Just Eat Cake

It’s been a tough few weeks for us hence why I’ve been absent for the past couple of weeks.  Firstly, we had to return our puppy to the breeder as she just couldn’t settle in a house full of cats.  This was a heartbreaking decision but we had to do what was right for the puppy.  Next, my Mum had to go into a nursing home as my Dad was exhausted, being her full-time carer.  This has been enormously emotional and has really taken its toll on Dad so we’ve been looking after him.  I’ve had no time to do any card making so instead, I’m sharing a cake I made for one of the Project 71 veteran’s 100^th birthday.

My card last week (on social media) was for a very special man, Len, who I often give a lift to Project 71 events.  During our journeys, Len and I often chat about growing vegetables and he always asks how my rhubarb is doing.  Not brilliantly, as it goes.  So, an allotment was the theme I decided on, inspired by this cake I made for my dad a few years ago.

Whilst I’ve been watching Wimbledon (I love tennis at Wimbledon!) this week, I’ve been making vegetables using fondant icing and left them to air-dry.

To make the lettering to personalise the cake, I used my Tappits alphabet cutters and left the letters to dry so they’d harden and be easier to put on the cake.

I baked a Madeira style cake and split it, adding strawberry jam and buttercream to the middle, then adding a crumb coat of buttercream all over the outside.

For the background of the veg patch, I covered the top of the cake with green fondant icing and added the lettering.  I then piped brown buttercream to make the veg beds and added some crushed Flake on top.

The next job is my favourite as adding the vegetables really brings the cake to life.   I used dried spaghetti to create the climbing bean wigwam.

To cover the edges of the cake, I used Cadbury’s Fingers.  I set up our cook’s blow torch and quickly passed the back of each finger across the flame to soften the chocolate before pressing them onto the side of the cake.

Finally, since I had a few vegetables left, I decided to ice a larger board to add a small border around the main cake.

I was really happy with how the finished cake looked.

Here’s a close-up of the pumpkins, red cabbages and lettuces.

The back bed featured rhubarb, cabbages, courgette and the climbing bean wigwam.