I made this cake for my father who just celebrated his 70th birthday! He loves fine wines and so I had the idea of making a cake designed to be a wine bottle in a crate. The cake is 100% edible, with the wine bottle moulded out of gumpaste and decorated with fondant. I named the bottle after him, dubbing it “Chateau Francis” and added various fondant details to give it a vintage wine feel. I wanted the panels for the crate to resemble a real wood box, which I did by marbling the fondant with food colour gels to give the wood grain effect. The last details included some fondant grapes and vine leaves as well as some toasted coconut shavings to be the packaging material around the bottle. I only had a couple of days to put this cake together, so considering the time crunch, I’m happy with how it turned out. In the end the result was convincing enough that my father was really surprised that it was actually a cake and not a real wine bottle. More importantly, I’m so glad I was able to create something special for him in honour of his milestone birthday.