Baby sea lion cake will make you look twice

With its dripping nose and long whiskers, there's no doubting this is the most adorable baby sea lion

But its so realistic we didn't even realise it was a cake. This life-like mammal sits next to a dolphin in the waves on top of the cake by Welsh baker Vicki Smith, who has become renowned for her artistic creations, which will make you do a double take. Now she has increased her reputation as one of the world's best bakers by taking home a double gold at the Cake International 2016 at the Birmingham NEC. Each creation took approximately 50 hours to finish. For the competition she won top prize in the sculptured novelty section for the dolphin and sea lion cake. Her attention to detail and dedication to her craft has earned her a string of awards after winning gold several times at Cake International for creations including a sloth cake and a 4ft cake of Angelina Jolie as Maleficent. Vicki started designing and creating cakes in 2011 after being left disappointed by a cake that arrived for her boyfriend. She now runs a successful business, ‘Incredible Edible’s’ at her home in Flint. As part of her wedding cake creation, Vicki who grew her own natural geode crystals from sugar, also included a combination of sugar paste, flower paste, edible rice paper, sprinkles, edible pearls and gold leaves to bring the cake to life. She added: “My apple wedding cake is based on a wedding cake I designed for a couple last year. “However I wanted the challenge of going bigger so I added a flowing cut out element of natural geode crystals, a lot of which I grew myself from sugar.

“I love the modern contemporary style and love the fact it is inspired by nature, corals, crystals and apples.”

The designer said the key to making her cakes to look so life-like is to try new things. “I’m an artist at heart and I love pushing myself. “Sometimes I just have an idea and try it to see if it will work." This story first appeared on Wales Online