To celebrate my mother's 80th birthday, I wanted to make an extra special cake. What could I create to commemorate 80 years of a wonderful life? I decided to frame photographs in handmade sugar frames, flowers and other little touches to honour her. This is the design:
I started with green fondant (her favourite colour) covering the 4 tiers. I spent many, many hours crafting picture frames out of gum paste and royal icing, which I then tinted silver with edible lustre dust.
I made roses out of gum paste, which I coloured in varying shades of orange. Orange is the colour (and last name) of the Dutch royal family. It is the colour all Dutch people consider their very own - have you ever seen the Dutch fans at a sporting event? Since we are Dutch, it was the colour of choice!
Then I added the street signs of her most significant addresses, including the Valentijnkade in Amsterdam where she was born on Valentine's day! In Holland the street signs, in blue, are attached to the corner house of the street. For this reason I attached the Dutch street signs directly onto the cake. Her most significant address in Canada is in green on a post, as is typical of that street.
My mom has always loved crocheting, knitting, embroidering and made a living with sewing for many years. I honoured that with yarn, embroidery floss and thread made out of fondant and a crochet hook, needle and thimble out of gum paste. On the embroidery thread and the crochet hook I made a few small references to the number 80, that being her number of years!
Lastly are the flags of Holland and Canada, to signify the exciting move my family made in the 1970's.
This was an incredible project that was extremely special for me to undertake and I hope you like it! Happy birthday Moeder Miep - wishing you many happy and healthy years!
