The Book That Wasn't

As I was saying earlier, I did try to make a book cake once before. It was for one of my best friends in the whole world. I am lucky to have two! A and I must have been twins in some past life (if I believed in that sort of thing) and P is my soul sister in this one. 

There are three things P loves among other things in life: A good book, A cup of tea and lazy chit chat sessions, and when she turned 40, I wanted to bake her a surprise cake around these three things so that it would be more meaningful to her.

My first idea was to make a book cake for her. "Gone with the Wind" is her favourite book so that seemed to be the obvious choice despite the ugliness of the cover. So painstakingly I painted a book cover for her. You can read here to know how I make book covers. I let it dry till it was ready to go on the cake and then I fought with my husband. I don't know what we fought about  but I remember it was one of those "kids driving us crazy" days and he made some comment about how I get time to do what I love and that he doesn't. Now in the interest of full disclosure, this is strange coming from him because he is one of the most supportive people in my life. Anyhow he must have had an especially bad day because that is what he said. And in retrospect, in what now seems to be a highly melodramatic move, I picked up the book cover and smashed it into smithereens onto the marble floor. But not before I took a picture!

Sorry P, you didn't get your book cake! and now I didn't have enough time to make one and let it dry so I considered my other options. I had seen some gum paste tea cups online but they looked awfully difficult to make, nevertheless I decided to give it a try. Since I hadn't told her I was bringing a cake, it wouldn't matter if I got her a handbag or something instead. 

So I followed an online tutorial to make the tea cup and saucer. I handpainted the teacup with food colours and gave the children strict instructions (glaring eyes and all) to stay far away from the teacup

I made some sugar pearls, some roses and some biscuits to go with the tea cup. Here is a photograph I took before I went off to attend her party

And what a party it was P! Never seen a more lively bunch of people in my life! Hey, don't expect a cake every year okay?