ISSUE 13 OCTOBER 2013 FEATURE
To celebrate the final series of Dexter starting on FOX,
the channel commissioned a full sized Dexter cake, created by food artist
Annabel de Vetten from the Conjurer’s Kitchen. Cake
Masters spoke exclusively to Annabel to find out
about her background and her sponge version of Dexter!
“I fell in to cake decorating by accident. I had always enjoyed baking cakes, so I decided to make our own wedding cake in 2010. We were on a budget and I thought it would be cool to make it myself. It had to magic themed, to match our whole wedding. My husband is a professional magician and I am a hobbyist. We met through magic, at my local magic society, so the whole day was all about that. I had never decorated a cake before, so I bought
a book (Planet Cake) and taught myself a few basic things over a period of a couple of months. I made a few practice cakes, learning from trial and error. I really enjoyed it, carried on buying books and learning, and that's what got me started. The cake came out really well considering, and soon the orders (from friends at Uirst) began Ulooding in. Although that Uirst cake isn’t spectacular, looking at it now, it is the most important. I’ve now quit painting because the cake work has completely taken over. I’ve always been an artist, from the age when I Uirst could put pen to paper. I’ve studied art for many years and have a degree in Fine Art Sculpture. In a way I see cake as another artist’s medium, like clay or paint. It’s another way to express yourself, adding a bit of your own personality to each cake. I know I am terribly lucky to be able to switch from one cool job to another! I am also very lucky that I can make all of these unusual cakes and chocolates for a living, because I have clients who want them. I love being the ‘go to’ person for weird cakes. I often get calls that start with “This may sound weird, but can you make a ….. (insert strangeness) …” They make me happy… The Dexter cake was a PR job for Fox TV, to celebrate the beginning of the 8th, and last, season of Dexter here in the UK. They asked Emma/ Miss Cakehead to have one of her team of bakers to make the realistic looking, life-‐size Dexter cake and she chose me for the job. It
PREVIEW VERSION Buy the full 84 page magazine at www.cakemasters.co.uk
40
was pretty daunting, but as a huge Dexter fan I was very excited too! The entire cake took a painstaking 100 hours to make, and weighed in excess of 105 kilograms. Flavoured with 20 blood oranges, this 5ft 10” edible masterpiece used a massive 240 eggs, 25 kg Ulour, 16 kg buttercream, 18 kg sugar, 20 kg of sugar paste and marzipan, and 15 kg of buttercream. I knew the head and face would be the most important, most recognizable, so I had to mainly focus on that. I wanted to capture his dark, amused look, rather than him looking frightened or angry. At this point, even I don’t know how the series ends; if he lives or dies. So I Uigured making him look terriUied would suggest something that might not be correct! Of course, I had to include the trademark cut on the cheek, the thing that Dexter did to collect a drop of his victim’s blood to place in his collection of slides. His stubble had to be just right too. I don’t think he’s clean-‐shaven in a single episode! I bought a stainless steel butcher’s table that was, according to the description, “able to hold a whole carcass”. I thought that would do nicely. I bought cling Uilm…..a lot of cling Uilm. Fox wanted him dressed; not in his typical ‘kill outUit’, but in a grey T-‐shirt, like in the Continued