“When I saw the Bollywood inspiration picture, I was quite excited. Being former henna artist, and having attended many Indian weddings, I really wanted to capture the opulence of a Bollywood/East Indian Wedding. I wanted the cake to have the look of a sari, with fabric draping and lots and lots of jewelry. I wanted to capture the beautiful trims and embroidery wedding saris have, as well. I hand painted both tiers with two colors, draping the colors for a fabric look. The bottom tier is piped in all royal [icing], then painted in various golds to mimic trims and embroidery. For the top tier I really wanted a jewelry look. I took inspiration from the head jewelry worn by Bollywood brides. I hand piped the hanging jewelry, painting it and going back and filling in with a dark purple royal [icing]to give the look of inlaid stones. The small medallions and the pendant on the top tier are cut from fondant, then built up with piped royal [icing], painting them gold, then going back in to fill. There is nothing more romantic and ‘Bollywood wedding’ than the Taj Mahal, so I made the dome with RKT and covered it in fondant, then hand painted it as well. The inspiration photo had a stack of bangles, so I piped different bangles around the base of the dome and painted them gold. I used three different golds painting this cake. Old gold, New gold and my favorite, Aztec gold. I wanted to capture the delicateness of Indian jewelry, so I added dots wherever I could.” – Kathy Zyduck