Pretty cakes and memories of lantern-making
Every May millions of Buddhists in Sri Lanka and around the world celebrate the Birth, Enlightenment and Passing Away of Lord Buddha. Streets come alive with twinkling lights, lanterns adorn every nook and canny and crowds throng the city centres as all of Sri Lanka- irrespective of age and religion-step out – some to go to the temple, others to enjoy the sights.
A sweet celebration: Nisha Fernando’s brain child and right, her Vesak cake
This Vesak, in different countries, 42 cake artists prepared for the day by baking and decorating 42 cakes, each depicting a symbol or memory of the hallowed festival. It’s not something you and I will encounter on the streets, but Nisha Fernando has wanted to do this for quite some time. Nisha lives in the US and began her cake foray with her kids’ birthday parties, saying over time she“fell in love with decorating cakes”. In 2013 she launched Sweet Delights Cakery and has refined and honed her skills since then.
“Being born in Sri Lanka I wanted to bring awareness about the Festival of Vesak to the western world,” Nisha says of the inspiration for the Vesak Cake Collaboration over an email interview. “It’s a colourful festival,” she enthuses of being able to inspire 42 cake decorators from 17 countries to collaborate on the project. “Since this is the first time that anyone has done a cake collaboration on Vesak everyone was very excited to participate and accepted the challenge.”
Nisha contacted some award winning sugar artists from around the world for the project, and relied on contacts, social media and publications to recruit them. “My toughest challenge was to explain what Vesak was about, she says. Except for artists from Asian countries none of the other artists knew what Vesak was. After explaining the concept, I created an inspiration board with symbols and pictures related to Buddhism and Vesak from Asian countries to help the artists come up with a design for their cake.”
Nipuni Sangakkara’s traditionally shaped lantern in white. Pix by Mahen Jayasena
Her collaborators don’t disappoint. From around the world, Vesak celebrations find many forms. Lanterns, temples, Bodhi trees, lotus blooms, sal flowers and depictions of Buddhist followers celebrating Vesak have been recast in sugar, butter and flour. The cake makers have been respectful in the images they’ve chosen to depict. “You’ll even find 3D and gravity-defying cakes,” Nisha enthuses. She herself is designing a cake using symbols from Buddhism and her childhood memories of Vesak.
In Sri Lanka, Nipuni Sangakkara of Petit Pot Cakes has created a dainty, delicately crafted confection of a Vesak lantern, definitely the most potent harbinger of the Vesak season to Sri Lankans everywhere. Every one of us have sat cross legged on the floor surrounded by bamboo sticks and paappa, debating on the best colours for the tissue paper and arguing with siblings over the shape of the lanterns. Nipuni’s traditionally shaped lantern is white, the favoured hue, and it hangs suspended on a sal mal tree crafted by her hands.
The entire concept of my cake embodies the Birth, Enlightenment and the Passing Away of Buddha with a few elements from nature,” she elucidates. “The Sal flowers on the top and bottom denote Buddha’s birth and passing away – as both locations where these events took place were home to Sal trees. The Bo leaf signifies His enlightenment which took place under a Bo tree. But most importantly the ‘light’ of the Vesak Lantern symbolises the Dhamma which teaches the dispelling of darkness or ignorance.”
“I was surprised and thrilled at the same time to be invited to take part in the Vesak Cake Collaboration,” she adds. “I have seen so many cake collaborations online on various topics and never thought I’d be taking part in one with so many talented cake decorators and artists from across the globe. It’s an honour to have my cake featured amongst the cakes of such ‘super talents’.”
Images from the cake collaboration will be compiled on to a video that will be featured on YouTube and Facebook. Keep an eye out for the page ‘Festival of Vesak Cake Collaboration’ on Facebook, to be launched today (May 3)