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Santa Claus Pictorial

21 de December de 202021 de December de 2020Leave a comment

It is Christmas month and the magic continues!

Last year I made this very simple pictorial guide to the making of a cute Santa Claus

Today I wish to share with you this simple pictorial I made on ” How to model a Santa Claus figure”

This one is made out of polymer clay and not sugar paste or fondant, but the principle is the same and can be applied to both.

Hope you like it!

1.) Model the face of Santa using white, skin color, pink and black and a round cutter.

2.)Using the polymer clay, model the body. Twist together some white and green for the bottom of the dress and sleeves.

3.) Make some buttons and a scarf, and finally model the hat. Don´t forget the shoes!

It looks very cute!

Coconut Gelatine

21 de April de 20201 Comment

Trying to find new flavors for the 3D gelatin flowers and since the weather is getting warmer and calls for more tropical flavors, I found a recipe from the ” Asian Gelatin Flavors”.

There is some information that these 3D gelatin flowers are originally from Asia and then became popular in Latin America, even though, Latinamericns claim that they invented it and the Asians copy them.

All I know is that being self-taught I found my own technique and instruments to work with in order to make these beautiful flowers with everyday knives and pharmacy store syringes. However, I am always open to trying new flavors so I found this very tasty recipe for my friends and students.

So, here I share with you these Coconut gelatins that are very clear and work perfectly to make the 3d Gelatin Flowers. Besides is very fresh and tasty, excellent for summer!

The base is made from coconut water, so you won´t have to include flavoring or essences or even add more sugar. With all the variety of brands of coconut water available in the market, you can even choose the amount of sweetness, light products or even bio or natural ones.

Ingredients:

3 cups of coconut water

1 cup of water

56 grams of clear powder gelatin

125 grams of sugar ( optional)

3 ml of lemon juice or 1 teaspoon of citric acid

Ingredients Clear Gelatin — Coconut clear gelatin

To make the gelatin is very simple:

1.) Mix the coconut water, the sugar (optional) the lemon juice or citric acid.

The Experience

3D Gelatin Flowers

2.) Then in another bowl, hydrate the gelatin with the water. Add the gelatin to the water and leave it to rest for a minute so the grain of the gelatin will expand and hydrate. Then heat it in the microwave at low temperature without boiling it.

3. ) Finally, mix together the liquid gelatin and the coconut water and let it rest for 5 minutes before pouring it in the container for the gelatine. Then place them in the fridge for 24 hours to solidify and to make the flowers.

If you want to check out the process of making the 3D Gelatin Flower, please check out this video on my YouTube channel so you can see how it is done.

Try out this recipe, it is tasty and fresh for the summer. I really hope you like it!

Don´t forget to like this post, comment, share and subscribe!

Love,

Cristina

New Gelatin Courses!

31 de March de 202031 de March de 2020Leave a comment

My sweet friends!

I´ve been ” cooking” new stuff for you for a while now, and even though I am really excited about it, I can´t stop to acknowledge that these are hard times and I wish I was doing this on a better occasion. However the way we face this changes and difficulties our world is living is up to us. So I decided that being creative is my way to fight fear and uncertainty.

Creativity will keep us sane in the middle of this madness.

So, I want to share with you two new courses at The Art Cake School.

The Complete 3D gelatin flower course

and

The Decorated Gelatin Course.

These courses are now available and will be for a long time, so take your time to think about it. But, if you are looking for something to learn during this period, any of these two classes could be an option.

Meanwhile, check out our FB page @theartcakeexperience Schoo and my YouTube Channel, I have free videos and tutorials for you there and a growing community of creative people supporting each other during these times.

Stay Creative!

Love,

Cristina

Cake design vs Cake decorator

17 de February de 20203 de March de 20201 Comment

So, which one am I?

I have debated with these two terms for a while, and I´ll explain why; I understand that to talk about the world of cake decorations we call ourselves ” Cake Designers” to give us a sense of belonging to a specific group. But how many of us really ” Design” their cakes? How many of us are absolutely 100% unique and original?

I´m not a 100% original!

I have done some original work, but not everything that I do is 100% mine.

Please, don´t take me wrong, I don´t think that being the opposite is bad. I believe there need to be a fair number of great ” Cake Decorators” and also a great number of ” Cake Designers”

Here is the thing and I don´t know if you´ll agree with me.

We all start as Cake Decorators, we simply go and do what the client wants, we might even copy parts of other cakes, we might copycat a full cake because that is what the customer wants and we bake really well and have to pay the bills at the end of the month. Is that bad? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

As long as you do not intentionally make other cake designers work and sign them as your own and you give credit to the original artist, our daily work might just be to decorate cakes with the customer’s ideas.

However, one day, after you have practiced a lot and have become absolutely confident in your work, it will be you who sais to the customer what to do. You´ll sit down with a piece of paper, or a little notebook and design that special cake with your own ideas.

You´ll challenge yourself to do new things and will be amazed. That day my friend, you will be a Cake Designer.

To go even further with this idea, the other day on a FB group I admire and which I am part of was placed a question by one of the administrators of we are real bakers or just sculptors or artists wich decided to use sugar and edible materials as their choice of expression. I debated with this question for a while, then my simple and humble answer was. I am first an artist, my choice of material is sugar paste and gelatin but I happen to bake quite well. I am a Cake decorator some times and a cake designer when I create my modeling pieces. I am just proud of everything that I know and I don´t need the title to do it, I just need to be confident!

My point with this post is to name things by their own name, is to be proud of whatever stage you are in your baking business, is to be true to what you do and what you can do.

Let´s respect everyone´s work, let´s praise the achievements of our colleagues and get inspired. Let´s challenge ourselves instead of bringing others down. Let´s start this year with great intentions and most of all respect and admiration for each other.

Hope you´ve liked this, I would love to hear your opinion. If you liked it, please,

comment, like, share and subscribe.

Love,

Cristina

What to do (or not) using #hashtags for a cake business

27 de January de 202015 de January de 2020Leave a comment

What is right and what is wrong when using #hashtags for a cake business?

A good group of #hashtags at the end of an image can make a big difference, to both bring more traffic into your account and adding more followers to your profiles and brand

As I said before, the order should be something like this, however, it is not a science, it can be flexible to your audience and your intentions.

We can play with the content of the #hashtags just like this:

Niche: #food #desserts #cakes

Theme: #cakedesign

Brand: #theartcakeexperience

Place: #cristina_theartcakeexperience /here I prefer to use my profile account than my location in order for people to follow me more easily, however, the profile of your account should include your location but that can be a topic for another post on how to use your profile Bio to grow your business.

Ideas and “Trends”:

There are many #hashtags that we can use and follow easily that will help us get in the game of social media marketing. I would like to share with you some simple ideas that can help you organize your social media posts.

However, another thing I learn about it is that there are platforms and apps that can help you do that, schedule your posts, tell you what works better in terms of #hashtags, recommends which ones to use and also what time is better to post according to your target audience.

These apps run statistics and really make your life easier. I use Tailwind and Planoly which are very good and easy to use, also Later is a great one. But there are many in the market that can really help you organize your posts.

We can use simple trend #hashtags to get our publications out there, for example:

Days of the week: #mondayfunday #transformationtuesday #wisdomwednesday #throwbackthursday #foodfriday #socialsaturday #selfiesunday

There are many ideas, don´t stop exploring and using your favorite social media platforms and don´t forget to use this to your advantage and to grow your business. But if you want a small piece of advice, don´t get too caught up in this game, it can take a lot of your time and can be very competitive and demanding, so I don´t want to add more things to your cake design business to-do list, I just want to help you get out there and show your wonderful work!

I loved writing these posts for you and I really hope you liked them too.

If you did, don´t forget to like, comment, share and subscribe!

Lots of love,

Cristina

How to write a good #hashtag for a cake business

20 de January de 202015 de January de 2020Leave a comment

So, let´s keep talking about #hashatgs

How to write a good (#) hashtag.

It must be memorable, unique and relevant to the post or the image. It should be easy to memorize and not too long so followers will not lose time trying to figure out what we are saying.

Good Hashtags! #caketopper #cakedesign #cakesforher

however, over this last year, I have realized that more specific hashtags even if they are too specific can have a better impact. Let me explain why…

A very trendy hashtag can have millions of followers, so if your business is new and not too famous, it will take a longer time for new followers to find, that is because your post will be lost amongst millions of other posts.

Usually, good hashtags, trendy enough, with an average of followers can be a better option for new audiences to find your product.

For example:

#caketoppers can have 424,070 publications

but

#harrypottercaketopper 589 publications

That means that if you use the second option for your publication, your post will be placed between 589 posts and will be easily found instead of being among a sea of almost half a million posts.

Now, not so good ones:

#caketoppersforlittlekidswholikebatman #cakedesignnewtrendsofthisyear #cakesthatshewouldliketoeat

Why?… too long, too difficult to read and not enough followers for you to lose time using them.

Before using a #hashatgs, make sure to know what the words mean and if together the words won’t have a different connotation, that way we prevent ourselves from sending the wrong message.

Just imagine this:

#mywormcake followed by an image of a good looking woman in the kitchen taking a cake out of the oven… that can be miss understood and could lead to unwanted comments.

However, imagine a steamy cake fresh out of the oven, a close-up picture followed by the #freshbakedcake better right?. We avoided the word “my” and give it a less personal connotation also all the words are easy to follow and without any different meaning.

To give you an example of my own experience, let me share with you this post from my Instagram account that had a big impact due to the use of #hashtags.

#beautyandthebeast / First the theme of the cake without talking about cakes to attract an audience interested in Beauty and the Beast and not just cake design

#cakedesign/ #bolosdecorados( Usually I make my hashtags in two different languages because I live in Portugal but want a more international audience)/ Now is the niche, the specific group of people your post is intended for. In this case are cake designers or people interested in it.

#beautyandthebeastcake / #beautyandthebeastcaketoppers / even more specific to the post and the theme

#theartcakeexperience #cristina_theartcakeexperience #theartcakeschool/ finally my brand and my Instagram account so people will easily follow me.

Next time I´ll talk about what to do and what not to do when using a #hasgtag

If you liked this post, don´t forget to like, comment, share and subscribe!

See you later…

Love,

Cristina

Social Media Calendar

16 de January de 20206 de April de 2021Leave a comment

It is the beginning of a new year and I really like to take a look at my last´s year resolutions, and one of them happened to be ” More Social Media Exposure!”

Trying to be updated with all the social media posts, running an online school, recording and editing videos, teaching and baking can be a daunting task. I so much understand the work of Social Media Marketing companies and why they charge what they charge because it is a LOT OF WORK!!!!

However, this Blogging thing is kind of new to me and I can´t afford right now to pay anyone else to do the job for me so I came up with a very nice and simple to follow a calendar for social media posting.

I always have someone young to give me a ” Crash Course” on how to manage my social media accounts, this time was my gorgeous goddaughter, that gave me all the insight on how to use social media to my advantage, the best time to post and how frequently to do it.

But if you don´t have a talented Goddaughter like me, there is a lot of information on the social media platforms analytics to get you going. Pay attention to the time your followers interact with you and which of your posts are more popular, that will help you too.

There is a lot of terms and vocabulary that can make us lose our mind and patience, and since the idea is to make things easy for you I´ll try to make it simple and show you what really worked for me.

After wandering around the net, trying to find out what SEO and CCS and Plugins are, I decided to work with what I know and already have; a Facebook page ( not a profile) which is very simple to open, to use and to maintain, also the Blog ( of course) and my Instagram account. With this, I can make a lot and the idea is to get publicity, followers and promote my work.

I am no Blogger, I bake cakes and teach sugar paste modeling and gelatin art, so this social media marketing should be very simple and easy to use for me and any other cake designer.

What really works for me!

The first ( and very important) step is to post periodically, yes PERIODICALLY! This will make all the difference, and even more important is when to post. As more you post, more exposure you´ll get, and posting at the right hours will make you reach more of your target audience.

The great news is that you can schedule your posts in advance in almost all these social media platforms, some of them directly in the platform like Facebook or with the use os specialized apps like Planoly, Later and Tailwind for Instagram and Pinterest.

Let´s build our Social Media Calendar based on a few things: seasonal posts, your weekly work, quotes, and sharing. Also, it is important to know when to post, so I´ll give you an idea of what works for me.

Take in the count all the different social media platforms, groups, profiles, and pages.

So, let´s play with seasons and holidays in order to organize your yearly posts, like this:

January: News, New year´s resolutions

February: Valentine´s day

March: Spring

April: Easter

May: Mother´s day

June: Summer Break

August: Tropical themes

September: Back to School

October: Halloween

November: Fall/Thanksgiving

December: Christmas

Now, you should post weekly and periodically as I mentioned before, so here is my own personal calendar so you can have an idea, copy this if you want, but remember, you´ll only know what works for you and your target audience.

Use the analytics of the social media platforms and find out this: best hours for posting and the posts that had better interactions, this way you´ll know when and what to post.

Let me explain: If you have more people entering your page on Mondays and Fridays at 3:00pm, that means that is the best time for you to publish your posts. If on Instagram you had more reactions to the pictures of your decorated cakes, than the picture of you in the kitchen, it means people are more interested in seeing your finished work instead of the process, so post your finished cakes more often and in the best hours and days. This will mean more interaction en, even more, followers.

Combine this effort together with the use of #Hashtags and it will work even better.

Check out my previous post on ” The use of #hashtags for cake business” and get some insight on how to use them in your favor.

My weekly Social Media Calendar:

Let´s go back to our Social Media Calendar, now for the weekly posts:

Monday/ Instagram at 18:00h e Blog between 21:00h and 22:00h.

Tuesday/ Interact with Facebook Groups, share posts and news from my work and colleagues

Wednesday / Facebook between 18:00h and 21:00h

Thursday/ Instagram Stories, Facebook posts at 19:00h and a new video every two weeks on my YouTube channel.

Friday / Instagram at 21:00h

Saturday/ Facebook between 21:00 and 22:00h

I also share on my Facebook profile, pages and groups everything I publish in other social media platforms, that is because it is the platform in which I have more followers.

There are many types of pots you can share like: your own works, announcements, stories, follow-ups, share information, share someone else´s work, quotes, inspiration, behind the scenes of your work, Blog posts sharing, promotions and add and many more. One thing to always keep in mind is to BE YOU!, be original, be yourself, don´t copycat, be authentic and true and people will react to you and your work.

I don´t know it all, but I know what works for me and what could work for a Cake Business, and most importantly what doesn´t take much of your time. If you want further information an how to post and how to schedule your posts, feel free to contact me here or through any of my Social Media profiles:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bolosdecoradosdecristina

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theartcakeexperience and https://www.facebook.com/CristinaArevaloBolosDecorados

Instagram: @cristina_theartcakeexperience

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.pt/theartcakeexperience/

YouTube: The Art Cake Experience Channel

I´ve loved to share this with you and truly hope it helps you, so if you´d enjoyed it too, please don´t forget to like, comment, share and subscribe.

Love,

Cristina

Using #Hashtags for a cake business.

13 de January de 202013 de January de 2020

#arehashtagsreallyinportantquestionmark

Did you see that? It looks more like a tongue-twister than a #hashtag

But it got your attention, right?

Apparently, we are nothing in social media without a #hashtag, but do they really work? are they good for all social media platforms? is it worth the trouble?

I have to say that since last year I´ve been quite active on social media in order to promote my online teaching business and cake decorating business, even my personal brand. And I also have to say that I´ve learned a lot since last I wrote a post about hashtags and social media. Not because I became a master in everything that there is to know, more of a try and fail kind of situation, and be aware that by the time I finish this post, the algorithm in social platforms have changed and #hashtags too!

I found out two good things: what really work for me and what gives me less work to do.

I have a lot of information to give you, so I will divide this post into several parts.

Now, going back to the # hashtags, believe me when I say they are a big help, and I can recognize the advantages of their use, but like many or some of you, I didn´t even know what they were until last year.

So, If you are any like me, here I have for you a little crash course, a simple 101 on how to use #hashtags to your advantage for your cake business.

What is a #hashtag?

It is a tool that allows us to identify and easily follow a product, place, event or personality as well as promotions and trends. Consists of using the hashtag symbol of our keyboard (#) followed by a word or words that refer to what we want to identify and they are always in lower case and without space between the words.

For business it is a great and useful tool, it helps to showcase our product, be followed or even discovered by users around the world.

What social media platforms use #hashtags?

At least the main ones, Twiter, Facebook, and Instagram are the most common ones. But also Pinterest and more Social Media platforms use them. I confess that I´m not a big Twitter user, I prefer Facebook and Instagram because they work for my business and my target audience, but that can be a different case for you. Pinterest can be a great platform for cake decorators and cake designers, but to really take advantage of it, it should be used in a very specific way and that is for another post.
For Facebook, even though some people use the hashtags (#) I don´t recommend it. It is proven that the posts with hashtags in FB have no difference in their success. FB posts rely on images, that is what truly makes the difference, so don´t bother wasting time creating hashtags for FB, remember we as cake decorators are always short on time so we won´t want to waste it.

Now, Instagram in the other hand is the home of the hashtags. It is a must to use them!

I have seen the number of my followers grow with the use of hashtags. The number of interactions; meaning the likes and comments, have to do not only with the use of hashtags but with the quantity, quality of the hashtags and frequency of the posts.
Instagram allows you to use a large number of hashtags, and it is proven that posts with more than 10 hashtags work even better than others with less. We can even follow hashtags instead of a person or a profile.

Now, I don´t want to bore you with a long post, so I´ll ask you to just think about what social media platform really works for you and you are willing to commit to. Then in my next post, I´ll show you how to write a good hashtag and how to use it.

If you liked this post, please comment, like, share and subscribe.

See you next time

love,

Cristina

Christmas Elf Modeling Course

10 de December de 20199 de December de 2019Leave a comment

Hi, my friends,

So, the online school is growing and is welcoming new members which makes me so happy, and of course, I had to offer all these wonderful people who decided to join The Art Cake School something special for Christmas.

On for all of you, the complete course on “How to model a Christmas Elf cake topper with fondant” is open for enrollment!

Sugar Paste modeling, cake toppers, cute Christmas Elf, online course.

Complete step by step modeling course. Christmas Elf, The Art Cake School.

Just follow any of the links on this page or the direct link below to access not only the school and all the freebies I have for you but this amazing course.

The course includes five modules, step-by-step detailed videos with every single trick to model this cute Elf. Also, some extra material to cover the board and give your cake topper some finishing touches, and the direct access to my facebook group and page for the Art Cake School.

So follow the link below to access the course and surprise all your friends and family with this cute cake topper for this Holiday.

Click here: https://www.theartcakeschool.com/p/christmas-elf-modeling

See you there

Love

Cristina