The cake needed to be classic with a contemporary twist and have enough presence to hold its own in a grand hall full of marble, chandeliers and gold.

To tie in with the purple and ivory colour scheme, 180 roses were hand moulded in three shades of purple, separating each tier of plain ivory. Pale cream grosgrain and deep purple satin from London’s finest haberdashery VV Rouleaux trimmed the tiers, adding texture and definition.

The finishing touch to this 7 tier beauty was a gorgeous posy of fresh flowers provided by Pesh Flowers, comprising of sensational memory lane roses, anemones, and lisianthus which had to be added with the aid of a step ladder as there wasn’t anyone at the venue tall enough to reach the top!

And because all cake should taste as good as it looks, there were 4 different flavour combinations: Belgian chocolate cake filled with bitter chocolate meringue buttercream, sticky stem ginger cake filled with Madagascan vanilla meringue buttercream, carrot and pecan cake filled with citrus trio meringue buttercream, lemon cake filled with lemon curd and lemon meringue buttercream.

This was a majestic wedding cake, taller than even the giant table centrepieces, and it was a fabulous way to start this year. Here’s to many more glorious venues and grand wedding cake designs!

The central bar was decorated with hundreds of lemons and the arches lit in colours to match the citrine and amethyst colour scheme.

The flavours too needed to be extra decadent and after putting together a selection of delicious combinations we settled on salted chocolate caramel, fresh mint and banoffee- all double dipped in dark chocolate and then rolled in three shades of finest cocoa powder. The cocoa powder helped to distinguish the flavours and add texture and tone to the final display. Custom ‘display cakes’ were made and covered in a textured chocolate brown and bronze paper before the cake truffles on their bespoke black sticks were individually inserted into the sides at the venue.

My lovely assistant for the day putting the finishing touches to the mirrored base.

There were two displays- one with cutting cake as the top tier- standing on clear plinths dripping with swarovski crystals and placed perfectly opposite each other at either side of the dance floor. At least 360 cake truffles were hand rolled, double dipped in chocolate and dusted with cocoa, a volume of cake truffles I would not rush into again lightly but am glad to be able to say I achieved single handedly! The result was a very unusual wedding cake which added individuality to an elegant and sensational wedding. The venue was a joy to set up at, the grandeur of the building together with the sound of the song the couple would first dance to, created an exciting atmosphere full of anticipation. I’m delighted to also be able to share a teaser trailer of Tina and Malli’s wedding day- a beautiful cinematic video which captures the mood of the day, the cake and the very stunning bride!

A special mention to the incredibly organised Jeannine de Sousa from Illyria Events, who made a spectacular wedding on a large scale come to life, Zenith Cinematography for the incredible video production and Chantal Flores Design for the beautiful flowers and display plinths kindly borrowed for the cake displays.

Here are snaps of some of my favourite things spotted:

The exquisite Klimt cake, inspired by 'The Kiss'. The photos do not do this beauty justice- the level of detail and immaculate finish make this one of my very favourites.

This Alice in Wonderland cake is obviously inspired by the recent film and the superb rendering of the characters make this a novelty cake I can get on board with. Full of personality and perfect technique, I still can't get over the piped scrolls on the bottom tier!

Contemporary takes on the Christmas theme, these really stood out in the category. The one on the right has elements of my own ruffled cakes, and each layer was perfectly and neatly ruffled- I appreciate the work that takes.

Elegant cakes which grabbed my attention for being different. The couture black and ivory number on the left has clearly been inspired by Cake Lava and their distinctive tall and skinny cake tiers.

Lindy Smiths' stand stood out among the other retailers, boasting the biggest crowd, all the Lindy's Cakes paraphenalia and most importantly, striking display cakes that looked contemporary and relevant. The strong aesthetic won me over, and I'm not a Lindy disciple.

Display cupcakes showing the potential of Sugarveil. Beautiful, fine lace made from a special sugar mix invented in the US, this actually looks like really lace.

The Cake Craft World stand seemed to have become the 'Mich Turner Merchandise' stand... Their own stock seemed a token offering in comparison. I did also get to enjoy a lovely flower demo by an absolute pro.

I’m not sure I’ll return next year as I just felt it was geared massively to online sugarcraft shops selling their wares to giddy cake enthusiasts. I would have liked to seen more innovation within the competitions, but the standard was very high, and worth seeing if you appreciate skill and craftmanship. Perhaps my expectations were set too high, but Cake International 2011 lacked a bit of soul and inspiration for me.

Custom 5 tier cake display stand trimmed in crystals

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to come up with some cupcakes for a black and white themed 21st birthday party. The birthday girl in question was stylish, a huge fashion fan and very glamorous so I decided to run with a couture inspired theme.

Shimmer roses and ruffled rosettes with edible diamonds

These cupcakes had to be dazzling, blinged up to the max and have everyone talking, and as soon as edible diamonds were mentioned we knew they were going to have the wow factor! A custom display stand was made to tie the whole theme together, with glass crystal beads trimming each tierfor that extra element of decadence.

Quilted chanel and fondant bows

They were ordered by a wonderful lady who has been very generous and supportive to me and I’m delighted that both she and the birthday girl loved them as much as I did making them.

Monogrammed with the birthday girl's initials and studded 21 plaques

Drain the coconut before opening and save all the delicious water

Rosana was a wonderful host, taking charge of the cake recipe in her miniscule but oh so stylish kitchen and enthusing about the wonderful variety in Brazilian cooking. She showed me exactly how to open a fresh coconut and to check for optimal freshness- when you shake it you should hear plenty of coconut water rattling around.

Once open, she whipped out this fantastic tool from Brazil which perfectly shreds the coconut with very little effort, making fine strands which melt in the mouth. I think I’ve managed to convince Rosana to bring one back for me after her next trip, it will be fantastic to add fresh coconut to the Bake until Scrumptious menu!

Smash the coconut with a hammer to open. This handheld shredder makes extracting the flesh so easy.

The cake itself was an amazingly fragrant coconut and lime, which was then filled with a traditional Brazilian coconut and condensed milk mixture as well as some of my very zesty lime curd for a twist on an English classic.

It's so easy to roll out icing and stamp shapes in bright colours.

Decoration wise, Rosana wanted to take her cake decorating skills up a notch and so I showed her how to make simple roses, butterflies and free form cut out shapes. I wanted to keep it simple to show what you can achieve as a home baker with little or no specialist sugarcraft equipment- the roses are the perfect example of this as you can make them with supermarket bought ready to roll icing and then just form with your hands. Of course with it being Brazilian cake the colours had to be bright and full of sunshine!

Shapes cut free hand in bright colours make a simple and striking decoration.

Despite the sudden burst of sun beaming down on Rosana as she grappled with the tricky melting sugarpaste, she persevered and I was really impressed with how quickly she picked it up. After all the fun we were left with a lot of cake and I can confirm that it is totally delicious for breakfast with a strong cup of coffee. Give it a go, the basic cake is very straight forward and the flavour is guaranteed to make you

smile!

The final two cakes using our handmade decorations.

You can find full recipes on Rosana’s blog Hot and Chilli, which is also full of Brazilian specialities and great places to eat in London.

London Biscuit Icing Workshop

Introducing a brand new biscuit icing workshop, held at the Bake until Scrumptious kitchen we share with Suzanne James Ltd. Learn the secrets of perfectly iced luxury biscuits in this 2 hour workshop where you will be introduced to the art of royal icing, including piping outlines for your biscuits and the flooding technique for creating a perfectly smooth finish. We will show you how to design your very own luxe biscuits before you are unleashed on trays of buttery baked biscuits, in this relaxed and informative workshop.

Next date:

22nd August 2011 7pm-9pm

Full details and tickets can be found listed here.

Introduction to sugarpaste decorations and perfect buttercream swirls

London Cupcake Workshop

If you fancy turning your hand to some cupcake decorating we also teach workshops hosted by the lovely ladies over at The Scarlet Peacock. Held at a venue in central East Dulwich, London, they run for a couple of hours in the evening and make a really fun evening out for those wanting an introduction to making your own sugarpaste decorations. We’ll go through a variety of techniques that are easily achievable at home and create a beautifully professional look.

Next date:

20th October 2011 7pm-9pm

Full details and tickets can be found on The Scarlet Peacock website.

Hero and Leandro by Cy Twombly

Twombly & Poussin: Arcadian Painters takes the work of contemporary artist Cy Twombly and 17^th century classical painter Nicolas Poussin and joins the visually disparate by their common theme of Arcadia. Twombly was a huge influence on me while at art school, as I painted canvases taller than me and developed my own abstract style, so I was suitably inspired to see his large scale work in the flesh.

Funerary Box by Cy Twombly

I particularly loved the colour and texture of ‘Hero and Leandro’ and with the sad news of Twombly’s recent death, a tribute in cake form was born. Using royal icing and edible pigment powder, I was able to mix colours and paint exactly as I would onto canvas.

Inspired by the colours and texture of Twombly's 'Hero and Leandro'

The gallery is also a stunning wedding venue which I’ve seen first hand come alive as I set up a cake and this time I even caught a glimpse as I was leaving of a stylish bride arriving, complete with white fur bolero and 1920s head dress!

Dulwich Picture Gallery set up for a banquet

©Helen Jermyn, 2011

©Helen Jermyn, 2011

We initially met through Twitter, but it wasn’t until we got together for coffee and a slice of cake that we realised we had so much to talk about, and a shared vision of a miniature cake photo-project. After agreeing on the general mood of the shoot, it was down to me to come up with some designs and it was as I was roughly sketching, that the idea of solely using fresh flowers as a spin on the classic sugarcraft versions, came to me. I love to use fresh flowers where possible with my cake designs as I think the natural vibrancy offsets icing beautifully, bringing the cake to life in a way that sugar flowers just cannot compete with. However, I approach flowers from a designers perspective by looking at the colour and form available to me in that moment as I stand in the florists’, and the result is that I am embarrassingly bad at naming blooms- as pointed out to me when Helen asked me specifically what were the flowers that I had sketched! It was at this point that we went to Fran Bailey of The Fresh Flower Company to help us identify which varieties would be available to us to create the look I had dreamt up and she kindly offered to support the project.

©Helen Jermyn, 2011

©Helen Jermyn, 2011

When it came to the photoshoot, I whipped up lovely fragrant cakes of raspberry and fresh mint, earl grey with apricot and rose sponge with almond and honey to tie in with the Summery English garden feel. Together we styled the shots, concentrating on capturing the natural light and keeping the composition simple to let the flowers and cakes stand out- pilfering Helen’s garden for fennel fronds and little wild flowers along the way. The caged flower cake had me on edge, as I lowered the fine royal icing structure with wobbling hands at the last possible moment!

Flowerona

We were fortunate to have the project featured in three fantastic online magazines- Flowerona, the Foodie Bugle, and Dulwich on View.

The Foodie Bugle

Dulwich On View