Freelance Book Designer

Paper carrots!

The other week I spent the entire weekend baking and creating, it was very satisfying. I made my first batch of macarons, baked a chocolate gnash and raspberry cake and handcrafted a paper vegetable garden cake topper.

What was this industrious weekend in honour of? Why love of course! I had organised a bridal-shower-morning-tea for Ivy, a workmate who was preparing to get hitched at the end of that week and I wanted to pay tribute to the amount of energy and thought she puts into baking and creating cakes for other people’s special occasions.

Both of us being desperate overachievers when it comes to bakery-craftery skills, at times we have forced our sugary treats on to poor colleagues who have no choice but to enjoy the baked delights. Ivy, however, has a particular penchant for sugar-craft and has become quite a deft hand at it, her creations often inspire loud praises of “oohs” and “aahs” so with that in mind I needed to make sure that the cake presented at the bridal shower was up to certain visual standard.

With only a weekend and a small budget I wasn’t keen to spend hours and a small fortune teaching myself sugar-craft so I turned to my most beloved material: paper.

Inspired by Ivy and her fiances’ lovingly tended vegetable garden, I sat at the dining table for the better part of Saturday and handmade carrots, tomatoes and aubergines ripening on the vine in A frames, leeks, lettuce, beans and some very annoying pumpkins that didn’t make the grade and were thrown across the room in frustration.

Topped with a scroll of love

I was very happy with the outcome.

SNH called the tomatoes 'leggo tomatoes'!

Business-beans at the front, party-lettuce at the back

Paper carrots!