Creating This Michelangelo Replica Was No 'Piece Of Cake'

We have heard of many amazing cake creations - from fancy sports cars to life-size Transformers replicas. But London-based cake artist Michelle Wibowo has taken cake creativity to a whole new level, with this edible 'painting' of Renaissance artist Michelangelo's 'Creation of ​Adam'.

Working with local artisan bakery Cake Angels, Michelle wanted to come up with a unique idea to honor the 450th death anniversary of the Italian painter who died on February 18th, 1564. Since 'no celebration is complete without cake', they decided to create a life-sized version of one of his most famous works that sits high on the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel, in Vatican City.

To ensure that she could get the replica to look exactly like the original, Michelle first scanned an image of the painting onto her computer. After that began the tedious process of finding sprinkles that matched the exact shades of the colors the painter had used. As it turns out, she needed to seek out 24 different ones!

Then, using an edible glue made from icing sugar, vanilla frosting and butter, Michelle started painting by carefully sticking the colorful pieces of candy and marshmallows onto the 18ft. 9inch by 9ft. 2inch board. It took Michelle 168 hours, 10,000 marshmallows and about half a billion sprinkles, but the end product which the artist calls 'The baking of Adam' is something even Michelangelo would have been proud of.

Michelle who worked 12 hour days and was seeing 'sprinkles' everywhere by the time she was done, says that creating the edible art was certainly no 'piece of cake'. She however concedes that she had it a lot easier than Michelangelo, who hung upside down with paint dripping all over him, when he created his masterpiece.

Unfortunately, while completely edible, not a piece of the candy painting that is currently on display at London's St. Pancras Church, has been distributed to the fans flocking to see it. Instead, the baker plans to auction it off for charity - Of course by then, the masterpiece will probably be too stale to devour!

Commissioned by the reigning Pope in 1512, The Creation of Adam is the most well-known of all the fresco panels on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and often considered to be on par with Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

This is not the first time Michelle has wowed the world with her creativity. In October 2012, she was awarded a gold and silver medal at the Culinary Olympics in Erfut, Germany, for her eerily realistic replicas of Queen Elizabeth II and a welsh corgi dog made from sculpted English fruit cake.

Resources: telegraph.co.uk, Dailymail.co.uk