Paul Bradford Diploma in Sri Lanka

They are pioneers in Sugarcraft with over 7000 students having passed through Finestbakes basic cake courses. To broaden their horizons they reached out to Paul Bradford to see if there was a way Paul could coach and encourage their students.  At the time Paul Bradford Training wasn’t set up to take on such a collaboration. However, the request went beyond cake as there was a lot of unrest in Sri Lanka and the students opportunities were very restricted.

David from Paul Bradford Training and Fathima from Finestbakes worked closely together and came up with a plan to form a collaborative Paul Bradford Diploma.

This allowed Finestbakes students access to CakeFlix tutorials. Paul then set an exam subject and Fathima coached the students to meet the standards set. Paul reviewed each student’s work along the way and those who passed were given a Paul Bradford Diploma.

Our Sri Lankan students face civil unrest due to an unstable government but are very resilient.  Sugarcraft is somewhat different there as students have to make most of their own sugarpaste and gumpaste.  Humidity is very high in Sri Lanka too, which presents cake decorators with a number of challenges. So it’s a testimony to the student’s hard work and perseverance that they have been able to overcome these challenges and create such wonderful cakes.

The cake shown here was made by a 17-year-old student assisted by CakeFlix tutorials and Fathima’s guidance at Finestbakes.

In the past year 22 students have been through the programme created between Paul Bradford Training and Finestbakes and Paul has been overwhelmed with the level of detail and craftsmanship shown. Paul said “It’s humbling to know that students from Sri Lanka are engaging in sugarcraft and against the odds producing some amazing cakes via this collaboration.”  Fathima has been delighted with the collaboration and said “to seek knowledge from cradle to grave has been proved right,  as my students are mainly housewives, and they have started believing that the cake art can be learnt at any stage of life.”

Students received their diplomas at a ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka on the 4th of November 2018.  As you’ll see from the video below it was quite an event and Paul hopes to attend in person next time.

Students are now working on an advanced diploma with new students coming through to start the introductory one.

Paul is looking forward very much to seeing the next set of cakes coming through for assessment and further building the relationship with Finestbakes.