That’s right - this cake was made for a death-defying, high-flying, seriously kick-ass lady aerialist who performes using long lengths of silk. If you’ve never seen an aerialist performing, then check out this video from YouTube just to give you an idea. It’s a cross between dancing and moving sculpture and takes tremendous amount of physical control. Very cool!
I really enjoyed making this one. This was commissioned as a surprise by her husband for her birthday, and includes nods to her many interests and accomplishments. The fondant is marbled white/soft purple. The top tier is rose cake with strawberry preserves, and the bottom tier is lavender cake with blackberry preserves.
Edit on 5/8/09: Okay, I got some nice photos from the client, and only now finally got around to uploading them. That’s going to be a theme for me this week I think. I changed the top photo because I thought they set it up quite beautifully, and here is a photo of the inside of the top tier rose-strawberry cake, which I did in very vivid colored rainbow swirls. The bottom tier is also in swirled rainbow, but in more Springtime sort of bright pastels.
My letting and painting skills are slowly improving. But in case you can’t read or tell what all of that is, here you go: “K” for her name; “Ayoo ‘ anoshni!” is I love you in Navaho; “¡Feliz cumpleaños!” is Happy Birthday in Spanish; a medical symbol for her in-progress nursing degree; Bibliophile for her love of reading/writing; a microscope for her degree in microbiology; a rose; a badly done Rock Band drum set; a ball of yarn and knitting needles; two foils for fencing; a “Censored” block; and the line “As you wish” from the Princess Bride movie/book. Also, I included some sparkling candles as a nod to her (and her husband’s) interest in professional pyrotechnics.
The sculpture I made using sculptey and baked in my oven, so they’d have a keepsake ornament. I used a photo online to guide me, and also had a friend who’s involved in a lot of performance art help make sure I did the ‘rigging’ authentically. It was a fun little puzzle.
That was done one evening, the baking another, and the layering, construction and decoration was all done on Saturday. We had a bunch of friends over that day to play board/card games, which meant I had an audience for this (as well as the occasional sounding board or helper willing to spend a half hour rolling out little balls of fondant for me). That’s why there’s a picture of me working on the cake - one of our friends picked up the camera and caught me. It’s just more proof of how very glamourous this work is. ;P
Hadden | 21-Apr-09 at 3:56 pm | Permalink
The cake was AMAZING and loved by all. Thanks so much for making her Birthday so special.
michele | 30-Apr-09 at 5:54 pm | Permalink
I’m an aerialist and I love this cake. Big pat on the back to the man who had this made for his lady. Bigger pat on your back for creating it.