Lorraine McKay

I first discovered Lorraine's work while looking for videos of fondant modeling on YouTube. It was "love at first sight" when I happened upon her Tiny Teddy Bear tutorial. What's not to love, right? I sat down in front of my computer with a tray, fondant tools, a small container of water and a paintbrush and proceeded to make my own tiny teddy bear army. This, of course, led to watching more of Lorraine's tutorials and quickly adding her to my "friends" list.

Isn't it funny how once you've discovered something, or in this case "someone" you then see them everywhere? Soon after discovering Lorraine on YouTube, I discovered her on Flickr and then on CakeCentral and the list goes on. Lorraine has generously and tirelessly contributed tutorial after tutorial and gained herself a large and loyal extended family and like any family we eagerly await updates from "Auntie Aine".

Eventually I asked Lorraine how she felt about coming to Texas. She told me that she'd love to come to Texas but at the time she thought I was just being "nice". Little did she know that I was quite serious! Here we are a few months later, having ironed out the details, ready to launch Lorraine to a new, and well deserved, status of "International Superstar".

When you see Lorraine's work it's difficult to believe that she's only been working with fondant for 5 years. She is a self-taught sugar artist who started her cake decorating business in 2004. By 2006 she was already making a name for herself and members of the British SugarCraft Guild approached her to demonstrate her skills at their Edinburgh branch. An admirer and skilled sugar artist herself, Debbie Brown, encouraged Lorraine to take the leap into teaching and demonstrating. While Lorraine has always worked hard to perfect her art, having someone of Debbie's caliber encourage her was a great confidence booster.

In 2007, seeking to share more of her work and herself, Lorraine created her "Extra Icing on the Cake" blog. She soon followed with her first tutorials in her well-known, "Icing on the Cake" series. Interest in her teaching grew to new levels and soon she began having hands-on workshops in her Studio in West Calder. Students began pouring in from around the world to attend her workshops. They arrived at her workshops from as far away as Austria, New Zealand and Turkey. In addition she took on regular workshops for the British SugarCraft Guild throughout Scotland and England.

Having become a Gold Medal Winner at the 2007 NEC Birmingham International Cake Show, this year Lorraine will be returning as a demonstrator and will also be promoting for her favorite fondant supplier, RegalIce. Lorraine hopes to publish a book in the near future and as always we look forward to it with zeal!

Kyla Myers, VP, Capital Confectioners