Norwegian National Costume Confirmation Cake!

That title was a bit of a mouthful, and so is this cake! We attended a Confirmation in Norway, I think I've only been to one before when I was young in Norway so I don't really remember too much about it so it great to experience one. It was very different to what we have here and very popular over there where you really celebrate it with speeches (which we sing), lots of food and and family parties!

And me being me of course I had to make a cake! Most people there when confirmed are given a national costume (Bunad), theyr'e really big on it over there and really expensive so they are often special gifts for occasions like these. I do have one myself, each county has their own design, I didn't have enough money for a real proper one so me and my mum designed one just how I wanted it which was brilliant and made it for a fraction of the price but it looks brilliant. However seeing so many at the weekend it really made me want a fully embroidered one! ANYWAY! This is where I took my inspiration for the cake, I thought I would make one in the style of the Bunad (from Lundeby) she was receiving. This was no easy task, it is beautiful embroidered with floral patterns, but I knew it would be brilliant so I simply had to give it a go.

Armed with my mum's Bunad book with all of the designs I figured out in my mind how I wanted it to look, so flying over to Norway my hand luggage was full of decorationg equipment and the giant cupcake (of course) it self in two pieces. I was a little worried I wouldn't be allowed it through security and maybe that I was smuggling with it (which of course I wasn't!) but luckily it all went through! I dreaded the thought of chunks being taken out for testing!! In the normal luggage I also had a bout a kilo of icing in various colours which I did think could also look a bit dodgy on the scanner but two hours later we all arrived fine with no chunks missing or cases being ripped open by sniffer dogs - success.

The floral pattern was quite complicated so I found a couple of the main pattern sections to copy around the base of the cake. The Bunad comes in blue or black and I knew she was getting a blue one, I luckily got the colour spot on which is great as it actually looked a lot darker in photos but I wanted it to look edible so I made it lighter which turned out to be the actual colour so that was lucky.
For the base I used a lot of Baby Blue Sugarflair paste (which left a lot of people blue-mouthed!) and for the flowers, two different shades of Claret, I decided it would be easier to pipe the stems and buds on with writing icing I got in the shop from Dr.Oetker. I made the petals from using a leaf cutter I had and cut out the petals individually, I then used the darker pink and cut out smaller leaves to get different shading, I actually think this was a great technique as the flower shapes weren't the standard ones and if I were going to cut them out by hand I'd be there until the next day!

For the top I did my normal rose piping in vanilla buttercream, I wanted it to look a little like a dress with the base with the skirt and the top being the shirt. On the shirt also they were gorgeous Bunad jewelery which is again quite expensive but great quality and really sets the dress off and there are so many different kinds and sizes everyone has at least one piece. I thought I would try to make some of the jewelery out of fondant to put on the front, I went for the classic style jewelery which you can get in silver/gold. I've recently bought some Dr.Oetker gold and silver colour spray so this was a great time to try it out. It's hard to explain how it looks so I will include pictures of the dress etc so you can see what I mean. These had to travel wrapped in bubble wrap in a plastic box as they were so delicate and had to be assembled the night before.

It took me about 3/4 hours to decorate the night before. But I don't mind at all as she was so happy when she saw it as it was a surprise. In Norway, we like to eat cake, and it was so nice to see a table just full of them!  The one on the bottom right picture is called Kranse Kake, a cake made up of almond rings decorated with runny icing and flags. Traditionally they are stacked like you can see here but do come in other forms, you will find this cake at most Norwegian parties. You may think I'm crazy to arrive somewhere and decorate a cake that night for the next day, but it's what I do for family, everyone gets a cake at some point!

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