Valentines Cake @ Edinburgh Zoo
Edinburgh Zoo’s Panda Keeper Alison Maclean lovingly makes a special nutritional supplement, affectionately known as panda cake, for pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang each day. She measures and mixes the ingredients, and steams the cakes to perfection.
But on Valentine’s Day she got her very own panda cake in the form of a four tiered vanilla sponge cake topped with sugar characters of Tian Tian and Yang Guang from a local Edinburgh cake decorator.
Created as a Valentine’s Day cake to celebrate the famous zoological couple – who are even dubbed the David and Victoria Beckham and Brad and Angelina of the animal kingdom – the show piece confectionary features Tian Tian and Yang Guang nestled together amongst bamboo and red hearts.
Eunice Hessell of Cakery Bakery Edinburgh said:
“I wanted to create something a bit different for Valentine’s Day, which is why I chose the most famous couple in the animal kingdom as inspiration. The will-they-won’t-they-story is now as famous around the world as any celebrity or royal courtship, so who better to feature in my love cake than Tian Tian and Yang Guang.”
The four tiered masterpiece also features many of the other inhabitants at Edinburgh Zoo, including penguins, a koala, tiger, chimpanzee, lion, lemur, flamingo, pygmy hippos, zebra and many more. A couple of the Zoo’s resident wild squirrels even get a look in!
Alison MacLean, panda keeper at Edinburgh Zoo said:
“I loved the panda Valentine’s Day cake the moment I saw the photograph – it’s fantastic. You can really see how much work has gone into producing it and I’m pleased to accept it on behalf of Edinburgh Zoo. Eunice the cake designer has amazingly crafted all the animals, in particular Tian Tian and Yang Guang, and they look quite perfect together on the top of the cake for Valentine’s Day!
“I’m sure the real pandas would love to get their hands on this wonderful creation, however they’re going to have to settle for my panda cake! But the staff here at the Zoo are certainly going to enjoy tucking into Eunice’s cake with their morning cuppa.”
Source: Edinburgh Zoo
