"John McKenna visits a shop where cakes become the art through the magic of sugarcraft.
The king is in his counting house, counting out his money. The queen is in her parlour, eating bread and honey. The maid is in the garden, hanging out the clothes, and down comes a blackbird and pecks off her nose. This extraordinary scene is taking place on the top of a cake, in Cakes and Co., in Blackrock, just south of Dublin.
All the characters are picked out in meticulous detail, rendered in sugarcraft. There is the king, complete with money. Next to him is the queen, complete with honey, and a tiny blackbird is pecking off the nose of the maid as she hangs out the clothes.
It is extraordinary. But if you say to Joannie and Rosanna, who run Cakes and Co., that sugarcraft is the most esoteric of the arts in the culinary firmament, an artform so detailed and meticulous as to beggar belief, they just say, "Well, anyone can do it " and they mean it.
Ever since Cakes and Co. was set up some years ago, their speciality has been commissioned cakes - extravagant sugarcraft works to celebrate weddings, birthdays, christenings and other special events in people's lives, as well as a healthy dose of corporate business."
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