Sugar mountain

It was Our Lass's birthday recently. One of those that can be viewed as significant, if you're of that persuasion. Y'know what I mean, one of the "oh" ones... as in ending with an "-oh".

It was worthy of having the occasion celebrated, hence the long weekend away, but I knew that a surprise party with dozens of guests wouldn't be her thing. So how to add that special something? There were cards and presents, of course, but I needed to mark the milestone in a more apt way.

I discovered that Trey, the partner of a work colleague, makes amazing novelty cakes for all occasions, so I approached her with a few ideas. Our Lass likes wild flowers, photography and the wild coasts of the north and west of Britain and after a discussion of what was and wasn't possible, Trey reckoned she had a plan. I lent her a book of photographs called "Orkney from the Air" by Craig Taylor and waited patiently to see what would happen.

Well, I casually say "patiently", but by the time the day arrived, I was on tenterhooks to know what she had created. When Jon, her hubby, arrived at work to deliver the confection, he was rather nervous too, having driven along a motorway and some country lanes with strict instructions from Trey to "take it easy" with the cake.

Now, there's a famous sea stack off the west coast of the island of Hoy (called The Old Man of Hoy, but we'll gloss over that bit for several reasons!). Trey had cleverly used this as her inspiration and placed Our Lass on the clifftop by the stack, laid amongst the maritime heath flora of Orkney and gazing out at the view.

Photo courtesy of Our Lass

Genius! And it tasted as good as it looks!

Many Thanks to The Baking Trey for this wonderful cake.