08/09/2026
This one was a huge challenge - but I do love a structural / engineering / mathematical cake challenge! And sometimes you have to have a Plan B... ;-)
The original idea was an upright open bag, which was to be filled at the party with edible "memories" that guests had been asked to make and take with them. But structurally, to get the sides of the open part of the "bag" strong enough to pile items in, and by lots of people on the day, seemed like a huge risk for damage - to both the cake and the memory items.
So we changed the idea to have the bag lying down, which actually made creating the structure of the cake more doable, while also allowing more space for a variety of shapes and sizes of the guests' items to be on top and "spilling out", as well as inside - as we had no idea what they would all be beforehand.
I think this actually worked much better in the end - as you can see from the last photo of it all put together on the day - and what a lovely idea, to have family & friends create a bag full of edible memories for an amazing and thoughtful birthday surprise! 🤎🧡🖤🧡🤎
The leopard print was all hand painted and the cake was made without gluten (making it even more of a structural challenge!). Everything was edible apart from a cake board supporting the icing above the bag opening and the dowels supporting that board ;-)`
