Advanced Fondant Techniques with Marina Sousa - My Review

Hello cakeland!  If you are an avid reader of my blog, you know that I love nothing more than to bring you reviews of the latest things out there in the world of cakery!  If you are like me and have your thumb on the pulse of the industry, then you know about Craftsy.com.  For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Craftsy is an online platform that allows you to purchase classes to view online at your leisure.  What is great about Craftsy, is that you can watch the lessons in any order you’d like, whenever you’d like, as long as you have an internet connection. 

The latest addition to the group of cake-centric classes is Advanced Fondant Techniques,  taught by the very talented Marina Sousa of Just Cake in Capitola California.  Marina is well known for appearances (and many wins) on Food Network Challenge, Last Cake Standing, and Oprah.  She also happens to be one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting!  Marina is an amazing instructor (as I have already mentioned when I posted about the recent class I took with her and James Rosselle) who delivers the lessons in such a relaxed, clear and concise way, you forget you're actually learning. 

Advanced Fondant Techniques is great for any artist who would like to up the ante when it comes to their decorating skills!  Marina shares many of her tips and tricks for creating stunning works of edible art.  She demonstrates multiple ways of covering cakes in fondant and different ways of embellishing the fondant to make it look like more than plain old fondant, such as hand painting, embossing, inlay techniques and stencilling.  You also learn how to make some of Marina’s beautiful bows and ribbons to round out the final design.  The lessons learned in this class do not limit you to just mimicking the beautiful showpiece Marina creates, but the techniques can be used to step up your decorating game all around!  And even if you are newer to fondant work, you're still going to benefit from this class :) 

The finished class cake - gorgeous!

Being the cake junkie that I am, I can honestly say that when I think of products associated with Marina (such as her line of molds), I think top quality – Advanced Fondant Techniques is no different!  What is great about the class (and all of the classes on Craftsy), is that you have the ability to stop the video, make video notes that you can refer back to whenever you need to and there is no need to keep track of pieces of paper with random notes jotted down.  Marina also supplies you with downloadable resource lists and materials lists in order to find all the supplies you will need to complete the project.  The other great thing about the platform is that you have the ability to interact online with Marina and your fellow students!  At any point during the class, you can post questions or pictures of your works in progress, and get assistance from Marina, as she has the ability to go back and answer your questions and help you troubleshoot areas where you are having difficulty.

Marina and I at Icing Inspirations May 2012. Photo courtesy of Simply Sweet.

Considering everything you get with Advanced Fondant Techniques (including 4+ hours of instruction), the cost of buying the class ($39.99) is well worth it!  If you haven’t done so already, head over to Craftsy and sign up for Marina’s class.  You definitely won’t be disappointed – it’s like having one-on-one instruction with one of the greatest designers in our industry today!  That is PRICELESS!!

A huge thank-you to Marina for giving me the opportunity to review her class!  As a special treat to all of you, Marina has arranged a special discount on her class!  Simply click here to get this special offer!

Until next time,

Happy Caking!