Hyper-realistic Illusion Cakes — Creative Cake Art

Hyper- realistic illusion Cakes

I have always enjoyed sculpting cakes into objects and have done so ever since I started my business in 2007. There was a time when every other cake was a decent sized handbag or shoe box but then illusion cakes came so popular that almost anything, whatever size, was being ordered as a cake.

Someone ordered a cake to look like a life-sized avocado, another order was for a small cake to look like a potato because the wife loved potatoes. Another person who had the nickname ‘Banana’ got a cake of a banana.

Illusion food cakes started becoming very popular. Not just the ones that were life-sized but oversized food cakes have also been ordered. I made a giant garlic for someone who hated garlic and a giant onion for someone else who could not eat onion!

Many years ago I created a huge apple wedding cake for a couple, - Adam and Eve! But on the whole, illusion cakes are most popular when they can be used to trick. I made a roast chicken cake that was presented in a baking tray. The mum tricked her daughter by pulling the roast chicken out of the oven at dinner time!

It is this humour and this fun that really makes creating illusion cakes very enjoyable. I myself completely fooled my dad when he came over from England. I made a cake that looked like a lasagna. The video is one of the funniest videos that I have, with him being completely fooled and my daughter in absolute hysterics!

When my children were young, I got them rolling out some peas to go on a cake for Father's Day. It was a steak cake that was ironically a vegan cake and the pint of beer cake was gluten free. We had great fun creating the cake together and surprising him.

One of the earliest cakes that I made back in 2007 was this running shoe for a sprinter. I had to pay great attention to the detail and had to create each texture by hand. I wanted the shoe to look realistic by making it look old and worn; I had to pay great attention to how the shoe sits, with bulges and indentations.

One of the keys to making an illusion cake really effective is to pay great attention to detail. It can be incredibly handy if you have the real item in front of you and then you can really study the texture and the colour. One of my favourite illusion cakes that I have made, was that of a very old and loved soft toy for an 18th birthday. The texture in the photo could not be picked up. But I was then given the lovable toy to work from. As it sat on my workbench I could really study the colour to create a good colour match, and I could then work at the sugar to create the desired texture.

On many baking reality TV shows they make their own mould from putty. These shows would have huge budgets and this food grade putty is incredibly expensive. Not only that, most of the time you don't have access to the real object. My advice for making great illusion cakes is to get as many photos as possible, and from every angle. If you can get the real object or similar then that is a bonus.
Use everyday objects to create texture, just make sure they are clean!. I have used an exfoliating glove from Kmart to create fabric texture , a non-slip mat to create a weaving texture or the skin of an orange to create bumpy texture.
It is also very useful to have an air brush or dust colours to help add tone, highlights and shadows.

Above all make sure you enjoy making the cake as much as you will enjoy tricking the recipient!