"So what about the cakes?" You're asking. Well if you read Cake Meets Canvas Part 1 you'll understand the concept behind the exhibition and you'll have read about the amazing creative friends who collaborated with me to make the exhibition a success.
What did I do? As well as designing and creating the exhibition wedding cakes I also baked. In fact, I baked and I baked and I baked! I couldn't invite you all to an exhibition about cake and then not give you any to try now could I?
My passion (as well as raw, old, urban buildings and wedding cakes) is inclusion. I think everyone should be able to eat cake and I always ask my wedding cake clients if they have guests with needs that will not be fullfilled with a 'fully loaded' wedding cake. They may have vegan guests, gluten free guests or guests with certain food allergies or an intolerance. I love to make sure everyone is catered for with the wedding cakes I design. For example, if the couple don't want a full vegan wedding cake or gluten free wedding cake then they can incorporate a tier within their cake. An alternative would be to have an extra cutting cake for guests with dietary requirements to have so they are included in the cake eating.
In preparation for the exhibition I looked back at my most popular cake flavours, the ones that get the best feedback. These were the ones to share. I had also been experimenting with new vegan cake and vegan cupcake recipes and had good feedback locally from my favourite vegan taste tester.
Once I had my list of cakes sorted, I started the enjoyable part, the baking. However, my biggest challenge was how to transport them all to the Fly Tower freshly baked and in one piece.
I chose to make a mixture of cutting cakes and lots of cupcakes. I wanted to have a 'Sunday Tea at Grandma's House' vibe, rustic and home made looking. After all there would be lots of creative, slick finished wedding cakes to look at in the exhibition. I eventually decided I would decorate and finish most of them off at the venue making them easier to transport, although time would be short. Armed with lots of boiling soapy water, disinfectant spray and bleach spray I made myself a beautifully sterile cake finishing area within this sprawling room and started to decorate (very rustically)!
It worked! The finished desert table certainly looked like my vision. The most popular cakes? Well I'm told the vegan Bakewell Tart Cupcakes were amazing (although I didn't get to try one as they were all gone) and the fully loaded Coffee and Walnut cake was delicious. I have to admit most of the cake was eaten and washed down with most of the cava (vegan obvs). I managed to try a few crumbs at the end of the evening! I think I chatted to people who were eating vegan and gluten free cakes and had no idea (some people just didn't read the beautiful labels)!
So I thought I'd share one of those favourite recipes with you so you can try it yourself.
Just follow this link and you will find my vegan Bakewell Tart Cupcakes recipe.
As a bonus if you sign up to my subscription list then I will send you my amazing Coffee and Walnut Cake recipe too as well as keeping you up to date with latest offers and events.
Happy baking everyone and don't forget to message me a picture of your finished masterpiece (if it doesnt get eaten up first).
If you want to know more about the exhibition cakes and artwork then stayed tuned, Cake Meets Canvas - Part 3 is coming soon.
Lisa x
All photos by Marnvi V Photograhy
All cake by Urban Cakehouse