I made these Teddy Bear toppers dressed in their finest Turkish folk dancing attire as part of a cupcake collaboration recently (www.facebook.com/itsasmallworldcollaboration). 47 sugar artists were tasked with representing and honouring the children of an assigned or chosen city & country for Universal Children’s Day.

I was assigned Istanbul, Turkey. I wanted to represent the cultural attire that is worn when children (and adults) perform traditional folk dances. Turkey is well known for their porcelain dinnerware and tea sets so I made teacups from gumpaste to hold the cupcakes, which were trimmed and detailed in fondant and highlighted with some gold hand painting. I had wanted to paint the entire design on all the teacups but alas my practice attempt was unsatisfactory so I ended up falling back on my good old friend ‘fondant cutouts’ to rescue me. That took me painstakingly more time than had I been able to hand paint worth a dang (8 hours all told – yup I am slow).

The double decker teapot topper is a Turkish teapot and the stones/rocks represent a common past time amongst the children in Turkey as it is a very rural place still and many do not have access to toys or other play things. They use the stones to play tag-like games, accuracy or distance games and battle games. I also included a stylized tulip topper as tulips are the National flower.

This was a fabulous collaboration that produced some MIND-BLOWING designs and cupcake sets. I was very honoured to have been amongst such talented artists that did wonders in miniature form.

TFL – Violet =D