Gary Chapman & His Cakes A Biography
Gary Chapman & His Cakes: A Biography Gary Chapman worked in book publishing for most of his professional life and first developed an interest in sugarcraft in the early 1990s when he joined Merehurst Publishing Company as Marketing Director. Merehurst at the time, had built up a worldwide reputation as the leading publisher of cake decorating books. Gary helped launch the company in the USA at the ICES Shows and raised the profile of many leading decorators including Nicholas Lodge, Elaine MacGregor, Cynthia Venn and many others. He also brought new techniques and ideas to the fore including Sarah Gleave’s stenciling concepts when working for Letts Publishing. When he was young he was very artistic and found he rather enjoyed modelling in clay and painting and drawing. Sugarcraft offered him a new artistic expression. Invigorated by this exciting edible art medium he set up Iced Delights in the early 1990s, invented the new technique of fabric effects in sugar, published his own book Fabric Effects in Sugar and gave demonstrations and classes all over the UK and the USA. He also pioneered the use of home decorating painting techniques for cake decorating such as ragging, sponging and stippling. The cover of the new edition of the book Fabric Effects in Sugar, originally published in 1993
Above : Then Below : Now
At first his unique style did not go down too well. Cakes were dainty, with pastel colour schemes and botanically correct miniature flowers. Gary was brash, bold and wanted to do something new and different and make a mark. Needless to say, over the years his creative innovations such as his use of colour, recreating fabric out of sugar, the use of light and dark contrasting paste, painting techniques, the creation of vases, unusual cake tops, various types of bows and fantasy flowers have influenced many people and his ideas have become part of mainstream cake decorating.
Some of the original experiments with fabric effects in sugar - bows, flowers, leaves and hangings and the use of doublesided paste
Innovations and experiments with painting and embossing swathes of sugar fabric
Exotic wedding cake 1990s
Experiments with paint effects, early 1990s
His passion for the Jazz Age of the 1920s has given him a unique source of inspiration. He has an extensive collection of costume designs and illustrations from the period that offer valuable ideas and colour schemes. He has also been continually inspired by modern couture and millinery. He also found further inspiration from books that taught the art of ribbon flower making, ironically enough, a trend which reached a peak in the 1920s.
A wedding cake with vertical stencilled swathes of fabric, bows and simple folk art flowers (c1995). The finished cake and original sketch (to right)
Later, he launched and was Editor for the first ever mass-market cake decorating magazine. He also produced Iced and Easy, a cake book for the big UK newsagent chain of W.H. Smith, and provided display pieces for exhibitions of edible art called ‘A Taste of Art’.
Iced and Easy for W.H. Smith (below) and the Ugly Sister (right) for an exhibition of edible art
A few pieces of work from the early days
After another period in publishing he reformed Iced Delights in 1999 and became one of the top 10 wedding cake makers in London. More recently, he left London for a quieter life in Stroud and the Cotswolds and is fortunate in being able to follow his various passions : publishing, writing, the Jazz Age and cake decorating. His online Craftsy class is called Rolled Fondant Flowers but it is in fact a class about Fabric Effect Flowers. For several years he was one of the judges for Knightsbridge-PME at their live competitions at the cake shows at the NEC, Birmingham and Excel, London. He is now focusing more on publishing new cake books and books about the 1920s.
New and latest work Gary Chapman has continued to create and develop innovative and new ideas but at the same time remain true to his love of fabric effects in sugar
His new book Classic Fabric Flowers in Sugar will be published 27th April 2015
Gary Chapman’s website dedicated to the Jazz Age is at www.jazzageclub.com, his new publishing venture Edditt Publishing is at www.eddittpublishing.com and his cake website is at www.garychapmancakes.com. He also has Facebook pages for Gary Chapman Cakes and the Jazz Age Club.