Happy 30th Karrie! Carved lush lemon cake

Last weekend was my best friend Karrie's big 3-0.  She was my bridesmaid when I got married last year and did such an amazing job, I really wanted to make her something a bit special for her birthday.  I'd been wracking my brains about it for weeks - it had to be something pretty unique and personal to Karrie, she ain't your average kinda gal. 

Karrie is a graphic novelist and comic artist (check out her website http://www.karriefransman.com/) so something comic related would be perfect.  I thought about doing a square cake with a comic story across the top but this didn't seem grand enough for a thirtieth birthday cake.  I had to go one better.  Something bigger that would really pop out.

And then I had the idea that I could do a cake that looked like a comic, but in 3D like it was literally popping out of the page.  Karrie wrote an autobiographical comic strip for the Guardian G2 a while back.  The perfect choice had to be to make a cake in the shape of a giant 3D head like the comic version of Karrie in her G2 strip.

I was going to deliver the cake at her birthday bash "Kafest - or Karrie starts to fester..." -  a mini festival in the secret park near her house.  On the bill she advertised a pie eating contest, snail racing, silent disco, fancy dressing up, pillow fighting and much much more.  So this gave me the perfect inspiration for the final cake:

Here's the comic strip I based it on to get the face just right:

And proof there really was a live snail race:

Karrie really loved the cake.  Not that you can tell that from the brutality of how she butchered it, starting with a Kill Bill style slicing the top off her own head:

And ending up in a complete massacre:

Whenever I make a cake I know that the sole purpose is for it to be cut up and eaten but even still, this was harsh!

Still everyone seemed to love it, especially Karrie, and that couldn't have made me happier. 

Ka - here's to the next 30 and neither of us ever actually growing up x