Cake International: Photos Of The Birmingham Bake Off

CAKE International at the NEC, Birmingham, is a contest for people who bake sculpted cakes.

CAKE International

First prize winner of Class D Novelty Cake Category

Lara Clarke, an amateur baker from Brownhills, West Midlands, made the Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired creation.

* “One of my friends was on the phone and said I should enter Cake International. At the time I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean. I was watching Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, and I thought he would make the perfect cake. He wears all these different fabrics, so he has lots of different textures to him. He’s just shy of life-size because I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get him out of the door. The 5ft 5in cake was transported to the cake show by minibus. It took me 90 hours to make. We live with my fiancé’s parents and I think they will be pleased to get rid of it. When my father-in-law first saw him, he leapt about 10ft in the air thinking we had burglars.”