A man dressed in a veshti, tied up and out of the way, hangs on to the hump of a bull as if the force of the animal, mid-stride, might throw him off – this hyperrealistic cake sculpture of the traditional game of Jallikattu by a city-based team of confectioners took shape right in front of the eyes of an international audience. “It was like dancing on a stage,” says Anna Austin, one of the cake artists, recalling the experience of competing at The International Cake Show Australia, adding, “It was a new experience because we usually work in a private space. I thought I would be very stressed, but people would come by, look at our work, smile and eventually, you become unaware of who is watching because we are working against the clock, trying to finish in 12 hours.” The team, consisting of Austin, Arati Mirji and Samie Ramachandran, came home with first place, winning the two-day Cake Off Challenge.
With the theme ‘Adventure’, the trio decided on Jallikattu to bring an Indian touch to the contest. “We wanted to look at the theme from an Indian point of view and show something the world had not seen; that’s how we zeroed in on Jallikattu. It’s full of energy and movement; there is a touch of man and animal conflict to show adventure. And even though it’s a static sculpture, it has the dynamism of action and strain that could be shown,” says Austin.
They began preparing weeks in advance to smoothly execute making the cake in 12 hours spread across two days. First, there was the metal base structure, designed and built in two days, shares Austin, adding, “Only 1/3rd of the cake could be non-edible, so we used rice krispies, real cake and modelling chocolate to cover the entire cake. Arati is into sugar flower art, while I’m into cake modelling and Samie is in cake sculpting. We knew each other’s strong points, so I worked on the facial details, Samie on the body parts and Arati worked on the jewellery detailing. The first practice took us a week, but by the second, we timed it for exactly 12 hours. We knew the exact amount of material required. As we were going to represent India, we felt the importance of being really prepared.” The end result was a hefty 200kg cake, which was unanimously chosen as the winner by four judges.
Looking back on the journey, the most challenging part of it all, shares Austin, was transporting the metal base structure to Australia. “The trickiest part was recreating what we had practised in an unfamiliar place, especially carrying our larger-than-life structure on a flight. So we had designed them as detachable pieces that could be reassembled at the venue, with each of us carrying some in our luggage. Because of the weight limit of 90kg between the three of us, we even reduced our clothes to fit it all in,” laughs Austin.
Since getting back, Austin has continued making eye-catching sculptures, recently exhibiting at the Dasara Cake Show in Mysuru with a sculpture of Maharani Kempananjammani Devi, the visionary regent who supported projects across the state to advance women’s education.
