Sometimes you just have to wonder what a customer is thinking. Let’s say these boots are your absolute favourite item of clothing. You wear them everywhere, they make a real statement. Still, does that translate into wanting to chomp into one on your birthday?

Well, my job is not to question, and this assignment did pose a real challenge so I attacked it with gusto. The overriding problem was what shape pan would be appropriate for this project, since the trick is to not lose too much cake in the carving process. I do have a relatively large assortment of pans in many shapes and sizes, but they tend to be of a rather conventional nature. In the end, my assistant and I settled on a butterfly-shaped pan. When the cake had cooled, we cut it in half and piled one butterfly wing on top of the other. We then carefully rounded the toe and built up the back end with 4 small round cakes, narrowing the leg slightly as we went.

With the structure in place, the rest was fairly simple. With a photo of the original in front of me, I copied every stitch and detail, down to the neon yellow markings on the sole. The high gloss was achieved with a generous coating of piping gel. Not sure if I got the size right, but if the shoe fits…