If you are interested in learning how to be a great cake baker and decorator, do not watch the cable TV food channels. I say this in jest, but the problem has arisen where cake decorating is increasing a large amount of interest again and people see the pros who have been doing this for 30 plus years on the food network and they make it look so easy that people are starting to get back into making cakes. Then they get discouraged when their cake comes out looking like a 5 year old did it, not that there is anything wrong with that necessarily, but that probably was not what you were going for and you get discouraged because you followed all the recommendations and tips that the chef demonstrated.
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Back before my time, when my mom was In her late 20’s and early 30’s, there was a large amount of women who still stayed home because this would have been in the 1960’s and there were tons of baking clubs and baking groups back then. As time went on and economical changes were needed and more women started joining the workforce, these clubs all but completely died out. Only a few stayed.
What the clubs offered was a great way to socialize, get ideas and neat tricks on how to decorate anything and you were getting a lot of good advice from men and women who were doing this for a very long time. They taught you how to do things the way that the bakeries do them, and save you a little bit of money in the process.
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More recently, there has been an insurgence in the interest of cake baking and decorating and so the clubs have started back up. With the beauty of modern technology and the internet, these cake clubs have been able to gain in membership on-line and it is an easy way for people all the way from Drain, Oregon to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to keep in touch on a regular basis.
Some of the more popular clubs that have held out through the years are the Fremont Frosters and the Contra County Cake and Sugar Society. These guys have been around for over 40 years and I tell you, there is a lot of experience there to be soaked up by the people who are new to cake design.
Cake deco classes are more popular than ever as well. There are tons of craft and hobby stores that hold monthly classes on cake decorating and design and people are eating that up, no pun intended.
If you are interested in joining a club, check on-line by doing a search or create one yourself if you can add some experience to the club. If you are new, then you will not want to start your own club unless you know someone who is willing to co-found it with you and has lots of experience. And check with your local hobby or craft stores, they are usually starving for people to become more involved in seminars and classes their customers are experienced at.
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