Five days away from completion, we are excited to reveal 3 more of our AnOther Birthday Cakes. The project's curators Jefferson Hack and Annie Nichols paired Vivienne Westwood with chef and restaurateur Mark Hix, who both share a passion for all things British. Vivienne's gave Mark plenty of creative reign, "it is heart-shaped and can be made out of chocolate, strawberries or vanilla; it is absolutely up to the baker’s imagination." Mark loved Vivienne's illustration so much that he decided to photo-print the design onto icing sugar. We're not entirely sure of the other ingredients but as with all Hix creations, it's bound to taste (and look) delicious.
Missoni responded to Jefferson's invitation with a sculptural, multicoloured cake, "made with smoothy creams, layers of flavours including cherry, cream, pistachio, nut, chocolate, raspberry, blueberry, apricot and strawberry. The layer tops are covered with coloured marzipan and little biscuits, candies and sugar or chocolate flakes; the cup-holes are in creams, crunchy nuts and candies." Artist Caroline Hobkinson is realising the design and has been working on glorious colour palettes with edible dyes. She finished the sponge base at her Berlin studio earlier this week and is making the final touches in London this weekend.
Unsurprisingly, Philip Treacy's creation features a selection of his brilliant hats. The intricate design was accompanied by Philip's instructions, “I would imagine it could be made with fondant icing as it is sculptural, but as you can see it should be made by somebody who really knows what they are doing!” Julie Walsh, chef instructor at the London culinary school Le Cordon Bleu, was perfect for the job. Julie is using a technique called sugar pulling, a high-skilled practice which is now a dying art.
The 10 cakes will be on display in Selfridge's Wonder Room Concept Store Lab from Tuesday 15 February.
