Cake Convention!

Last weekend I spent my days (and a night) at the Charlotte Convention Center for the largest annual cake convention in the country. It was my first time and it was quite an experience. People come from all over the world for this event and we all open our purses (and try to close our eyes) for the love of cake. That's me, above, with my badge and my baby.


Imagine being a mom and only having access to one or two stores in Charlotte to buy just a few of the items needed for your baby....most items (diapers, clothes, toys, etc.) must be purchased online from a small selection of stores. That's what it's like for us cake people. Aside from ingredients (and a few small items that we can buy at Michael's) we rely on mostly online retailers to buy all of our supplies and we spend a fortune (yes, that's just part of why cakes are so darn expensive!) and never really know what we're getting until it's in our hands. So, when the convention comes into town it's like going to the "Target" of cake supplies....everything you need is in one place and when go you always spend way more than you anticipate.


Not only are there hundreds of thousands of items to purchase (from tiny flower cutters to edible image scanners, airbrush machines and cake ball rollers, from silicone molds of every flower you could imagine to spray cans of "edible" gold and silver) but there are also dozens of classes to take and lots of very interesting people to see. Nothing like a cake convention to make you feel like Miss America.

One of the many booths selling cake supplies:
The Charlotte Cityscape Cake (the cars were moving!) on display (probably not real cake, but styrofoam covered in sugar and edible items):

There was a cake gallery with many cakes on display made by convention attendees from all over the world.
Some were quite interesting.

Most were very detailed with incredibly labor intensive designs.

This was clever. They put real krispy kreme donuts inside the cake that was made to look like the box.

A cute farm.

Wouldn't you love to bite into a coon?

Wouldn't want to be responsible for moving this one.

The perfect cake for your 5 year old...if you want to spend $1,000. Unique.

Very cool...an NC inspired collage of cakes....somewhere in there a bojangles box, a 6 pack of cheerwine and of course Carolina and Duke basketballs.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on these lovely display pieces. (note sarcasm) The interesting (and somewhat sad) side of the "new" cake world. So many of the items for sale are short cuts...basically ways of allowing anyone to be able to make a cake look pretty with the press of a button. There are a plethora of stencils, machines that allow you to scan images and this one below was a "silhouette cake maker"...I didn't really spend much time there but it is basically machine that will create and cut out any number of designs that you just place on the side of your cake. I still like the good, old fashioned "spend 20 hours of neck straining, wrist hurting cake decorating" way of doing things. One of the many hubbies who came along. I thought this was cute.

Jen, my assistant, with me at the evening Gala.

Hurray for Charlotte cake ladies! That's me and Jen with our Wow Factor cake buddies.

Phew! Now after the convention and a very busy few months of Summer wedding cakes, I am treating myself to a big fat VACATION! Tomorrow we are attempting a 12 hour drive up to my family's cottage on one of the Finger Lakes of upstate New York. It's my heaven on Earth and I could not be more ready and excited than I am now!