This type of gorgeous, ornate and intricately piped cake has always fascinated me.  Who began piping royal icing in this style? How is it done?

Toba Garrett, author of The Well-Decorated Cake, briefly explains the origins in the following excerpt of her book (p. 66):

In the 1890’s to 1920’s, overpiping cake decorating techniques became popular.  The raised, three-dimensional decoration created cakes that resembled large Victorian vases and sculpted works of art, made famous by its best known practitioner, Joseph A. Lambeth, father of cake decorating.

Lambeth created a book on the art of cake decorating including exquisite overpiped designs, runouts, stringwork and so much more.  The book includes step-by-step photographed instructions for piping wonderful embellished borders, flowers and figures.

The original book, the Lambeth method of cake decoration and practical pastries, published in 1934, is quite extensive as it goes through multitudes of beautiful, different piping designs, but is also expensive.  Sigh.  It can be found for approximately $200 – $700, depending on the binding, edition and condition.*

Toba Garrett has a small section in her book, The Well-Decorated Cake, dedicated to describing a few key piping designs, which are beautifully illustrated and explained well.

I learn best with hands-on instruction though, so was so happy to meet Wendy Kromer at the Bonnie Gordon School in Toronto, where Wendy came to guest teach three classes; two on the Lambeth Method Piping Skills, and one on Designing with Meringue. Besides being the author of Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes and one of the main producers of Martha’s cakes in her magazines etc., Wendy is a lovely person and excellent teacher. I took both the Lambeth and the Meringue class and learned so much.

In Wendy’s Lambeth Method Piping Class, we learned how to pipe various delicate or intricate Lambeth designs with royal icing. Here are a few of the first examples done on cake styrofoams:

Love these royal icing loops:

It’s really amazing, what can be done with royal icing. It can be time-consuming but the results are beautiful and gratifying. I’m definitely looking forward to playing around with some of these designs on some cakes or cupcakes.

*

In the second class, Designing with Meringue, we learned how to make delicious and pretty meringue decorations. I hadn’t really appreciated the taste and versatility of meringue until I took this class.

Meringue decrations can be eaten not just looked at, are relatively inexpensive to make and can be served to gluten-free clients!

One way of using meringue is to create these whimsical yet elegant ‘panels’ which will adhere to the sides of a square cake. Here are some panels before being baked (pencil marks are on the underside of the parchment paper):

And after baking:

Here’s one of Wendy’s completed meringue panel cakes which you can be found on Martha Stewart’s site:

I’d also never tried brown sugar meringue.  It’s so yummy; my mouth is seriously watering at the thought of it. In my humble opinion, it’s not as pretty as white meringue (or lightly colored meringue), but would be perfect for a neutral palette or rustic look.

Examples of the brown sugar meringue are on the bottom tier of my cake styrofoam pictured below:

This meringue flower was made by one of Bonnie Gordon’s talented instructors, Isabelle Loiacono.

I think these would be adorable on top of cupcakes! Martha Stewart’s website has some gorgeous pics of cakes made with meringue flowers. Here’s one example:

As Wendy flew up from the States to guest teach, she is not regularly scheduled at Bonnie’s school, but she is offering her own classes through her own bakery, at Wendy Kromer Specialty Confections.

If you’re in the Toronto area or would like to come visit (I’ve met people from all over the world at her school!), the Bonnie Gordon School has a unique and exceptional professional program, and so many fun part-time classes such as The Art of Sugar Blossoms, Figure Modelling, Haute Couture Cakes, Painting on Cakes and more!

{Photos from http://www.bonniegordoncakes.com/pages/classes/8speciality.htm}

If you’re interested in learning how to pipe Lambeth-style, Bonnie’s school also offers a class on the Lambeth Method, taught by the talented Isabelle Loiacono. For more info., click here.

Happy decorating!

Marian