WATCH: The story and passion that went into our centenary cake
It is a three-tier fruitcake that weighs 20kg.
The City Times took delivery of its spectacular three-tier centenary birthday cake on September 7.
It is the handiwork of expert cake artist Tania Riley, who owns Cake Arts in Farrarmere.
We extend a massive thank you to Tania for taking up the challenge and designing and executing nothing short of a work of art.
The cake beautifully encapsulates the old and the modern, with flavours of Benoni and its people and the founder of the newspaper, William Hills, complete with premade and dried sugar flowers – a sugar rose and sweet pea.
It is a fruitcake that weighs 20kg.
ALSO READ: The City Times centenary cake will be a work of art!
Tania explained the cake itself was baked about two months ago, brandied and left to mature.
Applying the three primary skills of cake artistry – piping, modelling and sugar floristry – Tania worked a further seven eight-hour days, at least, to bring her vision to life.
“My thinking was to capture the success of the newspaper through its founder, William Hills, so we have him sitting on the porch of his Benoni home reading the newspaper, with his dog lying nearby. I created a young lad fishing at Homestead Dam next to a braai near a beautiful willow tree. There are even ducks.
“The gorgeous trellis entrance to the Uncle Tim’s Centre is also on the cake and, to me, serves as a doorway to the story of the City Times.
“The trellis in this scene on the cake, for example, had to dry for eight hours before assembling it. I created a church too, as the Benoni community is very religious, with delicate lavender around the edges of the building,”
Not forgetting Benoni’s roots, Tania also modelled mining headgear on the top of the cake, which adorns the first layer, which is dusted gold.
ALSO READ: Marjorie celebrates her 100th birthday
The construction pieces of each scene had to dry before assembling.
“I started with the bottom tier, attaching it to the baseboard, then handpainted the Benoni City Times logo as my first element.
“The Victorian shopping centre entrance was my next element, then Homestead Dam (I added the ‘water’ only after the entire cake was done), then the William Hills porch and then the final scene, the church.”
The spacer on the three-tier cake is covered in an edible icing print of the newspaper.
Various icings were used on the cake – pure chocolate, chocolate sugar paste, Mexican paste, flower paste, royal icing and homemade almond paste.
Handpainting and airbrushing techniques were also applied by Tania.
She thanked her sponsor, Rolkem Expressions in Colour, for supplying her with all the colours needed for the BCT cake.
“All are FDA approved, edible colours. With the support of Rolkem, I was really able to let my creative juices flow, so thank you very much. Without this sponsor, it would not have been as easy to dream big and deliver this incredible end result to the City Times.
“Thank you for inviting me to be the creator of this special cake. Happy birthday, City Times, and here’s to 100 more!” Tania said.
