Combining art and cake is one of my favourite things to do.Oil Paintings of landscapes and buildings mostly take my fancy to paint and every now and then a garden or two.To the left you can see one off my landscape oil paintings which took 6 weeks to complete.
Now and then I get a craving to make something fun out of cakes. Some people crave cigarettes but I crave fun cakes. This particular instance I decided I was going to make a swimming pool from cake. I love letting my imagination run wild and thinking of ways to make it was just SO exciting. The pool I'm going to make from a Madeira mixture as it can withstand the load of any additional add ons. Swimming pools have been a massive part of my life and water safety also. Water should be respected and not taken advantage of just like people. But so often this is not the case and accidents happen. I think at this stage I know swimming pools inside out so this was an especially fun exercise for me.
To make the Madeira base whisk butter and sugar in a bowl until creamed and fluffy. At this stage alternatively add eggs and flour with baking powder. Once the mixture is completed pour into a flat rectangle baking tin. Allow to bake for 30 - 40 Min. Keep checking it with a knife. If the knife comes out clean were ready to go. Allow to cool. The water is made from blue butter icing. I figured it would represent the disturbed water well. To make it whisk butter in a bowl for 3 minutes or until your hands are numb lol. Add a little blue food colouring to get that water colour and continue to whisk for another 3 minutes. With the back of a spoon or a knife put the mixture on top of Madeira base to create the swimming pool effect. Every pool needs to have surrounding walls or a boarder. Mine must be edible so I took strips of baking paper and laced melted white chocolate onto them and waited for them to set. Low and behold as if Paul Daniels himself did a magic spell my swimming pool had walls stuck to the cake with icing sugar and a drop of water.
Now for the lane ropes..... what better than candy necklaces and watches I had as a kid and the flat piece I can use as a diving block I thought to myself. So I took the candy off the elastic string and placed the pieces sideways into the butter icing as if the rope was under the water. How easily things can be made deceiving. I did lane rope after lane rope until finally complete.Patience is key when working with cakes and water. You have to be patient and learn how to swim properly not come up with your own version and run with that as sooooo many do. For the diving blocks I've used a small piece of Madeira that was left and placed the candy watch face ontop of it again stuck with icing. It looked very convincing to be honest! Every swimming pool provides flags too for its competitive swimmers. After careful thought I came up with the idea of dying edible fun paper money with food colouring and cutting them into triangles to hang like flags over the pool. I used a long kebab stick as pole as either side and the strings from the necklaces to hang them.
Now for swimmers. Of course the perfectionist I am I wanted to make sure they were as convincing as possible.Phelps maybe with size 13 feet. So I used fruit pastilles for the head halving them so they looked like swimming caps and sesame sticks for the hands and legs. Positioning the arms so they looked as though the swimmer was rolling his head to the side breathing. Do you know most people in my experience are unaware you need to breath out under water.They all hold their breath which is so dangerous.
That's it swimming pool complete. I have dedicated this cake to Lauren and Shannon my little amazing cousins that teach me a thing or two!
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