Guess what? Polly “the non flower cake artist” used to love piping royal icing stringwork a long time ago but tragedy struck in the year 2011 when her piping hand was afflicted with a rare condition called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) which caused severe pain and swelling. Even the slightest touch to the hand would cause intolerable pain. There is currently no cure for RSD, a form of chronic pain syndrome (CPS) but after months of undergoing physiotherapy and taking steroids, Polly was into remission. Hurray! However, the nerves of her right hand had been damaged by the condition and her fingers were now too weak to even squeeze a piping bag. Thank God that she can still do other things like figure modelling which she loves.

Presently, Polly was asked by a magazine to submit photos of her previous stringwork cakes for their next release. High quality photos were required but the originals had been wiped out when her PC’s hard drive crashed a year ago. What to do? Polly then decided to try her hand at stringwork again and was surprised that she can still do it! But at a very much slower pace and resting her hand after piping a few strings.

So here is Polly’s cake with suspended royal icing string work that took her more than four days of piping, complimented by her first sugar peony which took her more than two weeks to complete. Altogether, this Peony Stringwork cake was a labour of love!

I dedicate this cake to the Glory Of God from whom all blessings flow and in Him, all things are possible!

And yes, I am Polly!