Mary-Jane (MJ) Duncan of Kitschnbake coffee shop in the Fife village of Newport created a show stopping cake in the shape of V&A Dundee.
MJ delivered the cake to the iconic attraction early yesterday morning and jokes: “Apologies to anyone following a black van driving at 10mph over the Tay Road Bridge.”
She explains: “Having been able to watch the V&A project develop from directly across the water, we wanted to do something to show how proud we were of all the hard work to get it to this stage.”
MJ is no stranger to making unusual and challenging cakes: “We have done VW campervans, a bus, a Tunnocks teacake for the City of Culture launch and even a Tay Bridge cake but no other buildings, unless a Batman cityscape counts?” she says.
But making a cake of this size, and this particular shape, wasn’t without its challenges and MJ, who is also The Courier Menu’s food and drink ambassador, explains how they tackled it.
“To make it slightly easier for ourselves, we decided to make two large cakes and stick it together with our delicious vanilla drizzle recipe,” she explains. But how on earth do you make a grey cake look good?
“All cakes, regardless of the amount of grey, have the potential to look like something special when homemade,” says MJ. “You can always tell the amount of work and effort that has gone into something designed especially for an event and not mass produced. We have always championed our home baking and this project won’t be any different – you may not even have to squint to spot the wonky bits!” she laughs.
MJ was helped by two members of the Kitschnbake team, Lily and Claire.
“The V&A Cake team are a talented and enthusiastic lot,” she smiles. “Lily is a talented artist with an excellent eye for detail and unending patience and Claire, being a civil engineer student, is brilliant at the more delicate, time-consuming details.”
Before making and baking could even begin, the trio did some thorough research.
“We visited the building, took photos and propped them up in the kitchen to allow us to refer back,” MJ explains. “The staff joked that our kitchen cupboards resembled a crime scene board with photos of the V&A from every angle plastered all over them.
“When we needed to catch our breath we just stepped outside and looked over the River Tay to remind ourselves what we were trying to achieve.” We even took a boat ride so we could see the building up close from the water’s edge. There are some perks to project research!”
After the cake was cut yesterday, community groups visiting the V&A tucked in with gusto, declaring it to be a work of art.
