Here's a lovely pic of me and Linda for you!
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