I’m naturally drawn toward anything that’s old, hand-made and carved, so Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi was a winner for me! I found as many other photo’s as I could, to see it in different lighting and angles, and I was most interested in the cave-like structure in the middle of the fountain, the natural stone textures and of course, the water in the fountain.

I usually start designing without a sketch, this often leads to too many different ideas, and I end up procrastinating or doubting my ideas. So, for this cake, I sketched exactly what I thought, and stuck to it, as close as possible. I really wanted to include the cave yet still keep the look of a tiered cake, so carved and hollowed out the middle and kept a solid base for the water effect.

This was one of the rare times that I stuck to the sketch, down to the very last detail. It helped me have a clear vision of the end product, and also sped up the time I spent working on the cake, because I had it down on paper. There’s something magical about seeing a sketch on paper, and then in a few hours time, it’s right there in front of your eyes.