Humming along

If you are Canadian and enjoy listening to Bach, then you know who Glenn Gould is. My first encounter with Glenn Gould was watching him on TV as a child and wondering why that strange man was so close to the piano keys and why he was humming so loudly as he played. As my musical education continued, I realized that Mr. Gould was so good he could do whatever he wanted, unlike me, who would never excel at playing Bach no matter how loud I hummed (I'm more of a Debussy person anyways).


Originally, Patricia asked me to combine Chris' two major likes, Glenn Gould and NFL football into a birthday cake which caused me to scratch my head repeatedly in artistic bewilderment for several weeks. Luckily, his Minnesota Vikings were defeated and that allowed me to concentrate solely on Mr. Gould. Using books as the main structural elements of cake allowed for easy construction which gave me more time to focus on the decorative elements which showcased the piano virtuoso and his most famous recording, the Goldberg Variations. The cake flavours were identical to their wedding cake, vanilla cake, lemon curd, and white chocolate lemon mousseline.

Two thin sheets of gumpaste were dried out for a week, one flat and the other curved like an overturned page. Using my calligraphy tools and edible colouring mixed with vodka as ink, the first 16 bars of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations were carefully inscribed. The last two bars were a little squishy but otherwise, the sheet music was quite beautiful to look at. Glenn Gould's portrait was reproduced from an original work by artist Drew Hewitt using a brush and edible colour marker.


Personally, I love working with dried gumpaste as a medium because it allows me to finish major components ahead of time with very little assembly needed on the day of delivery. Plus, these elements can be easily removed before cutting and serving the cake, which means it never has to be eaten and potentially, it could be kept intact for years. Undoubtedly, buying an edible ink printing system would be the less labourious choice, but what would be the fun in that?!