Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network February 2015 | Page 97

A lot of your fans have been wondering
what your chosen medium is for
creating your figures, and what drying
time do you allow?

Written by Marianna Saran
Carlos’ successful book “Animation In
Sugar” has become a popular go to
guide for decorators across the globe.
In between his touring and teaching,
Carlos is working on a second book,
due out in March 2015, which is bound
to surprise the caking community with
new impressive creations.

I use sugarpaste for modelling my
figurines. Any paste which contains
CMC is enough to get started. Drying
time will depend on weather conditions
and humidity, so it’s difficult for me to
say how long a figurine takes to dry,
but general drying time should be
around couple of days when using the
right paste consistency.

Tell us a little bit about Carlos Lischetti
and where you are from?

Do you make your own modelling paste?

I’m from Rosario in Argentina. Rosario
is my home town in the province of
Santa Fe, around 300 km from Buenos
Aires, to give you a rough idea of
where it is located. However, I am
based in Edinburgh, Scotland, where I
moved to Europe to work for a season.
This season has been extended!

To be honest, I don’t have the time to
make my own paste. I would never
think of making paste for a class or
workshop as I prefer to use the paste
that is locally available in a certain
country. I only make the paste when I
am in Argentina as it’s not easy to find
a good brand that I like.

How did you initially get involved in
cake decorating?
I got involved in cake decorating quite
a long time ago, more than twenty years
ago to be honest! I was really young,
probably about nine or ten years old
when I found myself in the kitchen in
my house in Rosario, trying to bake any
cake recipe from any cookery book that
I came across. Then I was drawn into
cake decorating after seeing a local
cake decorating magazine that really
captured my attention. That is how
everything started!

What was it about decorating that
intrigued you?
What really intrigued me about
sugarcraft was that there are endless
possibilities that sugarpaste can offer.
I discovered sugarpaste as a fantastic
medium to create any sort of figurines
and novelty cakes.
Did you study courses relating to cake
decorating?
I took my first cake decorating course
at the age of 15 in a local sugarcraft
shop near my home in Rosario which
I thoroughly enjoyed. Years later I
signed up for workshops at Lenotre
School in Paris where I had the chance
to master all the techniques in French
baking and decorating. I also did a
workshop with Alan Dunn that was
one of my dreams! By highlighting
a few of these courses, they really
helped me to embrace and master
different techniques after I had a bit of
experience on my own.
You are one of the world’s best when
it comes to modelled sugar figurines.
What is the secret to getting flawless,
delicate work such as yours?
The secret is all about practice,
patience and a bit of discipline and
of course to have a good quality
sugarpaste to get the best results.
What is the biggest mistake people
make when trying to construct sugar
figures?
One of the biggest problems is when
fondant is used on its own. Fondant is
really for covering cakes and the only
way to use it for modelling is by adding
cmc to it.

You are an amazing cake artist, but
are there any other areas of cake
decorating you wish to improve in?
There are so many fields in pastry
that I would love to improve on, such
as pulled sugar, chocolate structures
and even in modelling there’s always
something to improve and learn.
Is there one cake in particular that you
get asked to create a lot?
From my first book, ‘Animation in
Sugar’, the ballerina figurine is one of
the most popular.
What has been your most challenging
cake to date?
I had to make a lot of wedding cakes in
the past that were a challenge for me. I
remember a cake in particular where I
had to reproduce parts of Gaudi’s Parc
Guëll which was really challenging.