Holding my Eiffel Tower cake with master cake artist, Mike McCarey
There is a whole lot of “amazing” going on for me right now. It all starts with my amazing husband who knows I love Food Network star, Mike McCarey’s, work and agreed to letting me fly to Seattle to take two of his classes. Thank you babe! I arrived in Seattle yesterday very anxious to start the classes I signed up for, an Eiffel Tower cake class and a Structures class in which we will make a Big Bird cake.
I am lucky that a friend of mine lives in Seattle so she picked me up from the airport and we headed to Redmond to find Mike’s Amazing Cakes shop. I was surprised to find it hidden away in a complex of office type buildings right in the center of Microsoft land. The small sign on the front was very humble for such a master of the cake world.
Front of Mike’s Amazing Cakes
Although I don’t think they usually allow visitors, we were able to stop in a say “hi” since I was signed up for classes the next day. The girls in the office, Theresa and Sarah, we so extremely nice and helpful. They answered all my questions and let us hang out and drool over Mike’s display cakes and photo books.
My friend, Jessi, and I at Mike’s Amazing Cakes
This was my favorite display cake. Isn’t is amazing! Mike sure lives up to the name of his shop.
A few more of his masterpieces.
After a great visit with Theresa and Sarah, I headed back to my hotel for a good night’s sleep. Classes started at 9:00 a.m this morning. I ended up waking up way before my alarm clock because I was so excited to get the day started.
When I arrived, Mike was there with a very warm greeting. It turned out that there were only 6 people signed up for the class which allowed for lots of personal attention and tons of answered questions. Mike is so friendly and willing to share all his tips and even his recipes.
I took a seat and here is what my work station looked like upon arrival.
Along with all the tools we would need, was a great set of full color picture instructions detailing each step of the process we would be undergoing. We quickly got to work. Mike would show us how to do a step then we would go to our stations and repeat what we had just learned.
Mike McCarey and his assistant, also named Mike, show us how to support and carve the cake
Here is my cake pre-carving.
And here it is after carving. Doesn’t it look cool even before it is decorated!
After trimming it up and crumb coating it, we got to work cutting out panels of modeling chocolate for the sides. Once they were applied it took on a very different look.
Mike gave us impression mats that we used to get most of the details in the building pieces. He sells these mats for those who are interested in making their own Eiffel Tower cake. I am not sure exactly how to order them but if you go to his website at www.mikesamazingcakes.com and email them I am sure they will be happy to sell them to you.
Once the building pieces were adhered to the sides it started looking more like the real thing.
Even though we used impression mats, there was still a lot of detail work to do.
Hand sculpting details on my Eiffel Tower
It was amazing to see how perfect each and every cake was turning out. Mike’s method was so exact that no matter what level a person is they can follow it and end up with a cake that is truly a work of art.
The final cake! It is AMAZING, even if I do say so myself!
We finished up the day a little after 5:00 p.m. I had such a great time that I left full of energy and extremely excited to start the next class tomorrow. It is getting late, though, so I better head off to bed. I don’t want to be tired tomorrow when I start work on Big Bird.
Good night everyone and, until tomorrow, God Bless and Sweet Dreams!
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