I had the honour recently of being part of my 2nd ever collaboration, to spotlight the Festival of Lights celebration or Diwali. For my contribution, I took inspiration from the many elements used in this beloved celebration. During my research, I discovered that Diwali is marked by many symbols and traditions such as the use of lotuses, rangoli chalk drawings, henna tattoos, bright & richly coloured fabrics and lanterns as well as diyas or clay candle burners.

So in my design, I included wafer paper lotuses, a rangoli/henna inspired decal on the middle tier using rangoli inspired colours and a gumpaste hollow diya with an actual candle. I tried to represent the rich colours and textures of Diwali with the lustred tier, gold trim and ornate décor. I wanted to fuse modern techniques like naked ganache, brushed tiers & wafer paper with more traditional ones like quilling and cake lace.

This cake was not without headaches, one being that the topper broke several times and took over 6 hrs to complete! This does not include the 5 hours spent on a larger version that also broke while assembling, but irreparably. and I could nitpick this cake all day long as my hubby loves to complain that I do ALL the TIME…but this is one of the closest I’ve come to my vision so in the end I’ve learned to love her (yes, she’s become a “her” through the long process haha!)

The topper is made from gumpaste using Rose of Couture Cakes by Rose’s Christmas Bauble tutorial (link here – http://bit.ly/RoseBauble).

The cake separator is made from chocolate marshmallow fondant that has been allowed to dry for a VERY long time before assembling. It’s actually a piece I saved from a cake I made MANY years ago. I’ve used it as a small cake stand for a few cakes before.

The lotuses are made from wafer paper and coloured using the technique I discovered while playing around, of mixing petal dust with oil. It makes for a much more vibrant and deep colour than using straight dust alone. A little goes a long way too which saves money! You can see more in my blog post (August 8th entry – http://bit.ly/ColouringWafer).

The middle tier is lustred with lustre dust after I rub down the fondant with shortening and wipe off the excess. Then the quilling is done by hand.

The ganached tiers are lightly brushed with an edible gold iridescent paint for a rustic finish. The gold lace is made by adding some ivory, then mixing in gold lustre dust with edible cake lace. Thanks to my good friend Dina of miettes for this method =D

Hope you all like her and TFL! =D