Central London has been treated to the world's first edible garden today, including 15 types of cakes all to celebrate the release of The Cake Shop in the Garden by Carole Matthews.
Edible roses!
Visitors were told to dig in and indulge in the bourbon biscuit borders and take a bite from one of the 250 cake flowers that were placed in Russell Square. The surrounding wall was made from 1,300 slices of fruit cake grouted with Nutella- my kind of decorating!
The English garden took over 450 hours of baking and construction.
The garden paid homage to the book, with four kilos of icing along the borders of chocolate crumb soil, Battenberg steppingstones and a bird bath lined with Swiss roll. The lawn was scattered with sugar daisies and there were 300 leaves of edible ivy.
Inspired by the likes of the Willy Wonka factory, everyone was full when they left- as they nibbled a piece of the 30 bags of marshmallows, eight kilos of sweets, chocolate pebbles and 1,000 biscuits- even the insects were edible!
Author Carole Matthews said: "The garden is the place where love, life and family collide for my main character, Faye Merriweather so it was really exciting to bring it to life using cake as it features so prominently throughout the storyline. It was certainly one of a kind - and where better for visitors to grab a slice of the action?"
The garden was crafted by award-winning cake designer Rosalind Miller who has produced bespoke creations for The Ritz, The Goring and Blenheim Palace as well as a number of high profile and celebrity clients.