TALE OF THREE CITIES …. from England Spain and Italy. Here’s the story..

This Keg cake and sugarpaste mask and accompanying sugar pieces bring together aspects surrounding the annual customary Guy Fawkes bonfire night that we celebrate in UK on 5th November. Guy was born in 1570 in York (Horrogate is famous for Yorkshire Tea and the York Rose is painted on this sugarpaste cup and saucer. The Cup handle and matching teaspoon is representative of (but not the same as) the ’swish’ under the Taylors of Harrogate logo.)

Guy had left the British Army and fought with the Spanish Army of Flanders in Netherlands and in Spain, during which time he and others had schemed a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in an attempt to kill King James1 in 1604.

Guy had adopted the Italian Christian name ‘Guido’ – hence the Venetian twist to the sugary tale…. His final scrawled signature is painted on the Gunpowder Keg cake. This plot was foiled shortly after midnight on 5 November. After trial Guy and the others were tortured and executed in the following January by Hanging, Drawing and Quartering. (Be thankful this isn’t a Halloween cake or I would probably have included a severed head!). His execution is a bit vague in places but it is generally said that Guy mostly feared the H G and Q torture following the partial hanging and threw himself off the scaffolding to ensure the noose broke his neck. His lifeless body was still mutilated, nevertheless.

Here endeth today’s history lesson.

The rose hips, pheasant feathers, pyracanthas berries and cherry tree leaves are made with cold porcelain and are appropriate for the time of the year that this attempted assasination took place.

The cake itself is a boozy fruitcake Gunpowder Keg covered with marzipan and Royal Icing and a thin coating of fondant and marzipan fruit decorations – as this is an early Christmas cake for Rod’s daughter Emma before she heads back to Oz!