This October, the UK celebrated their annual National Baking Week with an incredible, 100% edible pop-up sweet shop titled “Baketopia” in London. “Cake curator” Emma Thomas (a.k.a. Miss Cakehead) brought together a team of the UK’s finest food artists to create the Wonka-esque landscape, which featured more than 3000 portions of baked goods for guests to devour.

The delicious centerpiece was a giant rainbow-filled unicorn cake created by the Tattooed Bakers, complete with edible gold leaf embossed hooves and horn.

We got the scoop from Baketopia creator Miss Cakehead and the Tattooed Bakers on what went on behind the scenes. Read on to find out!

Tattooed Bakers, creators of the rainbow unicorn cake:

Cake Central: When did you learn about Baketopia? Why were you interested in participating?
Tattooed Bakers: Miss Cakehead approached us about Baketopia early last year. It was pitched as a Willy Wonka-style edible space— who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

CC: Whose idea was the rainbow unicorn cake? What was the inspiration behind it?
TB: Miss Cakehead suggested making a unicorn cake and we designed it. Our original design had the unicorn rearing up on its hind legs and was Shire horse-sized! But we had to scale down in the end.

CC: Had you created a cake of this size/scale before?
TB: We hadn’t created such a structural cake on this scale before. We made a 30-foot Kraken tentacle for Kraken Rum at Festival Number 6 in September, which was the largest cake we’d made before the unicorn.

CC: What was the most challenging aspect of the cake?
TB: Delivery was the most challenging bit! We held our breaths on the whole journey there— it had to be transported in a removals van. In terms of actually making the cake, the modelling chocolate mane was the most fiddly and time consuming.

CC: How long did it take you to make it?
TB: All in all, it took about 120 hours from construction to finish, stretched over about a week.

CC: How many people did the cake serve?
TB: About 500. The edible meadow that the unicorn sat on was replenished daily and had 800 edible portions.

CC: How popular is National Baking Week in the UK?
TB: I think this year was its most popular year yet due to programs such as GBBO and the increasing interest in home baking. Baketopia had a much better reaction than all had anticipated and hundreds more visited than was expected. Tickets sold out before the weekend and more had to be released.

CC: Anything else you’d like to add?
TB: We were thrilled to be a part of it, working alongside Miss Cakehead other amazing cake artists such as Cake Revolution, Caking It and Mr. Bakewell and can’t wait for what we can do next year!

Miss Cakehead, mastermind behind Baketopia:

Cake Central: Who proposed the idea for Baketopia?
Miss Cakehead: I came up with the concept for an entirely edible landscape and worked with the PR agency to develop this further.

CC: What was the response like?
MC: The response was amazing and this is always the best part of the project— people came into the space with expressions on their faces like the golden ticket winners in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

CC: How long did the pop-up take to assemble?
MC: We had a day and a half [to set up].

CC: Did everything get eaten?
MC: Absolutely everything got eaten. It was sad cutting up some of the larger cakes such as the gnome.

CC: What is National Baking Week like in the UK?
MC: It’s a great event and sets out to inspire people to get baking— every country should have one.