Clarice Cliff Feature Articles

A few months ago I assisted with an enquiry from a lady who wanted to bake a Clarice Cliff cake for an international competition. Iona lives in a small village in Cambridgeshire.  She got into baking and decorating when she was a 42-year old stay-at-home mum.  She was looking for something to do in the community as a volunteer and she found out about a network of  bakers who make cakes for children who wouldn’t get one otherwise.  And, as there wasn’t a group set up in her own area, she decided to create her own just over two years ago.  Her interest grew and Iona began creating cake art in many forms, as you can see on her website below*.

This was her first year at entering the well established Cake International event - the Sugarcraft, Cake Decorating & Baking competition - which was held back at the NEC Birmingham this year between the 6th and 8th of November.  The wedding cake category had about 225 registered entries from all over the world so there was some tough competition!

“I tried very hard to match the edible paints to the ones on the patterns I chose to integrate to create a scene.  As I wanted to make sure I was celebrating her work, I had to also ensure the colours used were recognised by the judges as appropriate for the theme.  I worked with printed off images of the pottery patterns (including House and Bridge, Orange Autumn, Applique Caravan and other Bizarre patterns) that depicted country-type scenes so that I could tell the tale of a countryside cottage (on the base tier) leading up to a chapel (artistic licence there I am afraid, but it did take inspiration from her buildings designs) and to the happy wireless side dancing figures.  I have enjoyed looking at her work and remember when I was a little girl I used to imagine the stories that were trying to be told with the patterns.  I suppose that is why I wanted to create my own love story with my favourite images all pulled together.  The cake itself took approximately 70 hours to complete all the different components from start to finish but worth every minute,” said Iona. 

I am delighted to tell you all that on her first attempt into such a high quality competition Iona was the silver prize winner!  And here are some photographs of her winning Clarice Cliff cake, just packed full of patterns.  In fact, what Clarice did in ceramics Iona has done similarly with her winning cake!  If you’d like to read more about this competition check http://www.cakeinternational.co.uk/birmingham/

Below are several photographs of her winning cake including one of a very proud Iona standing next to her cake on the awards table. For other designs by this very talented lady check out her web site http://www.nonies.co.uk

I’m sure you will all agree she did so well especially as it was only last year that she had attended the event as a visitor. Iona came away from that event with a desire to enter this year.  “I had wanted to create a cake with a Clarice Cliff theme as I love her art and the way the shapes flow.  I love the bright colours and always feel her art tells a story so perfect for a wedding cake,” she told me. 

I think Clarice would have been quite amused at the sight of so many  Bizarre patterns being featured on ClariceCliff.com’s Premium member Iona’s award-winning cake! 

Doreen Mann