Happy 196th Birthday to The Old Vic Theatre!

Every now and then, I get a really exciting commission that allows me to really challenge myself as a cake designer.

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You may remember that I donated a cake to The Old Vic Theatre for their 24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala back in November, so I was thrilled when the team got in touch to ask me to make a cake for the theatre’s Birthday celebration.

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I created a blood red cake, in the Old Vic’s current colour scheme, topped with their rather beautiful crest. The cake itself was airbrushed by my incredibly talented airbrush technician, Chris, and I spent several hours handpiping the crest in royal icing before handpainting it with gold metallic food paint.

This cake was truly a labour of love and I loved every second of creating it!

OK, that’s a bit of a fib as this design was a tough one. This was a huge challenge for my steady hand and I wanted to ensure that the crest was copied with accuracey. To be honest, I have always wanted to create something heraldic like this (the closest I have been before was the Slugs & Snails Cake that I created for Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen in December).

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This is how it was done; I first traced the crest from paper to a parchment circle. This was then ‘scratched through’ onto the cake using a scribe tool (a posh metal cocktail stick, for the uninitiated!).

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The outline was now scored into the cake for me to pipe over with royal icing, which was allowed to dry overnight before being handpainted in gold.

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Rather appropriately, the cake beneath this elaborate exterior was a classic Victoria Sponge cake!

Happy 196th Birthday to The Old Vic! Here’s to many many more years of fantastic productions and many more cakes.

Cxx