A Cake Decorating Masterclass with Cake Boss Buddy Valastro

Buddy Valastro, AKA Cake Boss, is an awesomely talented New Jersey Baker who has become a household name in the US, and across the world. Having watched his show a lot, I have also attempted to make his amazing Red Velvet Cake recipe in the past, and have blogged about it. This blog post led to me receiving an invite to meet the man himself! I couldn’t believe it! After much excitement I agreed and made all the arrangements to head to London for the evening.

Last Monday was The Night! I headed to L’atelier Des Chefs in London for a Masterclass in Cake Decorating and to meet the amazing Buddy. I was excited, nervous, awestruck… but you know what, I had so much fun, and he was LOVELY!

The man himself arrived!

The man himself arrived!

He was such a lovely, genuine guy and seemed genuinely happy to meet us all! There was a real mixture of people there from die-hard fans, to journalists, digital media marketing peeps and a few of us bloggers (including the lovely Lucy from Capture by Lucy, and it was great to meet her!). There may have been more variety than that even, there was quite a few people there and I didn’t get to speak to everyone!

After meeting Buddy and his UK ambassador Juliet Sear we headed in to the kitchen where Buddy gave a demonstration of some of his techniques, giving us decorating tips and showcasing his range of products which you can buy (more on that later). He was also answering a lot of questions, on a whole variety of subjects including the balance of personal/private life with filming a reality TV show – to why he does what he does. He was very lovely and genuine and took it all with real aplomb. He said that for him it is all about family – he wants people to bake as a family and show people that anyone can do it. And you know what, I believed him.

WP_20140407_18_50_52_Pro WP_20140407_18_54_45_Pro WP_20140407_19_06_23_Pro WP_20140407_19_10_33_Pro

Then it was our turn to have a go at decorating cakes. The hard bit of baking, trimming and shaping the cakes had been done in advance so all we had to do was decorate, but it was for a competition judged by Buddy! Yipes! Right off I made a mess of my fondant so he helped me sort it out and we had a lovely piccy together and a brief chat, though I was a bit awestruck to ask any serious questions not related to cake decorating – sorry everyone!

WP_20140407_19_34_15_Pro

WP_20140407_19_31_47_Pro

The lovely Lucy from Capture by Lucy

I got the fondant on the cake with the help of his handy smoother tool… (ok so it’s not THAT smooth, but better than I’ve ever managed before!)

WP_20140407_19_39_22_Pro

But then didn’t really know what to do, and instead of forming a plan, I decided to just have some fun and try out some different techniques, some of which I managed better than others!! My drop lines were not particularly effective as they kept falling off the cake. Think I need some more practice there!!

WP_20140407_19_56_40_Pro

I was having lots of fun then I looked round and realised some people were actually taking it pretty seriously…. and their cakes looked fab! Oops! So I panicked and stuck a layer of fondant over my messy creation in a last ditch attempt to make it a bit more appealing? (Not sure it worked??!)

WP_20140407_20_11_23_Pro

Then it was judging time and there was so many fab cakes to choose from (not including mine – though shhh I don’t think mine was the absolute worst – but it was down there with them!) and he chose a lovely cake with a bow decorated by Kirsten at The Little Wedding Helper.

WP_20140407_20_08_13_Pro

The evening was over and I got my pinny signed by the man himself, and a couple more snaps to remember the evening!

WP_20140407_20_07_40_Pro WP_20140407_20_19_59_Pro

As we were leaving we got an awesome goody bag with a Cake Boss DVD, Baking Tips book, a Cake decorating kit, a book by his UK ambassador Juliet Sear and some fondant icing! Great stuff!

WP_20140410_17_03_26_Pro

Some of his products were fab, I am very excited to try out the kit we got as a freebie and have popped a couple of others onto my birthday wishlist! 🙂

If you would like to buy any of the Cake Boss range I am sure there are a lot of places you can buy them but I have found them on Very.co.uk

If you would like to see Buddy in action you can catch him on TLC as follows:

The current series of Bakery Boss is on Fridays at 9pm right now

Cake Boss is on Fridays at 9pm from June

Next Great Baker is on Fridays at 9pm from September

Tasty Tuesdays on HonestMum.com

Mother.Wife.Me

73 thoughts on “A Cake Decorating Masterclass with Cake Boss Buddy Valastro

  1. Pingback: A very diverse week | Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

  2. That’s so neat that you got to meet Buddy! Looks like everyone had fun. Don’t you just love the way he says “fondant”? It’s like, “FONNNDONNNT”. Hehe.

    • Oh I am so with you, I haven’t the patience to decorate properly, and am far too slapdash! It’s good fun though 🙂 xx

  3. My post this week is all about cakes I’ve been decorating! Not quite up to his standards (I keep lusting after all his fab baking and decorating bits and bobs in the shops…). I bought a load of fondant, but I keep taking the easy route and using frosting! What a fab experience, it must have been so much fun, and how lovely to meet Lucy 🙂 #WhatstheStory

    • It really was fab, and so lovely to meet Lucy as well as the man himself! Your cakes are amazing and I find frosting more complicated than fondant, so I am always dead impressed with yours!! xx

  4. Oh wow what a wonderful experience Caroline. It sounds like it was a brilliant event and oh my word the cakes look amazing. You did a sterling job there. Must have been amazing to meet the man himself too. Thanks for sharing #whatsthestory

  5. You lucky lady! It looks like you had a wonderful evening. I love the fact you were just messing around with your cake decorating to discover others were taking it seriously, haha! Mel #MagicMoments

  6. You must have been exhausted Caroline, but what an exciting opportunity! I have to admit I’ve never even heard of Buddy before as we don’t have Sky or cable TV. I love Bake Off though and I’m going to attemt a cake myself tomorrow – will keep you posted on how that goes!! #what’sthestory

    • Oh Sam I really was knackered afterwards but it really was a fab opportunity! Ooh hope the baking went well! xx

  7. I am sooooo jealous. I love Cake Boss – I’ve just shown my mum this post as it’s one of her favourite programmes and she’s super jealous too!!! Glad you had such a great time and awesome job on the icing too xx #magicmoments #whatsthestory

  8. I could do with attending something like this. The thought of Future-Gwenn asking mama to make her a cake for her birthday party gives me sweaty palms!!

    #AllAboutYou

  9. What a totally awesome experience, your cake is WAY better than anything I would have been able to manage. So many people i know LIVE for cake decorating but I’ve never gotten that into it (maybe because my kitchen is so small!), but I would have also jumped at this chance … good for you and thanks for sharing through the #AllAboutYou linkup.

    Angie from reasons to dress, life as a North American mom in Italy.

    • Thank you, and I know what you mean, I like it, but will never be amazing at it or anything!! Was a great experience though! xx

  10. How fab to have met one of your idols, and especially to have had such a great experience on the night! I tend to go for the scattergun approach to decorating – throw it all on and see what sticks!! Thanks for linking to #AllAboutYou lovely x

    • It was seriously cool! Cake decorating is great fun, though think I am too slapdash to ever be much good at it! xx

  11. Goodness me those cakes looked fab and how exciting to meet someone you admire and they turn out to be just as you imagined. I’ve no patience for cake decorating, but love seeing others attempts. Well done, at least you had a good go at it and didn’t just crumble (excuse the pun) as I would have done 🙂

    • It was lovely to meet someone off the telly who was actually a nice person! I don’t think I have the patience either, but it was a lot of fun! xx

    • Lol, I am so much better at eating it than baking it haha I do have fun trying to bake though so you should practice more, even if it fails it’ll still taste nice 🙂 hehe xx

  12. Yay!!!!! That looked incredible and from what you said before hand, I didn’t expect a decorating competition. I thought bother of your efforts were very good (and I could totally see the ones that were worse btw). What a lovely experience 🙂 xxx

  13. You got lucky Caroline! Pictures are fab and I can see you had a wonderful time there. I do catch up in his shows but not all the time. He is great! I am sure to give cake decorating a try. #creativechallenge

  14. Pingback: My Birthday Cake | Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Thanks for taking the time to write something. I love comments and read every one xx

Your email address will not be published.