After Taylor Swift's Blank Space-themed cake trend, bakers share quirky cake ideas

The Blank Space cake by Anjana Ganatra; (right) Swift with the cake in the music video. Pic Courtesy/Youtube

Taylor Swift mania hasn't spared the baking industry, and this time, it has nothing to do with her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department. Instead, it borrows a slice of drama from her 2014 song, Blank Space. "Swifties are going crazy over this cake. It allows them to recreate an iconic moment from this song; where
when she stabs a white cake, blood oozes out," shared home baker Anjana Ganatra, founder of Creamy Cottage, who has been adding blood, also known as edible glaze in the baking world, to these cakes for the fans. To create one, Ganatra reveals that the baker must scoop out a portion of the cake and fill it with a balloon filled with the red glaze. "The balloon needs to burst when you stab it for the red liquid to ooze out. It leaves a dramatic appearance on the white-washed, heart-shaped cake," she shared.

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A levitating marvel

Mehrotra's cakes have levitating elements; (right) nursery rhyme cake

When technology met cake, it created chef Rushina Mehrotra's (founder of Daffodils Patisserie) signature levitating cake. Yes, her cakes float. "As a baker, I am constantly looking for innovations because people get bored easily. I remember coming across a levitating machine for a different purpose years ago. It struck me that this could make for a cool addition to my cakes. It would be easy to use, and so much fun!" One of her most unique creations with this machine was a three-towered candy-themed cake, with floating candy. Another popular creation is the nursery rhyme cake. A giant book of rhymes opens up to pop up into a cake, which takes inspiration from five of her little customer's favourite rhymes. "My cakes are usually very interactive; the nursery rhyme-themed cake, apart from the rotating monkeys and sparkling stars, also has a fondant school bus that goes around the giant book!" she added.

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Enter fairy land

Cotton candy lovers, this one's for you. The fairy floss by chef Khusshi Shah, founder of Les Saveurs, melts in your mouth at first bite. "This is actually a vanilla cake topped with Italian rose panna cotta, strawberry coulis, pistachios and inhouse strawberry candy floss. The idea was to make the cake completely non-crunchy, so that when people taste it, it melts in your mouth like candy floss.

My endeavours with cake include an Indian specialty, like buddhi ke baal, and an international dessert, like panna cotta in this one," shares Shah, who recently introduced her season-special tadgola berry. "I love to experiment by mixing flavours and cultures. This leads to innovation - like a strawberry flavoured cotton candy - or a mix of unlikely fruits - like tadgola and berries," she adds.

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Underwater treats

Explore the mysteries of the deep with this underwater theme cake. "For most of our cakes, like this one, we use couverture chocolates only; we don't do any mixing of compound chocolates," shares chef Ruchi Grang of Grangs Kitchen. The three-ft-tall cake sports octopuses, corals, turtles, sea horses, and even a mermaid tail. "Inspiration for my cakes comes from everywhere - at times, it's a particular flavour combination I've been craving; on other occasions, it's a theme or design that sparks my imagination," she shares.

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A cake for everything you love

"Our tandoori chicken biryani cake was made for a 12-year-old biryani lover!" shared Aashna Shaikh who co-founded Cake-a-licious by AZ with her elder sibling Zoya in 2017. "Everything you see, from the tandoori chicken and rice flakes to the bowl that holds the biryani (cake), raita on the side and mirchi on top, is cake. The most challenging part was to give tandoori chicken a realistic look with the correct colour and shape." While Aashna comes from an IT background, Zoya is an architect; the sisters set up this home bakery out of passion. They specialise in customisation and pledge to make any idea into a cake. Think vada pav cake, Porsche cake, Nike Jordan cake or a butterfly cake.

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