I have been asked to decorate a cake for a lady who will be 85 next month. Topics to incorporate are: grandchildren aged between 8 and 15, flower gardening and her association with the Women's Institute here in the UK. I thought of doing a kitchen scene with her making jam and baking with her grandchildren to bring the WI into the story but I'm struggling how to bring the flower gardening into it. I've search for ideas of having a room with the kitchen doors opening out into the garden but worry this would make the overall cake look disjointed. Perhaps I could incorporate this into a 2-tier cake. Any ideas out there?
Could you do as you were thinking but put flowers in pots on the kitchen window/counter and maybe a book on the counter/somewhere, about growing flowers?
I like the idea of making the cakeboard a garden!
I have been asked to decorate a cake for a lady who will be 85 next month. Topics to incorporate are: grandchildren aged between 8 and 15, flower gardening and her association with the Women's Institute here in the UK. I thought of doing a kitchen scene with her making jam and baking with her grandchildren to bring the WI into the story but I'm struggling how to bring the flower gardening into it. I've search for ideas of having a room with the kitchen doors opening out into the garden but worry this would make the overall cake look disjointed. Perhaps I could incorporate this into a 2-tier cake. Any ideas out there?
Why not do the kitchen scene on top as you said and then instead of ribbon put grass, trees and flowers on the sides. I have done this a few times on my cakes that have an outdoor scene.
You could also make some small terracotta pots with flowers in and some tools on the board like the other poster suggested.
Not knowing what the Women's institute is might be throwing off my plan a little, but what if you do a gardening scene with her grandchildren sitting around and/or helping her garden. Maybe she's wearing a gardening apron or shirt with the Women's Institute logo on it?
The Women's Institute is the largest Women's Organisation in the UK http://www.thewi.org.uk/section.aspx?id=12.
They were largely associated with food and cooking. This originates from the first World War when they played an important role in increasing food production by making jams, conserves, pickles and preserves to cope with food shortages. These days the scope of the organisation is much more far reaching than that. They usually end their meetings singing their anthem "Jerusalem" (a poem by William Blake set to music by Sir Hubert Parry) hence the association with the term "Jam and Jerusalem".
There you are - a little bit of UK history! 
Thank you for the suggestions so far. Please keep them coming.
Another direction would be to make a "memory" quilt on top of a sheet cake. Each square can represent a different interest.
I have one in my photos. Maybe that will give you some ideas.
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