Monday 23 September 2013

A cake for a VIP

















A few weeks ago, when it was still Summer (doesn't it seem so long ago?) I made a very, very special special VIP birthday cake. It was for my Mum who turned seventy (if you could all please leave comments saying you can't believe it, and that she looks so young, you will make her giddy with happiness!). I had planned a Frida Kahlo inspired cake, but then I received directions (via my Dad) that she wanted a cake that would make reference to various times of her life. Mmm... I thought, a fussy client! 


So I decided to paint some vignettes of her garden, which has been transformed from a literal wilderness to a beautiful, peaceful haven by both my parents. 
My Mum's early career was as a jazz and blues singer, she had a couple of albums released and still loves to sing at any opportunity to this day. So I incorporated some lyrics from one of her songs, fittingly enough they are about a garden. She has since trained and worked as a fine artist, so I copied one of her paintings onto the cake.
Just as she was born a butterfly flew into the room and my Nana always called my Mum her 'butterfly', so I had to include that in the cake.

(My Mum's photos from her Facebook page that I used to create the design)

Finally, on the reverse, I created a slightly unusual family tree made made up of penguins, my Dad is a potter and these are one of his best sellers, every member of the family has received one of these beauties at some time or other. 


She was delighted with her cake, and as all three tiers were made from fruit cake my parents are still eating it!
xxx

Friday 20 September 2013

Floral wedding cake











































Last weekend was something of a blur as I was demonstrating at the Cake and Bake Show in London, I also had a dessert table on display and two wedding cakes as part of Squires Kitchen Wedding Cake of the Future exhibition. As if this wasn't enough I had a hen party to attend and a wedding cake to deliver.
This is the wedding cake, it was ordered by the very sweet groom, who I discovered pacing the hotel lobby when I delivered the cake. We had never met, discussing the design over emails and the phone. He asked for the design to match in style the bridesmaids dresses, which were made from a quite expressionistic fabric.



 I really enjoyed creating this design as it was a little bit different to what I would normally paint, it was very bright and fresh and the groom seemed thrilled.
xxx