#7 Decorator & Inspiration to All Autumn Carpenter
If you want to decorate with royal icing, buttercream, or fondant you need to stalk (I mean that in the nicest way) Autumn Carpenter. She is an author, teacher, and an award-winning designer that has skills that are sure to inspire us all. Do you see why I named this podcast Decorator & Inspiration to All? That’s because she is!
Not only does she decorate, but she’s also served as a judge in cake decorating competitions, she’s been a member, teacher, and demonstrator at the International Cake Exploration Society (ICES) for nearly 20 years. Autumn is a co-owner of Country Kitchen SweetArt which is a cake and candy supply store. I could live there with all the amazing products they sell, but that’s against the health codes. Oh well, I guess I’ll continue to stalk her online.
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#7 Decorator & Inspiration to All
Do you see why I think we should all stalk her? She has all those wicked mad skills and she’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met! As a matter of fact, you’ll find out for yourself in a minute why we are doing this podcast. It’s not to talk about all the books she’s published, or how amazing she is and let me tell you, she’s pretty darn amazing. She’s here to talk about something special that Autumn, myself, and other decorators have been working on. Listen to the podcast to find out more. I know you’re going to love it and support it. In the meantime, here is where you can find Autumn.
Country Kitchen SweetArt
Autumn Carpenter Designs
Cookie Decorating
Sweet Elite
Remember when I mentioned Autumn’s books? Here are some of them.
Autumn Carpenter Books:
The Complete Photo Guide to Cookie Decorating
The Complete Photo Guide to Cake Decorating
Creature Cookies
The Complete Photo Guide to Candy Making
Let’s Make Angry Birds Cake
We could talk about Autumn for days on end, but I think you should go listen to the podcast in case you haven’t. The sooner you listen, the sooner you’ll hear about the project we’ve been working on. As soon as it’s released, I’ll update the information here.
Here is a hint about the project, Listen to Episode #5 with Bernie David! We can’t give a better hint than that!
Until then, bake some cookies and share them with the world! Thanks for listening!
Bear hugs,
Gee…I had some of your books and I didn’t even know they were yours. The worst part is I find it incredibly difficult to find books like this in regular book stores like Barnes & Noble and you might as well not even try in places like AC Moore, Michael’s and Hobby Lobby or even JoAnn Fabric even though they carry some amount of baking supplies. I looked just a few weeks ago and what they had was laughable. Michael’s especially has really reduced their stock of baking and food supplies from my early days when I first took classes there. It’s almost a joke compared to what is available online at the stores. If I won a nice size lottery I would begin a really NICE cake decorating, baking and candy making supply store that carried the things you can only find online such as all the molds, the stencils, cookie cutters. Let’s face it, we’ll never find in a store the cookie cutters to make items for on cakes that look like Gucci purses or or Coco Chanel items or any other high end names. I’ve never seen a cookie cutter which looks like a stand mixer or a rolling pin and a thousand other things. Just yesterday I received an email about molds for cakes which can make fondant and gumpaste look like they’re knitted Irish sweaters. I am SO excited about that one. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to walk into a kitchen store and find every top or new cookbook on the market? To be able to flip through the book and see if any of the things would be something you might make. Over the years I’ve purchased books because there has been ONE project in the book that I knew I desperately would like to make.
I know I’m in the minority here but I prefer picture tutorials over video ones. Perhaps its because I rarely can do the video ones as quickly as they are on screen. I also can’t be looking at a screen and what I’m making at the same time and have to keep rewinding. Pictures are just far easier and it’s pretty rare when I can’t figure out what I’m to do. When that does occur,then I look online to find a video somewhere of the same procedure. As a last resort I contact the baker or author of the book. If I had that store (which if blessed might turn into a chain which could be near everyone) I could even have people come in and give classes, sort along the lines of what Sur La Table does. Oh well…..since the odds are I won’t ever win a lottery to do that it’s a nice fairytale dream to have. I guess we all have to have them. But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go to the local area store to get those things? I’m still an old-fashioned buyer. I like to touch and feel the items I’m buying, to see the quality of what I’m getting for my money. To see if it feels cheap and tacky and may fall apart after several uses or if it seems nice and sturdy and may last for years. I don’t know about anyone else but I find it a great nuisance to have to return items and lets face it, since most of manufacturing went overseas everything is considered disposable items today, nothing is suppose to be repaired like they did in my great-grandparents day. This is one reason I prefer to shop at L.L. Bean and Land’s Ends when I’m able. I once purchased a man’s dress shirt in a pale yellow color and hand a monogram put on it for a gift for a boyfriend. When he received it, he tried to show gratitude but I could tell something was wrong. I finally got it out of him that essentially, he HATED it. He had tried to hide his feelings, but he wasn’t a good poker player I guess. So…I decided to order another one for him. When I called I said why I was ordering the new one. It never occurred to me in a MILLION years I could exchange it, after all, it was monogrammed. I could not believe it, I was allowed to exchange that MONOGRAMMED shirt for a new one in a different color. Now THAT is customer service. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a kitchen and cake and baking supply store in the US like that!!