Quarantine Cakes
Thursday 19th November 2020
It’s been a long, weird year. If you’d told us when the clock ticked over to midnight on January 1st that in mere months, we’d be stuck indoors by virtue of a government-mandated quarantine, stockpiling pasta and toilet paper, and standing on our doorsteps weekly to clap for strangers going to work, I think we might have put inventing time travel somewhere higher up on our list of New Year’s Resolutions.
But alas, here we are, months into a pandemic with no clear end in sight. It’s been a difficult year to say the least, but if there’s one thing we have in abundance, it’s resilience. There’s a long road ahead, but tough times don’t last, only tough people, and in circumstances like these, when it can be a challenge to hold on to hope and positivity, we know that we can always find comfort and solace in *checks notes*…cake…
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In all seriousness, cake artists all over the world have been making the most of a less-than-ideal situation, creating incredible edible representations of different aspects of quarantine life for our enjoyment. Luckily for you, we’ve assembled some highlights (and they all happen to be made using our lovely Ready to Roll Icing). Let’s get started, shall we?
STAYING INDOORS
This is what you’ve been doing while your boss thinks you’ve been ‘working from home’ – be honest.
Many of us have been exploring the limits of how many ways there are to do nothing, and that’s exhausting work. This cake from @bakeaseries shows a brave hero protecting himself and the outside world by staying in bed. Amongst his personal items you’ll find a face mask, one of 2020’s most essential accessories, surrounded by lots of other carefully modelled and stylised details, made with our Ready to Roll Icing.
STOCKPILING ITEMS
Early lockdown worries had some of us hoarding everyday items for fear of not being able to access them, with toilet paper being high on the list of priorities.
@tortenmelli’s faithful rendering of this everyday item is seriously accurate. Delicate creases and etchings give this cake some impressively realistic texture. Did you, at some point, have dozens and dozens of these stuffed in a cupboard somewhere in your house? We’re gonna assume they weren’t made of our icing, like this one, but we’d be mightily impressed if they were.
BUYING EVERYTHING ONLINE
One person who’s had a great 2020 is Mr. Jeff Bezos, whose pockets we’ve been happily lining all year while high streets all over the world have been barren, apocalyptic wastelands and Amazon has been filling that void inside us that tells us we need MORE THINGS.
If you’ve ever felt so fulfilled by the arrival of new Stuff™ and Things™ that you actually want to consume that feeling, then @twoteaspoonsnj has you covered with this delightfully sculpted Amazon Prime cake. The effect is sold with some very subtly battered looking cardboard, with very convincing folds at the edges. No returns on this one though…please…
CELEBRATING HEALTHCARE WORKERS
No jokes here; healthcare workers have faced the worst during this pandemic, truly putting themselves on the line in unprecedented and unsavoury conditions to look after millions of people who’ve fallen ill worldwide. While we’ve all dealt with the weight of this pandemic in one way or another, it’s them who’ve propped us up since the very beginning, and we should all be extremely grateful.
@mamoune_fee_des_gateaux has created this brilliant tribute, appropriately emblazoned with a Superman symbol on the forehead, but also featuring some fantastically modelled details like the lightly creased mask and shiny metallic stethoscope. It’s an amazing piece of work.
We also just have to include this brilliant tribute to the NHS from our very own Renshaw Academy Ambassador Molly Robbins, which displays the incredible diversity of the people those who serve our communities when they’re at their lowest. Definitely worth taking the time to inspect every little character on this one.
THE VIRUS ITSELF
We’d never get through this grim situation without a sense of humour. As they say, sometimes laughter is the best medicine (DISCLAIMER: Renshaw does not endorse laughter as a treatment for COVID-19; please follow government guidelines if you’re experiencing severe symptoms), so it’s nice to see some creators tackling the disease head on by rendering it in cartoonish forms.
Fun Lovin Cakes has made this COVID-19 molecule look like nothing to fear, even attaching an apology note to show that the little guy is remorseful for the, uh, inconveniences of the past six months. Bold colours and characterisation are some of our favourite things to see in a cake, and this one has it in spades, as well as another trusty old toilet roll for us to add to the collection. Very mole-cool!
Hopefully these delightful cakes have brought you the same joy that they brought us. The news feed can be a little disheartening these days, but we’re doing our very best to keep things light, fun and cake-filled. There’s much more to see over on our socials, so make sure you keep up to date @renshawbaking.
As always, stay safe, and happy caking!