African Relish Inspiration

Being so inspired and energised by the course with Roxanne Floquet last weekend, i now see piping and cake designs in almost everything i look at!  The first 'design' that i 'saw' was from a table runner at the table where we sat and had all of our delicious meals at African Relish.  

Yesterday, we celebrated my brother-in-law's 30th  birthday, i thought that this would be the ideal occasion for me to test out my new 'design'!  I baked a carrot cake, one of my favourites, and iced it with cream cheese frosting.  The sugar paste was coloured with Americolour Bright Orange and a teeny weensy bit of Super Black just to take the neon-ness out of the orange.  For the royal icing, i mixed Bright Orange and a bit of Tulip Red to make the colour a little darker so that it contrasted nicely with the backdrop of the sugar paste.

This design could obviously be done in many different colours, i just choose the orange, because it is such a cheerful, happy colour and contrasts so beautifully with the green of the Desert Roses. Wedding cakes, especially, are usually fairly monochromatic, so it is not often that i am able to play with colours like this.  I did enjoy it very much!!  A nice palette for a wedding cake could be a very soft grey sugar paste with the design piped in the grey-green of the Desert Rose - très élégant! 

PS - On Saturday a lovely couple came to see me about their wedding cake - their colour scheme: purple and turquoise. I am very excited about that - watch this space!!!

  

Weekend at African Relish with Roxy Floquet

Gosh, where do i begin...
I suppose that i should begin with the town of Prince Albert, where this wonderful weekend took place.  Quaint, quiet, characterful.  A peaceful village at the foot of the Swartberg Pass, population approximately 10 000, but when you drive or walk around, it feels closer to 1000!  There are plenty of gorgeous little antique shops, coffee shops and restaurants that i wish that i had had the time to explore and try out.

African Relish is a recreational cooking school, which offers set courses and culinary tours lead by a medley of renowned chefs from SA and abroad.  If you have even the slightest hankering to learn more about spices, meat, sauces or bread-baking; i can strongly recommend that you spoil yourself with a weekend in Prince Albert.  African Relish also boasts an enchanting restaurant where you can enjoy meals made with love, creativity and bags of fun.  


Upon our arrival, we were greeted by our hosts, the lovely Virna and gracious Jeremy.  African Relish have a few little cottages that they use to accommodate their guests attending the culinary weekends.  What a pleasant surprise we had when Virna showed us to our cottage, Akkedis!!  Tanya and i wandered around our spacious quarters for a lengthy time oohing and aahing at the luxurious furnishings and precious details before we unpacked our bags.  


To recharge our batteries after the 4 hour journey, we enjoyed a pot of tea out on the stoep, allowing the tranquility of the Little Karoo to take the place of the stress and strain of everyday life.

Now, to get to the reason why 10 ladies from various reaches of the country drove all the way to Prince Albert.  For this weekend, African Relish was hosting the very talented Roxanne Floquet and her sister Debbie to teach us about cake baking and decorating.  And WOW, did they teach us.  I gleaned so much knowledge and inspiration from this weekend!  

This is one of the nine different cakes that Roxy made to show us all the different  techniques that one can use to decorate cakes. We each got to take a gorgeous little cake home to share with our loved ones!

The beautiful petits fours (fondant fancies) that Roxy showed us how to make.  They are as yummy as they look!

Day 1: how to bake sugar biscuits and decorate them.

Day 2: Two comprehensive sessions on sugar craft (we learnt how to make roses, hydrangeas and various other beautiful blooms using sugar paste), and creatively decorating cakes using different piping techniques and the hand-made sugar flowers.

Day 3:  How to make neat-as-a-pin petits fours (or fondant fancies) and decorate them.

I not only gained an exciting array of new skills and techniques, i was inspired by Roxanne's creativity and perfectionism.  After a long, sometimes hard, wedding season, i feel rejuvenated and full of enthusiasm to get creatively cracking in my kitchen!!