Sometimes, it’s the people closest to you that you find it hard to have ideas for a cake.

I procrastinated for a long time trying to come up with an idea for my housemate’s birthday. Last year, she got the idea of a dress-up Mad Hatter’s tea party that she had the date of her birthday party announced months ahead! But we both agreed on a design which both of us loved. It was a Mad Hatter’s party, and why not have a Mad Hatter’s cake?

Johnny Depp played a magnificent role as the Mad Hatter in the Alice in Wonderland film, and his costume provided a huge influence on my design. Upon a close up of the hat, I noticed a huge amount of detail, not only on the embellishments but also the texture of the hat. I knew that I wanted the texture on the hat as it is so unique, and I thought about it for a long time as to what should I do to achieve it. It was through three techniques – after covering the cake, I added texture using an alligator impression mat, then stencilled over that, and tried to add texture again on top of the royal icing stencil. Lastly, I embellished the hat with some cake lace. Lots of firsts for me on this cake, including carving a topsy turvy shaped cake too! I airbrushed it to get the texture on the cake pop and show character. I added a few short streaks of gold to mimic the gold embroidery on the hat as well, just like the hat.

To finish it off, I had a peacock feather slid through the sides of the scarf on the brim of the hat. As I was time poor, we had fresh roses for the party, and I could not help myself but to have a few blooms for the cake. Adds such a romantic touch to it!

Loved that the cake adds a more Tim Burton-esque atmosphere to the party, and it was a great day and a great party! But boy I don’t know if I can co-throw parties this elaborate anymore LOL!