Jennifer Lawrence baked as life-sized Hunger Games cake
- Published
A woman whose life-sized Johnny Depp cake made headlines around the world believes she has gone one better by baking a full-size version of actress Jennifer Lawrence.
Lara Clarke, 28, from Walsall, won gold at the Cake International competition in Birmingham in 2013 with her 5ft 5in (1.65m) Jack Sparrow creation.
Ms Clarke said she received some criticism about her 2013 entry, which was made of crisped rice.
Her latest creation is a sponge cake.
"People said my crisped rice Johnny Depp cake wasn't a proper cake, so I wanted to show them I could make a life-sized sponge cake," said Ms Clarke.
She said she had chosen to bake a replica of Lawrence - in full Hunger Games mode - because she was a "massive fan" of the films.
During her two-and-a-half months of working on the cakes, Ms Clarke researched the actress's height, waist and bust measurements online and claims the 5ft 10in (1.7m) cake is exactly life-sized.
She is entering the Lawrence cake, alongside a cake of her favourite Game of Thrones character, Tyrion Lannister, in the large decorative exhibit section of the competition at the National Exhibition Centre - the same section in which she won gold in 2013.
Since her success with her Johnny Depp creation, which made the news in the US and China, Ms Clarke has received a number of commissions for giant cakes, including one from Jaguar Land Rover and one from ITV's This Morning.
Although she has set up a small baking business, she continues to work for a bingo website.
Following the 2013 competition, she says her Johnny Depp creation spent three months in her mother-in-law's garage before being broken up and thrown away.
"He still looked perfect, but there are only so many giant cakes you can have around your house," she said.
How to bake a J-Lawria sponge cake
Ingredients:
150 eggs
10kg (22lb) flour
10kg butter
10kg sugar
2kg (4.4 pounds) yoghurt
To top:
60kg (132lb) icing
10kg modelling chocolate
5kg (11lb) of ganache.
Break the eggs in a mixing bowl and add the flour, butter, sugar and yoghurt. Unless you have a very large mixing bowl, you will probably have to bake smaller cakes from smaller quantities of ingredients. The Jennifer Lawrence cake was baked in 30 30cm (12 inch)-square tins.
Place your cake/cakes in the middle of your oven and bake at 180C/350F/Gas 4.
The cakes are done when they're golden-brown and coming away from the edge of the tins. Use PVC pipes and steel supports to stack your cakes on top of each other, then cover with your icing and start modelling.
Eating this cake is not recommended.
Ms Clarke feels the pressure will be on to replicate her success.
"Last year, I think I took everybody by surprise," she said. "I was shocked at the reaction to the cake - it was crazy.
"This year, there's a lot more pressure. I think everybody's wondering, 'what's she going to do next?'"
Ms Clarke will learn the results on Saturday.
Clare Fisher, senior sales executive at Cake International said the Jack Sparrow entry had been "truly exciting" and there was an increasing trend at the competition for immortalising celebrities - from Mary Berry to Yoda - in sugar paste.
"It's breathtaking how realistic the creations are," she said.
- Published8 November 2013
- Published18 December 2013