[Updated 12/07/2026]
This is the story of the collapsed wedding cake that led to one of Anges de Sucre's most memorable creations: the Horn of the Unicorn croquembouche cake.
The Cake That Did Not Make The Shoot
In 2016, we prepared a five-tier gold cake for a bridal magazine shoot. It was made with real cake rather than display tiers, but the internal supports had been missed. By the time we lifted it, the structure had already begun to lean.
We tried to reinforce it from the back, loaded it carefully into the car and set off for the studio. A pothole finished the job. The cake struck the boot door and arrived too damaged to be photographed.
It was painful, but useful. A tall cake needs a structural plan from the beginning. Boards, dowels, weight distribution and transport cannot be added as an afterthought.
Starting Again
Rather than recreate the same cake, we decided to make something entirely different. We wanted the drama of a croquembouche, but with a centre made from cake rather than a polystyrene or cardboard cone.
We sculpted chocolate and vanilla sponge into a supported tower, placed it over another layer cake and prepared the decorations separately: éclairs, profiteroles, macarons, baked doughnuts, buttercream flowers, chocolate, popcorn and cones.
Building The Horn Of The Unicorn
The cake sculpture was covered with Belgian chocolate glaze before each decorative element was added by hand. The design became more playful and abundant as it grew, but the engineering underneath remained the most important part.
The finished cake weighed 4.84kg and became the Horn of the Unicorn. What began as a failed magazine cake turned into a much more original design and a useful lesson in structure, restraint and starting again properly.
Explore our croquembouche cakes.
Lots of love and dowels,
Reshmi xoxo
It sounds ridiculous but I am really touched by this post. I have recently started making wedding cakes and whilst my cakes genrally always looked nice one of them in particular tasted awful and I tried to drive it stacked ending in a tower of pisa lean! I, like you, was so embarrassed. I got really drunk at the wedding and tried to pretend I didn’t make it! I then really nearly gave up. I guess what I am trying to say is I really appreciate your honesty. I think your cakes are awesome and everyone gets something wrong sometimes in life. You just used it to make the next thing extra brilliant. This is inspirational to me. I am gonna try and make something like your croquembouche today. I think it is fab and thanks for sharing this story. Lots of love from Norwich. And if you ever need a hand I would be more than willing! Xx