It’s our third annual holiday series…. The 12 Cakes of Christmas!! We’re oohing and aahing over twelve marvelous cake designs, created especially for this series! All brand new, never seen before, and created by some of your favorite bakers! For our theme this year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on our favorite Christmas memories and traditions. It’s a feel good month, celebrating the little things that make this season shine bright. Each of our featured bakers was asked to create a cake based on a classic Christmas tradition.
We’re moving on to cake number ten. Our tenth cake celebrates the classic evergreen that we all know and hold so dear. With sturdy branches for decorating and a natural beauty that reminds us of Christmas day, these pine trees hold a special place in our hearts and our holiday decor. The Tenth Cake of Christmas was inspired by…. Christmas Trees!
The tenth cake in our series comes to us from Jacki Fanto, owner of Blissfully Sweet Cakes located in Sydney, Australia. This is Jacki’s second year to join our holiday series as she inspired us with her Aussie Christmas cake in 2012. And you probably remember her incredible starry night cake and her beautiful ocean sunset cake. Jacki is back once again to amaze us with her creative style and artistic interpretation of a theme. With greenery galore, glistening gold glitter and a whimsical style, Jacki is putting her spin on the classic Christmas tree. It’s time for The 10th Cake of Christmas!
Jacki Fanto of Blissfully Sweet shares the inspiration behind her design:
“My inspiration for my cake design came from a J Petermen Catalogue Cover from 2010. I wanted to be inspired by traditional festivities and so I started my quest. I searched for greeting card images as well as anything vintage. As soon as I came upon my inspiration image I automatically dreamed it in cake and thought that it suited the traditional theme perfectly as well as being contemporary in its execution.”
Jacki Fanto of Blissfully Sweet tells us about her technique:
“The design is my interpretation of a Christmas tree as well as all the usual trimmings of a northern hemisphere Christmas. In Australia, we see none of this at Christmas time and I have dreamed of one day experiencing a white Christmas, so this cake is a little like stepping into a long time dream. I wanted the structure to be contemporary and similar to the image but different and Christmas inspired. The bottom spherical tier is suspended as if in air, but supported by a gilded detailed fondant christmas tree trunk. This sphere is completely covered in red toned maple leaves. These were first covered over of the tier in a 2 dimensional way and then the wired leaves were hung around the tier to give the wide bottom of a traditional Christmas tree. The top two mad hatter shaped tiers are covered in gold disco dust, because Christmas is a time of opulence and a time to celebrate. Traditional colours of Christmas are red and green, so green leaves cascaded up from the maple leaves to encircled the bedazzled middle tier.”
More from Jacki Fanto of Blissfully Sweet :
“The top tier is circled with pine needles, winter berries and pine cones. I wondered over the many ways to make the pine needles and what would be the best execution. I finally decided on floral wire grouped together in many bunches and when they were assembled together they really looked like pine needles. To give it a more sugar look to it, the pine needle bunches were triple dipped in leaf green royal icing. The drip look that this achieved was perfect for what I wanted. The pine cones were all individually wired and hand moulded petals that assembled looked like baby pine cones minus the woodsy smell. I finished the pines cones off with a little white paint for a little depth and also a winter feel. The red winter berries were the perfect mate for the cones and needles. It gave extra colour and a pop to the top tier.”
More from Jacki Fanto of Blissfully Sweet :
“I visited a Live Christmas Tree Farm that I never knew existed before. As soon as I heard about this venue, I knew that it would be the perfect place to photograph my Christmas Tree inspired cake. It was fantastic to see my cake nestled in amongst the rows and rows of perfectly shaped trees. The traditional colours on my sugar tree really have the tree farm vignette a very festive feel.”
“The cake came together exactly as I had envisaged and I was over the moon with the result. It is something that was a truly creative and unique approach to the traditional Christmas tree and colours and photographed in the Christmas Tree Farm surroundings seemed to be the perfect backdrop. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and may this festive time of year be filled with love and laughter and many different traditions.”
Thank you to Jacki Fanto of Blissfully Sweet Cakes for creating this incredible cake for our Christmas series. And for sharing such great details on her techniques!
Can you believe we’re nearing the end of our series? If you’ve missed any of The 12 Cakes of Christmas, you can catch up HERE! We have two more cakes and a cupcake recipe, coming your way before the end of the week!
VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake: Blissfully Sweet Cakes
Photography : Blissfully Sweet Cakes
Inspiration Image : J Petermen Catalogue 2010
Venue : Dural Christmas Tree Farm
Emily (B. Lovely Events) says
Oh my goodness I love this!!!
Blissfully Sweet says
Thank you so much Emily!!! It was such an honour to create a cake for the series! xx
tanya tindale says
amazing, simply amazing, such a talent…
Blissfully Sweet says
Thanks so much Tanya! Your kind words and friendship mean the world to me! One of the most amazing photographers around! xxx
Diane says
The cake is breathtakingly beautiful. A work of art.
Cat says
Stunning, creative, and so unique. I love this cake! How I wish I has talent like yours! ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
Owen D. says
LOVE this design! Just stunning and totally FABULOUS!!!!
Virginia Canales says
Oh… so beautiful, exquisite. My favorite cake so far. I love bringing different elements together.
Kimberly Richards says
Wow that is amazing, is it all done in royal and gum paste so you can keep it on display, would be a beautiful Christmas center piece.