This week’s round up of weird and wonderful happenings in the sector includes a mini meadow in London, Johnny Vegas taking on a massive eclair and how Cecil will never be forgotten through the medium of cake. 

Bring the country to the city

Londoners were brought some unexpected joy last week when passers-by couldn’t quite believe their eyes.

Double takes and – would you believe, smiles – were seen as people stopped to take in a 10sq m cake depicting a realistic Irish meadow at Finsbury Avenue Square. Grass, rolling hills, hedgerows, a pond, farmhouse and barn all took their place in the work of art, as well as meadow flowers and perfect little Irish dairy cows.

Everything was hand crafted from cake and sugar icing and was brought about by Irish butter producer Kerrygold and sugar artist Michelle Wibowo.

The really shocking aspect of this project is not the tiny flowers, the flowing grass or the fact it took 168 hours to create, but the reason that spurred Kerrygold to arrange it – research by the company revealed that four in 10 Brits have never been to the countryside.

Check out the making of the cake and gobsmacked Londoners stopping for a peak.

Put that in your cake hole

There’s nothing like a bit of celebrity endorsement, is there? Johnny Vegas publicly backed éclairs in a most notable way during a recent appearance on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

Egged on by fellow comedian Sean Lock, the sizeable star took on an equally oversized éclair after a fellow guest bragged about fitting a whole normal-sized éclair in his cake hole. Rob Beckett accomplished this with fascinating ease.

Commemorate Cecil

RIP Cecil the lion who caused big headlines and outpouring of grief across nations and also the baking world.

Cecil was lured out of a nature reserve in Zimbabwe and shot dead by an American tourist. Amid the general anger over the act, one baker chose to commemorate Cecil with a ‘karma loaf’.

Lou Lou P, a Leeds based baker, made a cake depicting Cecil smiling peacefully while Walter Palmer, the hunter, lies dead in front of him in a dentist’s uniform in a role reversal.

RIP Cecil.