My sugar coated life...: Airbrushing with DinkyDoodle

DinkyDoodle Airbrush box featuring Dawn's cakes

I'm like a kid at Christmas - today is the day I get to break open my new airbrush and learn how to make cakey magic with it! Ok so that *might* be an over exaggeration but I'm still darn excited to be adding another cake skill to my portfolio.

A few months back the lovely Dawn at Dinkydoodle Designs very generously gifted me a brand new airbrush hot off the press. Any Nottingham based baker will tell you how generous is with her time and skills and I was so chuffed to be the new owner of one of her branded products.

I've been lusting after an airbrush for some time (maybe Dawn was just giving me one to shut me up?!) and whilst I'm self taught with most of my decorating skills I really think that using a piece of kit like this requires some guidance. Dawn has a series of DVD's that you can purchase alongside her airbrush and I'm sure these would be just as good at showing me what to do but I have the luxury of living near Dawn and she kindly invited myself and Maidie around for a one-to-one lesson to get us started with our new kit.

My lovely pink airbrush compressor

Now, I'm not one of those bakers who has to buy every new piece of kit that comes onto the market and my limited funds mean I really consider every new purchase before buying an item but I can already tell that the airbrush is going to be worth the cost. Within 30mins of Dawn's lesson I was already comfortably using my airbrush to colour in stencils and create design patterns on paper. The airbrush itself is really lightweight and could be used easily by a right handed or left handed person. I don't have great maneuverability in my hands and I found this piece of kit really easy to control and Dawn has paid a lot of attention into the design especially by adding an on/off button that's easy to use when you're in the midsts of a cake project!

I think I'll use my airbrush in the same way I use my lustre dusts - to add definition and detail. I thought the set up would be complicated but it's really straight forward so as long as I keep my airbrush clean then it'll be a pretty quick piece of kit to set up and use. You can of course use it to completely colour a cake and Dawn's gallery shows the full range of cakes you can create.

We used a few brands of airbrush paint and Dawn also has her own range which is stunning. The metallic colours are really effective and I can see myself using these A LOT! We practiced today on sheets of paper and fondant covered boards so I have no cake pictures to show you but as soon as I do a cake using my airbrush I will share it with you so you can see the effects.

Check me out with my paper towel airbrushing skills

In the meantime please do check out Dawn's site here. It's not often you meet people who are happy to share their skills and Dawn joins the realms of other Nottingham bakers who I'm proud to call friends :)