CELEBRATION CAKE Cake · 18TH BIRTHDAY
Ava's Mad Hatter's Tea Party
Whenever Bec comes to me with a theme for her family's birthday parties, I know that I am gifted the opportunity to create a visual and delicious centrepiece for everyone to enjoy. Ava's 18th birthday was our most elaborate collaboration yet.
Ava definitely wanted the Mad Hatter's Hat as her cake. We tossed ideas about whether to incorporate the colours and design aspects of Ava's handmade costume or use more traditional colours. In the end, we decided the hat would be green with varying colours of gold for the vintage/steam punk look. Bec provided the feathers, card, key, keyhole and "eat me" sign and made the fondant cogs for me to paint and incorporate into the design.
Creating a hat cake is actually incredibly challenging. It looks simple but it requires logistics, structure, technique and patience to make. Having the brim defy gravity is the hardest part. It needs plenty of time to dry but it works best when it is shaped after moulding and covering the cake. Patience is definitely a virtue here.
The Cake
Mud cakes use considerably more cake mix than many other styles and need to bake slowly at a low temperature — one of the reasons they're the most expensive cakes Nadine makes. While the cakes were slowly doing their thing in the oven, there were emails to Claudia and Lee-Anne, logistics to organise, and cake cutting guides to prepare and send through to Taylah at Ravella, so the kitchen team knew exactly how to portion the cake on the day.
The original inspiration image had a more angular look, but as the draping came together, it felt right to let it soften into something more curved and flowing. Sometimes you trust your experience and intuition and let the cake evolve as you're creating it.
Then Mother Nature Joined the Wedding Planning Committee
Just as the cake was finished, the weather turned — torrentially wet and incredibly humid. Fondant does not enjoy that kind of weather. Working through the night with heat lamps, a fan and careful air-conditioning, the drapes were coaxed back under control, and by morning everything had dried beautifully.
Then came the two-hour drive to Newcastle — torrential rain, a pothole-riddled Lakes Way, and a fully packed emergency kit of heat lamps, fondant, edible glue and everything else a cake emergency might call for. "Cake On Board" magnets proudly on the back of the car the whole way.
I used two images of hats as inspiration to create the details with cake lace and sugar shaping tools then airbrushed the cake twice with two varying shades of green and then a gold sheen to create a velvety texture appearance. The colour had to dry before applying two layers of handmade edible fabric as the ribbon behind a piece of actual ribbon that Bec asked me to use.
The finishing touches were added on the day before delivery. The look on everyone's faces when I unveiled the cake was incredible! Jaws dropped and they proclaimed that it looked like a real hat and they wanted to put it on!
The house looked amazing! Wonderland and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party brought to life. We set it up on the main table as the centrepiece but then decided that it would be safer on a table of its own with a very special cake stand made from a lazy susan and a smaller stand in the middle with teacups and candles on the bottom level. Such a great idea! Bec added a "Please do not touch the cake" sign, which added to the humour and displays already in place.
The cake was Medium Density Chocolate Cake layered and covered with Ganache then covered in fondant and decorated. Sculpted and fondant covered cakes require a firmer cake and ganache for structural support. It is still delicious but not as light and luscious as a dessert cake.
"Ava's 18th birthday was our most elaborate collaboration yet."
— Nadine
Creating cake centrepieces like this one is a reminder that a cake doesn't have to be a wedding cake to be a genuine collaboration — sometimes it's a mum with a vision, a birthday girl with a costume, and a hat that took two rounds of airbrushing, handmade edible ribbon and a great deal of patience to get exactly right.