I was commissioned to make cupcakes for the wrap party of Holy Flying Circus, an excellent and hilarious television film aired on BBC Four last month, but it certainly wasn't an ordinary commission. Holy Flying Circus focuses on the build up and controversy surrounding the release of Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979. During this time, each cast member was sent a poo in the post by deranged protesters who had taken against the film's subject matter. Tony Roche, the writer whose other credits include The Thick Of It and Fresh Meat, rang me up to discuss his special cake request. He wanted me to make poo cakes for their party, but "not so disgustingly realistic that people won't be able to eat them". No problem.
We exchanged various emails about the kinds of poo possible and I suggested adding an extra layer of silliness with sugar flies. My boyfriend, Richard, also became quite excited by the idea of these poo cakes and offered to make parcel paper boxes for each cupcake that we decided must have an address and stamp for realism's sake. I made chocolate fudge cupcakes and topped them with rich chocolate buttercream. Next I made cartoonish coiled poos out of chocolate plastique and added the odd sugar paste fly with rice paper wings and shiny eyes made from edible metallic lustre and melted cocoa butter.
Richard took some very decent snaps of the cakes before they were delivered, but alas, we went on a trip to Noma in Copenhagen the next day, took lots of photos and then our camera got nicked. I hadn't downloaded the poo cake photos before we left and all the photos we'd taken of our amazing twelve course lunch were lost to us, never to be returned. So sad. Still, Tony Roche, lovely man that he is, sent me a couple of pics he took of the cakes on his mobile phone. They're not great quality, but at least they're something. Thanks Tony! So here are my poo cakes, boxes and all:
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