At right: Nancy Walker of St. Ignace displays what she learned at the cake decorating class, with event coordinator Mary Lynn Swiderski. Event organizers with the Mackinac County Child Protection Roundtable for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention knew that they wanted an event involving food, at board member Fred Feleppa's suggestion, Mrs. Swiderski said. “We initially suggested something healthy,” Mrs. Swiderski said of the brainstorming session. “But he said 'no.' He wanted something we could really indulge in.” Twenty-eight people attended the class, a fundraiser for the Roundtable. With a sudden April snowstorm frosting the ground outside, the pastry chef looked out the window, wondering if the weather would deter the nearly 28 people signed up for her cake-decorating class. So many people signed up for the Thursday, April 8, demonstration at the Quality Inn on Boulevard Drive in St. Ignace that the event's organizers were turning potential participants away earlier in the week.

Pastry chef Donna Louwers kneels before Katie Stelzer to demonstrate cutting the skin off a chiffon cake. Ms. Stelzer was impressed by the beauty of the cakes on display and eager to decorate her own. “I want to learn to frost cakes in a different way and all the different techniques behind frosting them,” she said. Donna Louwers, a pastry chef at Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, under the direction of executive pastry chef John Pokora, had been asked to host a similar class numerous times, but it was an offer to dovetail her instruction with a Mackinac County Child Protection Roundtable for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention fundraiser that convinced her to don the apron.

All of the elements lined up for Ms. Louwers, from the motivation for the course to the class content.

Karen Johnson of Cedarville is all smiles at the cake decorating class in St. Ignace. The tough part would be figuring out a way to get her cake home, she said. “This time it was for a good cause,” said the chef, who will return to work on the Island later this month. “It's a class that allows you to decorate a cake in an elegant manner. The object is to make it look so good that you can't wait to take a bite of it.”

The decorating tips the participants learned strayed from piping and trim, which Ms. Louwers described as a class in itself, and focused on simple, yet elegant cake designs. Everything in the demonstration was done using easily attainable ingredients, so participants could transfer what they learned into their own kitchens.

Examples of decorative elements included fresh fruit, ground nuts, and shaved chocolate. Presentation is taken one step further in ensuring the tablecloth, plate, and flower arrangement all complement the dessert.

“If you're going to go through the work of making a cake, you want to dazzle someone,” Ms. Louwers said. “Not every dessert is going to look good on the same plate.”

The chef was adamant that her art goes beyond aesthetics, telling students that she includes taste in her elements of presentation.

“We've all been to a function where the cake looks fantastic,” she said. “People are going to be disappointed if the flavor is not there. It has to taste good. It is my belief that when you bake, cook, or do anything with food, you should use the best ingredients.”

This devotion to ingredients includes sticking to the recipe, said the chef. If the recipe calls for vanilla beans rather than vanilla extract, there's a reason for that.

“There's no comparison to the best ingredients,” Ms. Louwers said. “If you're going to cut your corners, cut them somewhere else. If I make that table look amazing, but the taste's not there, I've wasted everybody's time.”

After a demonstration, which included using a blowtorch to heat a knife for mess-less cake-cutting, Ms. Louwers presented each participant with a cake of their own to decorate. The cake, along with access to decorating elements, was part of the $15 participation donation.

Nancy Walker of St. Ignace skimmed the top off of the cake, trying to decide which of the five cake options she wanted to choose. The choices were chiffon, devil's food, Boston crème pie, and two types of gluten-free chocolate cake.

“I was a home economics major in college, so I like to see what's new and what's old in cooking,” she said. “The opportunity to see a gal who is a pastry chef at the Grand Hotel was really a draw. Also, I have nine grandchildren, so there seems to be no shortage of people to test what I make.”

Most of the 28 community members who signed up for the class did show up, regardless of the unexpected snow on the ground. Karen Johnson from Cedarville said it was an opportunity she was happy to brave the weather for.

“The trick will be getting it home without getting it all over the car,” she said of the cake. “I think the class really was wonderful. If they had more food-oriented classes, I'd go to all of them. If there's food, I'm there.”

Ms. Louwers was impressed by the turnout and may consider having more courses in the off-season. The Roundtable was also pleased with the results. Mary Swiderski of the Roundtable noted this month also included children planting a pinwheel garden at American Legion Park in St. Ignace and a youth bowling party planned for Tuesday, April 20, at Gateway Lanes in St. Ignace.