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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Day of Sharing 2010

Capital Confectioner's "Day of Sharing" 2010


This was my first time at a "Day of Sharing" and also my first time really pitching in for Capital Confectioners, the greater Austin-area cake club.  I had a blast but my legs ached for days afterward! 

Stats:
  • ~120 attendees + vendors + volunteers = ~150 people
  • Wyndham Hotel & Conference Center in Round Rock, TX 
  • 8 am - 5 pm fun-filled hours
  • http://dos.capitalconfectioners.com
I volunteered to be A/V girl.  Apparently there were some mishaps last year that the club really wanted someone dedicated to this part of the show.  Boy, did I learn a lot from doing that!  I have a mental list of all the A/V things that went wrong.  Hopefully people only noticed half of them.  Next time, if given the chance, it'll go much, much smoother!  Many thanks to Jeanette for volunteering to be camera girl for all the demonstrations!

The day started of with a mini-disaster.  I was running a little behind setting up prior to the show.  My length calculations for the composite cords ran too short to offer much wiggle room, so I flew out the door and on to the highway to the closest Walmart to buy extensions.  It was about 8:20 when I got back.  All my wires were running along the front of the room where some people where bustling about setting up vendor booths and what-not.  I busted out my trusty roll of duct tape and started taping down the wires to the carpet so no one would trip.  My first attempts were pilot tapes just to get them in to a good position.  Suddenly someone cries out; I turn around and there's some poor women on the ground!  She tripped on the power strip that was plugged in to one of the floor outlets.  She couldn't get up and her knee began to swell.  I got her a drink of water, helped acquire a bag of ice, and some paramedics were called.  Not sure what became of her, but I like to think she was eventually ok.  She was so cute; she didn't want to leave.  She said she came here for a cake show and intended on staying!

When I wasn't scurrying around, I tried to pay attention to all the lovely demonstrators and what they had to share.  First up was Brian Stevens.  He showed us how he did the internal structure and how he painted the Gollum cake that created earlier this year for the "That Takes the Cake" cake show/competition.  This show cake won 2nd place.


Next was Ximena Sempertegui who showed us how to make an ADORABLE christening outfit from fondant.


Up next was Marco Antonio Lopez Sanches and another lovely lady (I didn't catch her name) demonstrating techniques for stenciling and also creating the most beautiful and delicate looking flowers.  They didn't speak English so we had a translator explain what they were saying.  Below is a stencil she showed us using royal icing and disco dust.  When she peeled the stencil away, almost everyone said "wow" or "ahh" out loud.




Last but certainly not least was Stephen Benison and his line of intricate and unusual cutters.  It was funny during his demonstrations because for some cutters the audience (myself included) didn't have a clue where he was going, how it would look, or what would turn out ... and then he'd suddenly flip something here or twist something there and flair the edges out ... and then came the "aaaahhh"s.  He sold out of the products he brought quickly.



We served everyone breakfast and lunch, including this wonderful dessert bar:



On display in the lobby were lovely and whimsical cake/sugar designs from Jeanette and Kimberly.




AND there were raffle PRIZES!  I even won something!  I put plenty of tickets in to a box to make sure I got Mike McCarey's DVDs that he graciously donated to the club.  Sucks that I didn't win the airbrush set though!  The heavy hitters of the raffle prizes included a KitchenAid mixer and a Cricut Cake.

This adorable winner said she's giving it to her mom!


Perhaps the best part of the show was when Kyla presented Irene the "Heart of the Club" award for all her efforts towards the Capital Confectioners.  She was so surprised and touched, we squeezed a few tears from her and some of the audience members!


Plus a nice gift card!

View all my photos of this wonderful day here:

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