A STAR baker has told the tale of Charlecote Park through an impressive 4ft high Christmas cake.
Each year park volunteer Jana Eastwood takes on a personal challenge of baking a sweet treat which goes on display in the 16th century house.
In the past she has built a replica of the property out of gingerbread, and last year baked a scene of how she imagined the kitchen in the historic home would have once looked on December 25.
But this Christmas offering could be her finest creation to date – a towering 4t tall cake with 12 layers and using some 20kg of icing.
Jana, who hails from Rugby, said: “The inspiration for ‘Charlecote’s Victorian 12 days of Christmas’ came from Charlecote itself, from both the house and the park.
“I wanted to add a little touch of different parts of Charlecote to each layer to bring it all together in one cake. It was made in red, gold and white to match the walls and ceiling of the dining room. I added lace to represent the Victorians and also tried to make it a little like the old Wedgewood pottery which, in the late Victorian times became very popular.”
The festive bake took Jana around a month to complete, and now has pride of place in the dining room at Charlecote House.
Jana told the Observer: “It wasn’t until I put it all together in the room it was made for that I truly saw the cake properly for the first time.
“I was so pleased with it and seeing people’s reactions to the cake makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
