American Cake Decorating magazine just loves a good collaboration, and this stunning collection of William Joyce inspired cakes definitely doesn’t disappoint. This colorful collaboration was the brainchild of Heather Mcgrath of Cakepunk. The collaboration unveiled yesterday, with even William Joyce himself commenting positively on the group’s incredible homage to his life’s work. We interviewed collaboration administrator Corinna Maguire of Lovin’ from the oven, and share some of our favorite pieces from this delightful showcase. To see more wonderful cakes from this collaboration visit the collaboration facebook page at: www.facebook.com/SweetBillJoyce
Toothiana by Corinna Maguire
Please tell us a little about the collaboration, who are the organizers and admins?
Heather McGrath from Cakepunk, award winning cake decorator from Alberta Canada, came up with the great idea of a collaboration celebrating the works of the author and illustrator William Joyce. After she asked me to join the collaboration I offered to help out where I could as I’m also a Graphic Designer and love to get stuck in to projects.
How many people are featured in the collaboration?
There are 37 amazing cake artists from all around the world who went all out in recreating some of William Joyce’s works.
Ollie by Nathasja Flapper
What was the inspiration behind the collaboration, and why did you choose this inspiration?
The inspiration, as per the title of the collaboration, was the works of William Joyce. Each time Heather picked up one of his books to read to her children at night, she kept imagining what they would be like as cake. (As all cakers tend to do). So what better way to bring this idea to life than through a collaboration!?
How did you approach the task of inviting and organizing the collaboration members?
After inviting some of our very talented cake friends, we found people whose work who we liked and admired and contacted each artist individually while crossing our fingers in hope. They all got on board with us and we were thrilled. And I have to say that its been a blast getting to know everyone.
Rise of the Guardians inspired design by Manuela Lalla-Blasi
What were some of the challenges in organizing the collaboration?
Heather had only been in a couple of collaborations previously, so figuring out the logistics was tricky. The website design was also a challenge as we weren’t web developers. With a little help in laying things out at the start from Heather’s friend Kim from Fruition Studio in Calgary, Heather managed to make her way through and we worked it out ourselves from there.
Tell us about your piece?
My own piece is Toothiana, the tooth fairy from Rise of the Guardians. I actually made her well in advance to give her a surprise appearance in the live fairy woodland collaboration for the Dublin Sugarcraft show, Away With The Fairies. I’m glad I did too – so that I could concentrate on the collaboration design instead of my piece.
Sock Stalker by Caroline Nagorcka
What are some of your favorite pieces, and why?
This is a really difficult question. The standard of cakes in this collaboration was so high that it’s incredibly hard to choose just a few. But at gunpoint I suppose I’d have to pick…
Nathasja Flapper’s Ollie was brilliant and I love the fact that she has taken progress pictures of it. Isabel Tamargo’s piece of Morris from The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. While it’s not a direct image from the book it’s a good visual representation of it.
Jennifer Jenkins Kennedy’s piece of E. Aster Bunnymund was brilliant, bringing to life an actual sketch to a 3D cake. Caroline Nagorcka’s piece of the Sock Stalker from the book, The Mischievians was incredibly adorable and accurate too. And who can leave out, Theresa Taubrich’s Jack Frost. Not only was it structurally challenging but it was also completely true to the character. I’m forcing myself to stop there – as there’s so many others that are also my favorites. Seriously… I could go on all night.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris by Isabel Tamargo
Will you be reprising this collaboration again next year, and if so, how can people become involved?
This was most likely a once off collaboration but who knows what will happen in the future. It’s been a fantastic result and I couldn’t be more proud of a project as I am of this now. And even more exciting has been the response from William Joyce himself!
To see the full selection of works please visit
The Stinker by Sylwia Sobiegraj
About Corinna
Corinna Maguire
Corinna Maguire is originally a self employed Graphic Designer from Alberta, Canada and is now settled in the West coast of Ireland with her husband and 2 kids. After making her friend’s Wedding cake 8 years ago her addiction with cakes began. Awards in competitions and unique collaborations encouraged her to keep pushing her limits and she is now teaching cake decorating classes online, locally and internationally and loving it all.
www.lovinfromtheoven.ie
www.facebook.com/lovinfromtheoven.ie
