My Passion with Fiona Brook: Adding some spice to the art of creating themes from sugar

Fiona Brook, associate solicitor at Langleys in York, talks about her passion for the art of sugarcraft.

I’ve always been a keen cook. But there’s a line you cross from rustling up a simple Victoria Sponge to the art of sugarcraft.

I didn’t really show a flair for art as a child. But I remember winning a 3D novelty cake in the shape of a clown when I was little and being completely in awe of it.

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The spark was re-ignited when I attended the Sugarcraft North exhibition in Harrogate in 2009. I saw some mind-blowing cake creations that opened my eyes to what can be created from sugar. Soon afterwards, I signed up to a four-week night class in basic sugarcraft and was amazed at what I could produce. To my surprise, I seemed to have a natural flair for it.

I quickly became obsessed and began to teach myself new skills. The hunger to learn new techniques and push myself to create new things is what drives me forward. It was a real thrill to come full circle this summer and be awarded ‘Best Novice’ and ‘Best Cupcakes’ at the same show that had originally sparked my interest.

My next challenge is to see if I can build on this success at the ‘Cake International’ exhibition at Birmingham NEC in November.

I work in a number of different skills, from delicate classic sugar flowers to contemporary modelled designs. I also make cupcakes, but I prefer to have a larger cake canvas on which I can let my creativity run riot. Sugarcraft sometimes has an old-fashioned reputation, but in my view the only limit is your imagination. Whilst I love traditional cake decorating, I like to push the boundaries, take risks and be a little quirky.

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The variety of cake themes requested never ceases to amaze me. Creative briefs have ranged from motorbikes to meerkats and tanks to Take That.

I thrive on the challenge of someone coming to me with a crazy idea to translate into cake format. I have even been asked to recreate a family pet in sugar – I sculpted the cat’s likeness out of a mix of rice crispies and marshmallows and painted it with icing for the fur.

My favourite cake so far is a 3D novelty cake featuring sugar beer bottles in a barrel of ‘ice’, complete with a packet of crisps, bottle opener and beer mat. Everything apart from the bottle labels was handmade from edible materials. I even had to make my own bottle moulds. It was so realistic that people didn’t believe that it was all made by me from sugar. That cake continues to impress – it was recently featured in a German cake decorating magazine.

I take great pride in all my cakes and each one is precious to me. People ask how I feel about the cakes being demolished when I’ve lavished so much care and attention on them, but ultimately they are made to be eaten.

I’d be more upset if they went to waste. I know that some people do save the decorations in display cabinets though.

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