For our new brief we are required to produce a ‘Typogateaux’, or a cake that takes typographic form. There are no restrictions to size, the letter amount, or how it can be decorated, leaving the brief open to creative flair. Firstly, I will gather examples of what could be produced, as this is a media I haven’t worked with before I am not sure what the limitations will be. Moreover, I haven’t much previous experience with baking cakes or cake decoration so I will need to conduct research into this.
Firstly, I used 'Issue' to find a cake decoration magazine called 'Cake Masters Magazine'.
While reading the magazine I came across a tutorial showing how to make cake baubles. I could adapt this idea to suit the brief, decorating the bauble with Christmas typography. The magazine was also helpful as it gave information about shops such as Tesco who recently started stocking more cake decorating items.
At this point in the project I was unsure as to what type of cake to produce. Therefore, I created a small survey to find out what type of cake is most popular and the importance of decoration and exterior packaging.
Results
After looking through the results of the survey I decided that despite chocolate being the most popular cake, I will make a Victoria sponge slab cake, this is mostly down to my cake making abilities. Secondly, as 100% of the survey participants agree that icing is important, I need to think about what flavour icing I could use. Moreover, I am also considering putting chocolate chunks in the mix to make it more interesting. I will aim to present the cake to the best of my abilities and create packaging so that the cake can be transported.
Next, I collected images relating to cake decoration and form.
The image above made me consider cutting out individual cake letters as a possible way of creating my outcome.
This cake uses letters cut out of a sheet of icing for decoration.
Here is another example of letters made out of icing, this time they are not as cleanly made but are more experimentive with typographic form.
Icing could be used to create the typography on my cake, this would be much easier than cutting individual cake letters, as icing easier to adapt and shape.
This design experiments with using icing to create words. To do this you would have to use a stencil, or wet the area were you wanted the word to appear.
More individually cut cake letters.
One of my initial ideas is to create an intricate typographic piece out of cake. While thinking about how I could produce this I came across the above image, which shows a typographic piece made from icing. This gave me an idea, I could possibly put cake mix into an icing bag (like the one shown above) and use it to create my piece.
This large scale letter has been cut out of a slab cake and iced to create a clean finish.
The above image shows a brownie which has been decorated using a stencil and some sort of icing sugar. The use of a stencil helps create a more accurate design, when producing my cake I should consider using this technique to help me.
This cake has been meticulously decorated with smarties. The result is phenomenal, I could look at producing a 'C Y M K' cake and decorate the letters with appropriately coloured smarties.
http://cargocollective.com/ninaharcus/Type-Delight
Finally, the data I collected from my survey showed that it is important for a cake to have aesthetically appropriate packaging. Moreover, as I will be carrying my cake to university I will need a box to protect the cake from outside elements and dirt. Therefore, I collected a body of research on cake packaging, as I plan to design and make a box to house my typogateaux.
This striking packaging was designed to contain a pumpkin pie. The graphics used to decorate the box have a retro feel due to the layout and typography used. The retro design is interesting and is what first attracted me to look at the design. As I plan to make a Victoria sponge cake, a cake which was created during Queen Victoria's reign I could consider using retro graphics on my packaging.
The above packaging balances retro style graphics and a simple layout perfectly. Moreover, I like how the contents of the box have are listed, along with a small description of the cake. The image has inspired me to consider something visually similar when designing the graphics for my packaging.
This packaging has been cleverly designed to house an individual slice of cake.
The icons used on the side of this packaging inspired me to create a similar version for my box.
(2005) 'It's a matter of Packaging' Index Book - 745.2 - Page 50
The simple illustrative design used on this packaging is really relevant to the messy cake making process. Moreover, I like the use of decorative lines to make the packaging more aesthetically interesting, I want to use similar lines on the font of my box.
After looking at various boxes and possible ways I could package my cake it became apparent that I cant design my packaging until I have designed my cake and have the dimensions.
Finally, I found a recipe for Victoria sponge with jam, I will use the basic sponge recipe and not add the jam.
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