Life Lately // NZCDG Conference 2011

 The venue where the conference was held - Malborough Convention Centre

I mentioned in my last post I was away at the National Cake Decorators Guild (NZCDG) annual conference over the weekend. It was the first one I have attended as I only joined up late last year so it was a bit intimidating/scarey not knowing what to expect!!

 My Dunedin group (me - bottom left!) - A few travelled up by themselves

There were 6 of us going together in a van from Dunedin, which was a long trip! We did it all in one day with quite a few stops, we left at 8am on Thursday and arrived in Blenheim about 5:30pm that night!

Because I was a newbie I got to be a delegate for my local club (I represented the Dunedin Sugar Craft Guild but I'm also a member of the Foveaux Cake & Sugar Art Guild in Invercargill!) which was so scarey! Me and another member went to the AGM on the Friday and had the responsibility of voting for the new President of the club and also voted on where the next South Island conference would be held - the options were my Invercargill Club or Nelson - unfortunately Nelson won by 2 votes!! So close.

My favourite berry of the lot - Rosehip. 
Demonstrator - Betty Debnam from Tasmania, Australia

 

 Wedding Dress Cake - Piping, brush embrodiary, pleating fondant

Demonstrator -Toba Garret from New York, USA

 

 The goodies I bought on Saturday - From the Trade Show

On Saturday I saw some 2 demonstrations, 1 on some berries which would make perfect fillers for floral arrangements, and a pretty wedding dress cake - the piping was so perfect and tiny!! I also got to go shopping - they have a whole lot of trade tables with people selling all kinds of cake decorating equipment. I didn't spend too much but I got some things I had been meaning to get for a while!! I also checked out the plaques some of the clubs entered and the competition flowers and cakes!

The plaque my club entered - The theme was "Through the vineyard window"

 A competition cake I liked

The cake that won the Peoples Choice - It was covered in tiny little fairies - including a 

Bride and Groom fairy!!

On Saturday night we had a formal dinner at the Malborough Convention Centre where the conference was being held. I sat next to a woman from the Whangarei club and it was really fun chatting to her all night! There was also a Cake Decorating Judge at our table and a few other women who had been to lots of conferences so they told me all about the ones they had been to in the past. 

 I absolutley love this little Elf - Strip cutter used for stripes (they sold out I missed out!)

Demonstrator - Raewin Kelly from Gisborne, New Zealand

 Butterfly Lily - She also showed us a ribbon rose (left)

Demonstrator - Pam Archibald from Victoria, Australia

Sunday was the final day of the conference that we were attending, and I saw 2 more demonstrations - 1 on a super cute little Christmas elf (I loved the tips for modelling little people its right up my alley!!) and the other was a pretty Butterfly Lily. 

 Bottom left are some seals on the beach!

A cute little road-side shop - Near Kaikoura

We headed home again on Monday, stopping briefly just out of Kaikoura to watch the seals playing on the rocks and to pick up some crayfish at a cute little road-side shop!

It was really cool being in the same place as a whole bunch of other Cake Decorators, learning heaps of new skills and tricks and remembering names and faces for the next conference I go to. We really need more young members like me to join so the older ones have someone to pass their skills and experience on to!! Definitely look up a local club if you're interested in Cake Decorating, I'm pretty sure there will be something similar all over the world. Next year I'm keen to attend the State one held in Melbourne, Australia too!!