Calcutta-born and Pune-based Prachi Dhabal Deb has taken the technique of royal icing, a delicate art form that has been used for decorating cakes for the British royal family, to another level.
When the financial analyst-turned-cake artist completed 10 years of baking, building, and winning accolades, she made a replica of the Milan Cathedral, a 100 kg structure, made out of vegan royal icing, winning a place in the World Book of Records London. She is now adding Indian aesthetics to her cakes and while she made headlines in Maharashtra with a Banarasi-themed cake on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, she made something special to celebrate her city and roots ahead of Poila Baisakh.
The Jodhpur Park girl made a special cake inspired by traditional Bengali wedding elements — topor and mukut — in quintessential hues of red and white. “Last year, I made a cookie for a Bengali bride. She wanted the traditional Bengali-looking bride on a three-inch cookie and it was loved and appreciated all over social media. This time I wanted to incorporate Bengali elements in my cake for Poila Baisakh,” said Prachi who is a three-time world record holder artist.
The Poila Baisakh special cake, weighing around 15 kgs, is hand-piped with vegan royal icing and has designs inspired by the traditional jewellery of a Bengali bride. Giving details, Prachi, who won the Cake Masters Awards in Royal Icing category in Birmingham in 2019, said: “The cake is inspired by the traditional element where it has the topor and the mukut. To get that shape all the panels were individually piped and placed meticulously. The second tier has a golden jewellery look that is inspired from the traditional jewellery of the bride and that is also all hand-piped and painted with edible gold. The bottom tier has the traditional alpana and a beautiful peacock motif that was inspired by a Banarasi sari that I got at my wedding. So instead of putting a lot of elements, I wanted to focus on the elements that complement each other, including the beautiful colour of red and white.”
Though with years of practice, she has perfected the art of using the royal icing, putting up this 3.6-feet structure and replicating the shola art was no less challenging. She said: “All the elements are so delicate that a little pressure here and there could lead to a total mess, meaning I will have to restart. With years of experience and doing it so many times now I focus more on the designing. It requires a lot of patience and a lot of love when making such cakes. And this is quite a tall cake as well, so it had its challenges. The piping took around seven to eight hours and the baking, and assembling took me the entire day.” As much as the structure of the cake is beautiful, Prapti makes sure the flavour of the cake is not compromised. The Poila Baisakh cake is her favourite chocolate hazelnut cake with caramel inside.
Prachi thinks like an artist and loves exploring new themes and working on various Indian handicrafts and art forms. On her radar are now regional elements from across India and she also plans to replicate the heritage structures of Calcutta in her cakes.
