Last week, I had the amazing opportunity to create the Bottega Veneta Knotted Clutch Purse as a cake.

Upon researching this Intrecciato design, I was blown away by their workmanship and attention to fine detail. I noticed that the woven texture of the purse is evenly spaced, and the knotted detail is perfectly balanced. (The knotted detailing is not only seen in the purse itself, but also in other details such as in their gift box and shopping bag.) There is even a tiny intricate Bottega Veneta logo embossed on either end of the knobs of the knot. Although it is a simple shape, the refined workmanship, timeless elegance, and lively colour of this purse really sets it apart.

It begins with the sketching process – to help predetermine the layout, any possible size/shape constrictions, and the overall feel of the cake:

There’s a lot of preparation that goes into planning a cake like this. Here are templates that have been made to scale. Layers of cake are baked in sheets, and the templates are used to cut pieces out:

Filling the cake & carving. This was chocolate cake filled with vanilla icing:

The key is to have a smooth surface of buttercream underneath. This is done by smoothing it out – one side at a time. For this cake, Swiss Meringue buttercream was used:

Here is the clutch, attached securely to the cake board and covered in buttercream, with the surface nice and smooth:

The knots were made of modelling chocolate, and carefully textured to resemble braided leather and rope material. If you look closely, the knobs were indented to appear as though they are marked with the logo:

The logo was done using a hand-cut stencil. Each letter was cut out one by one using an utility knife. A couple of tests were done with the stencil ahead of time, to make sure that it would work on the actual cake:

Here you can see many of the reference photos of the clutch that are required to refer back to as the cake progresses:

The lines of the clutch are marked carefully using a flexible acetate strip as a guide:

The snakeskin texture was created by pressing a mesh texture onto fondant. This was then hand-painted using a paintbrush ans a combination of red, brown, and orange food colouring:

To help shape the lid of the box, strips of modeling chocolate are attached to the cake before fondant is added. Here is the cake just before finishing, with the main pieces attached to the cake board:

Here is the finished cake: