Have you ever been to Cake International?  if not, you will definitely want to when you’ve seen all of these amazing features…quick go, and get those plane tickets and hotels booked!  Every year the Cake International show really does just keeps getting bigger and better, this year was…well what can I say apart from “WOW”.

Sweet as a Sugar Installation by Sarah Louise Smith

The amount of hard work that goes on behind- the-scenes to make this show happen is just incredible, being part of a feature I was really lucky to arrive on Wednesday afternoon, when the halls were full of workmen busy building the stalls for the exhibitors and setting out a huge amount of tables ready for the competition area and demonstration theatre, it’s hard to believe that these half empty halls will undergo such a transformation over the next two days to be filled with cake and sugar delights, and lots of excited visitors.

There is an excitement that starts to build in the halls as the exhibitors and collaboration artists arrive ready to set up, I can only describe it as a large caking family getting together to celebrate cake in the best way possible.   A really special part of the show for me is the features, where artists from all over the world come together to put on delights of sugar and cake art for everyone to be wowed by and enjoy.

Alice in Wonderland Installation

This year saw the inclusion of lots of new collaborations with more features than have been at previous shows and I was really lucky enough to visit all of them over my three days at the show and am so excited to share them all with you.

Fairytale Forest by Sugar Show Productions

This feature is close to my heart as I have been so lucky to be involved with Sugarshow Productions and their amazing artists since their first feature in 2015.  This collaboration bought together 22 artists for Fairytale forest from all over the UK. Previous features have included Rocky Horror at Cake International in 2015 and Cake Carnival which was in Spring this year.

Fairy Tale Forest

This year the artists certainly didn’t disappoint, the exhibit featured three rooms, the fairy glen, which was light and bright with everything from tiny mice, flowers, gnomes and gingerbread houses, to fairy’s this then lead onto the woodland room which had trees, statues, foxes, and hedgehogs and fairytale folk.  The last room was the deep dark forest which was filled with witches, dragons, a wolf and much more

Fairy Tale Forest

Le Boudoir by French Union

This feature was an absolute delight for the senses, with beautiful French patisserie bought to life in hand sculpted pieces, edible tills and sculptures laid out in a circle with a stunning central cake and edible chair.  It’s hard to believe that this was their first feature at Cake International and only their second time working together as a collaboration.

I spoke to Valentina Bres about this incredible feature, “the feature was created by 20 cake artists in France, we are a little different than other collaborations as all of the artists worked together in one place to create the pieces in Marseille, even the flowers over the arch ways were made by every member of the group after instruction on how to make them”

Valentina also said that they had been inspired after seeing other Cake International features in a magazine, they considered themselves amateur cake artists, but I would say that this feature was anything but. The pastries and cakes looked so real I had to stop myself from picking them up to eat!

Swan Lake by Emma Jayne

Cake International wouldn’t be complete without the incredibly talented Emma Jayne from Emma Jayne Cake Design, and she certainly did not disappoint with her new feature, her previous incredible features have included Neytiri from Avatar in 2014 and Maleficent in 2015/16.

This year her feature was entitled Swan Lake and showcased a stunningly beautiful larger than life ballerina in pose and an incredible swan, both were true works of art with so much movement and grace, that it’s easy to forget that they are made from edible mediums.

I asked Emma where her inspiration had come from for her feature and she said that she had wanted to make something this time which was easily recognizable to everyone, as her previous features had been characters from films, she had been inspired to make a swan after watching swans on a lake when she was on a day out.

Alice in Wonderland – Twisted Sugar Artists

This year saw a new and exciting collaboration bringing together eight incredibly talented sugar artists from the UK, Ireland and Spain to create the most incredible Alice in Wonderland feature.  Who doesn’t love Alice in Wonderland.

It was like stepping back into my childhood visiting this feature, everything from the teapots, figures and animals is hand sculpted, and just look at that incredible backdrop, I didn’t find out until later in the show that it was hand painted by the insanely talented Calli Hopper (I had to go back to have another look as I thought it was a print!)

I just loved this exhibit, all of the tiny details and amazing artistry.

Rhianydd Webb –  The Faraway Tree

This incredible feature was put together in just two weeks by Rhianydd how amazing is that!  It is Rhianydd’s first solo feature at Cake International, and I’m hoping it will be the first of many to come.  The feature is based on a lovely children’s story book by Enid Blyton.  All of the characters looked amazing and even the table is made out of sugarpaste.

I spoke To Rhianydd “I’ve always loved The Faraway Tree, and when we asked the publishers for permission the Enid Blyton society sent over lots of copies of the original drawings”