Helen Peacocke tells how she had to devise one Winnie cake, then do it again for a library’s revamp

The first time I created a cake to celebrate that wacky witch Winnie, I copied Korky Paul’s illustration featured in Valerie Thomas’s Happy Birthday Winnie (Oxford University Press, £6.99 paperback).

Our editor had suggested that I make a cake to celebrate both this latest publication and Winnie’s birthday.

All I had to do was ask Korky to provide me with a picture of the cake he illustrated and I would copy it. I had in mind a small circular chocolate cake with Winnie’s broomstick in the middle, surrounded by candles and perhaps a little model of her black cat, Wilbur.

But, as we all know, nothing is ever that simple, particularly when dealing with a world of magic and an illustrator with a wicked sense of fun.

The drawing Korky came up with was of eight glossy-coloured layers of cake, reaching up to the sky, with loads of flaming candles on top. It was a wondrous cake, but how was I going to make it?

As I stared at the picture, I had visions of the whole edible edifice tumbling to the ground the moment I fixed the final layer in place. It was a friend who gave me the confidence to get on with it. He reminded me that witches had magical powers; they could wave their wands at anything and turn it into something else. He suggested making a model of the cake from cardboard, wood, plaster and royal icing, which firms up when allowed to dry, and leave Winnie and her wand to do the rest with an “Abracadabra” or two.

Any time she wanted to offer children or her cat a slice of cake, she could magic the model into a sticky edible substance, then magic it back into a sculpture.

She could even magic back the slice eaten, because she is that kind of witch. So that’s just what I did the first time and what fun it proved to be.

I worked layer-by-layer, allowing each a day for plaster and icing to dry. Korky wanted it to be the biggest cake in the world. It had to have a layer of chocolate cake, one of fruit cake, another of rainbow cake, then cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, ginger sponge and black forest.

This cake can now be found in the foyer of the Story Museum in Pembroke Street, where Korky often entertains children.

He also entertains at the Kennington Library, which, thanks to fundraisers, has had a £6,000 upgrade. Sylvia Vetta, a contributor to The Oxford Times, and one of the fundraising organisers, decided Korky needed another Winnie cake as thanks.

Those who know Sylvia know it is impossible to say “No.”

“I did mention that arthritis in my fingers might make it difficult?” I asked, also explaining the person who had made the cardboard layers was no longer available. I smiled at her tenacity, bought several polystyrene layers, loads of icing sugar, edible inks and got on with it, having deposited a Winnie the Witch book at the Cake Shop at Oxford’s Covered Market.

To make the second cake work and Korky smile, I wanted Winnie, her broomstick and cat on the top of the cake.

Oxford Mail:
Winnie in cake form

Thankfully, the Cake Shop is where you can enter clutching a picture of a figure you want to fix on the top of a cake and have it created in sugar so exactly that it is instantly recognisable and makes everyone laugh.

I have used the shop often, when I need to create a wedding cake complete with models of the bride and groom, or for a friend’s birthday. It is easy to find, just walk into the Covered Market; look out for groups of laughing children pressing their noses against a window filled with sugar models as skilled cake artists are hard at work.

They make it look so easy, but as those who have tried to make a sugar figure know, it is anything but; especially if the figure you require is sitting on a broom-stick and has a black cat by her side.

For more information on sugar models or customised cakes, call 01865 248691, or email enquiries@the-cake-shop.co.uk
There is also another Oxfordshire branch in Bridge Street, Banbury. Call on 01295 270447.