I was happy to be given a red ribbon i.e 2nd place at the Royal Melbourne Show for this competition piece! Hope you guys like it!

My inspiration for this cake was to
1. Demonstrate new skills that I’ve learned in the past few months, and
2. Make something colourful. And fun.

I’ve made a few cakes for boys and men, and I wanted to balance out my repertoire by making a cake suited to a girl’s birthday. And what better way than to make a cake with a maypole (I didn’t actually know what it was called until I checked with Google), draped with a burst of colourful ribbons. The top tier was to emulate pillows of clouds around the edges of the tier with a sun shining. And watercolour effect was achieved on the blue sky and the grass. I am most proud of the ribbons being made to look as though they’re “flying” or “floating” in the wind!

The bottom tier was achieved with the luster technique from Faye Cahill Cake Design which I learned through her tutorial with Paul Bradford Sugarcraft School. I loved how the colour came out, it looks almost like a yellow satin ribbon. And to tie both the top tier and the bottom tier together, I included lots of little rose-coloured blossoms cascading down the second tier in an ombre effect, and finished off nicely with a very pale tone of pink in a ribbon. Last but not least, I picked up the confidence to actually pipe with royal icing – as you can see, it’s a very basic design, but I liked the monogram that I achieved on here.

The overall look of the cake was meant to evoke whimsical nostalgia for little girls or young ladies, combined with a classic look of piped monogram on the birthday cake. I wished it was a real cake for a little girl, because I think it’ll make her very happy