I recently was blessed with the opportunity to attend Mike’s Amazing Cakes Structures Class. This was a two-day cake structure class, held right in Mike McCarey’s bakery located in Redmond, Washington (just outside of Seattle). And what an incredible, memorable learning experience it was!
This was one of my favourite masterpieces that he has on display:
As I’ve said many times before – the older I get, the more I realize there is so much to learn!
And I learned so much about internal cake structure over the two days. On the first day, Mike went over all the tools materials you could possible use in cake structures as well as their application and best use. He also went over numerous stands and internal structures of many of the cakes he has created in the past. Then Mike (& his assistant Michael) showed us how to get our stands together.
Day two began with carving, then decorating.
I realized right from the beginning of his class, Mike is a very humble person who simply loves what he does. I believe that he is a true master of his art. While observing his demonstrations, I wondered in my mind if renaissance artists are now re-incarcerated as cake decorators. While explaining some of the more complicated structures, he stated simply that his job is to figure out the “cake puzzle.”
Here is a photo of Mike’s completed cake:
It was apparent that he has consistently delivered successful, guaranteed results with even the most difficult of cakes. He has also won multiple Food Network Cake Challenges. Although he might not admit to it due to his humble personality, I believe he is quietly shaping and contributing to the cake culture in all of North America and all over the world.
He went well above and beyond in sharing his techniques with us and was very open to answering all of our questions. Mike even gave us some great insight on the exciting world of televised cake competitions. He calls himself a “chronic planner,” and it showed through the organization and preparation of the class. Mike’s great quality of instruction made the class fun and the results easily attainable for us. The class was a pleasure overall, and just what I needed to inspire me further in own personal career.
Here is my completed cake:
And here is a photo of all of them lined up. Don’t they look similar?
By the end of the two days, we went back to our hotels with our large 3-D cakes. Little Jesse was quite happy to pose with the cake!
I am happy to say that it was delicious for both the belly and mind.
To learn more:
This showpiece measured over four feet tall. It was hand sculpted, covered in fondant, then airbrushed and painted. It took about 30-40 hours of labour to create.
CakeStories.ca 
