Hello from ‘Queen Dee’ better known as
Deirdre Cruite
I was in Portugal nursing a Cocktail or two
when I heard the familiar beep on the mobile indicating a face book message. I
had a quick look and saw something about ‘Edible Art’ I thought nothing of it ,
within 60 seconds ,another 10-20 beeps- so I figured I’d better have a look. Niamh and half of my cake buddies were
discussing something about ‘Edible Art’ for Culture Night and asking who was
in. Without much thought I posted ‘I’m in’. In the following days there were
discussions on what picture to choose and finally a picture by Simone Walsh was
chosen.
On my return I got a clearer understanding of what ‘I’m in’ actually meant. In mid August I like
many others eagerly waited for the postman to arrive with my envelope which was
to contain a photograph of my section of the cake, I looked at it, posted it on
face book then studied it again, and then put it away. In the weeks that followed my thoughts kept
going back to the many colours and textures in the picture almost 5 different
shades of blue for the sea and pinks and purples for the boat. I wanted to give
the picture some depth. In the end I decided to use royal icing, run outs and
off set pieces.
I began my preparation three weeks ago, I
prepared my boards for icing, and I flooded out one entire piece and then the houses
and mountains. I did separate run outs for the boat and lighthouse.
The sea effect was made using royal icing
in 4 different colour blues and one white, I ran all the colours into each
other and then swirled them with cocktail stick. When all the pieces were dry I
placed boat and light house in the correct area. After looking at my own work I
felt the houses looked a little lost, so I made a run out for them also. When
all pieces were in place I piped all the extra detail and painted them gold. When you look down on the picture the boat
and lighthouse are raised higher then the water and the mountain looks like it
is behind the houses. Using cake boards I constructed a makeshift box/tin to
ensure I had the exact measurements for the chocolate biscuit cake and it
worked pretty well with the exception of a few shavings. I was most concerned
about the angles of the cake being correct as it had to fit perfectly with many
others.
I really enjoyed the experience of
participating in such a wonderful project with such a great bunch of people.
The banter, chat and support on face book has been enormous between friends and
the anticipation of seeing 50 cakes becoming one has been so exciting.
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