This latest cake has quite an unusual story…

Ben (from Cheshire) married Rocio (from Panama) in a lavish wedding in Panama City 2 years ago. This weekend they have arrived in England for a wedding blessing and reception at Ben’s family home and his mother approached me to make a cake for the occasion.

Her initial brief was very open “a cake which serves about 50 people, elegant, white, classic” – so then we chatted a bit longer and she mentioned a few things about Panama, including their national flower – the stunningly beautiful and unusual Elata orchid. The elata flower is also known as the Holy Ghost Orchid and is unique in that the centre of the flower looks like a winged dove emerging. Sadly, it’s also threatened with extinction. It took a bit of research and working-out but the flowers weren’t as much as a challenge as I was expecting.

The orchids are flowerpaste and the piping is royal icing. The cake was chocolate fudge cake, filled with chocolate buttercream and coated in milk chocolate ganache.