My favourite kind of bespoke cakes will always be cakescapes. There’s just something magical about arranging lots of little cakes together on one board and watching them become a single, storybook scene. I’ve done plenty of themes over the years — The Hungry Caterpillar, Woodland, Under the Sea, even Beetlejuice — and each one feels like its own tiny world. As far as luxury birthday cakes go, cakescapes are gloriously indulgent and completely unforgettable.

This particular adventure was a monkey cake for Bella, one of X-Ray’s pals. She adores monkeys — and bananas, naturally — and I adore cakescaping, so it was destined to be a match made in chocolate-and-vanilla heaven. I squeezed as many details as I could onto a 2-tier 6"/8" set-up, plus a triple-layer 6" and a dinky 4" cake.

There were dark and white chocolate coconuts, fondant banana cake pops, and the cheeriest Three Wise Monkeys hand-modelled from fondant. The sort of fiddly decorations that make you question your life choices mid-way… but feel entirely worth it in the end.

The cakescape only really starts to make sense once everything begins to slot into place — piece by piece, vine by vine.

Piping the buttercream foliage, vines, grass, earthy little mounds and pops of ombré flowers feels like a full-body workout for the imagination. And I absolutely LOVE it.

Carving chunks out of the frosted log cakes was a moment of pure faith — but thankfully it paid off, adding so much depth and texture to the whole woodland-meets-jungle scene.

The Three Wise Monkeys theme has been done so many times, but placing each one at a different level and giving them their own little moment made it feel fresh and playful again.

And then came Bella’s reaction — the best part of any bespoke order. Pure joy.

Lots of love,
Reshmi xoxo

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