"Hi Team,
Just reaching out to see if you're able to make a large custom X-shaped cake for an event?"

Shayne with a Y (Creative Marketing & Events) reached out in search of a cake maker to design a cake for the Perth Symphony Orchestra's 10th Anniversary cake.

He had a few requirements. The cake had to feature:

• the brand logo,
• PSO brand - minimalist/ black with the light/ rainbow effect
• The cake needed to be X shaped to mark the 10th year

I got to work and began brainstorming ideas. I had recalled going to a few of the past shows such as Nirvana Reimagined and Stardust: The Music of David Bowie. I remember finding the musical interpretations to be very creative, and after more research, I had found that a lot of the colours from the posters were part of the colours of the PSO logo and artwork.

My first attempt was to incorporate the symbols from their previous shows into the cake design.

I found the Stardust poster to effectively reflect the world of the Perth Symphony Orchestra. So I began with designing a galaxy icing for the cake.

Ideas don't have to start off the most beautiful. I drew this diagram to start a conversation, and the feedback was essential to see if I was on the right track or if Shayne and his team felt there were parts they could identify that worked and what didn't.

The feedback was it was best to keep with the brand-

• Keep the stardust effect overall
• Perth Symphony Orchestra logo in the centre of the X
• Space for 1 x candle somewhere in the middle
• Using the rainbow/ light effect as a graphic wrap in a strip around the sides of the cake? 
• A suggestion was to incorporate native flowers to reinforce the brand's rainbow element

Combining such strong elements was going to be a challenge to make sure they weren't competing. After a few sketches, this was my final design.

"Love this." Said Shayne. The best feedback I could get. Awesome!
To make it would still prove to be a challenge but getting the idea approved meant we could both see in mind the final product on the day.

To make sure a cake tastes as best as possible, you must make it as close to the date it's for as possible. But since I had never made this cake before, I had to plan and go through the steps in theory then model the cake based on the sketch I drew on, the actual day. 3D modelling helps.

Because of the size of the font, the logo letters were made of fondant and individually cut out then pasted on to the black fondant. 

                  

The Rainbow component proved to be quite a challenge because to make all the colours naturally, the red and orange colours were the most difficult to make vibrant. As time went on, the kitchen table started to look like Vincent Van Gogh had attacked it.

As for the cake itself, the flavour was Raspberry & Elderflower.The elderflowers were freshly picked then infused for 3 days to maximise its flavour. Matched with vanilla cake and raspberry frosting, the floral notes of the elderflower complimented the cake. 

And finally, the last piece of the puzzle, a story of the cake complete with serving instructions.

Whilst each cake has it's own set of challenges, this X cake was definitely a one I think fondly of. It was creatively and technically challenging but I could not have thought of an idea such as this without someone as insightful as Shayne.  

Thank you!