I was asked to make a fruit cake for a special lady’s 80th birthday. The lady in question was the mother-in-law of one of my colleagues, Elaine.

We discussed what she would like and settled on two individual cakes (one for the family get together, the other for friends at home). I wanted to do the cake in the shape of the two numbers and also wanted to keep it elegantly simple, fitting a lady of such a wonderful age.

The colours settled on we’re pinks & purples and off I went to create this…

The fruit cake is covered in white marzipan and then white fondant. It’s decorated with tones of pink & purple flowers. I then used white royal icing to add some ‘texture’ in the form of piped dots.

I received some lovely compliments from colleagues when I took it in to work, and some equally lovely ones from relatives of Elaine’s mother-in-law. Seemingly it tasted good too!

I also made 4 co-ordinating cupcakes to go with it for those who don’t love fruit cake.