By ANN MURPHY

Have a close look at the photo here… would you believe it is an example of a cake for a special occasion?
It is the handiwork of Kelly Cope, who has made a full-time job out of her hobby as a sugar crafter — using rugby balls, iPods, pints of beer, shoe boxes and handbags for inspiration.
Selling her handcrafted cakes in Church Lane, Midleton, under the name of Crafty Confections, Kelly can spend hours sculpting them into shapes ordered by customers who want to surprise loved ones with a unique gift.
And a whole range of flavours are also available — including vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, mint chocolate, banana, peanut butter and many more.
When Kelly was asked to make a cake in the shape of an elephant, she was left perplexed — until she remembered her daughter had an elephant figurine.
She said: “I had it beside me all the time for proportion and scale. It had to be fresh so I couldn’t do any too far in advance. It took me an entire day to do it.”
Another unusual commission was a wedding cake made like Lego bricks because the groom was a Lego fan.
She said: “He even made a Lego base for it!”
Kelly says her daughter Jodie’s first birthday was the first time she made a cake which was an unusual shape, instead of the usual round cakes.
She explained: “I made a cake in the shape of the number 1. Then for her second birthday, I made her a cake of Homer Simpson — not because she was a fan of the Simpsons programme but because she had a Simpsons toy and she loved it.”
The move got Kelly hooked on novelty cakes and she knew she had found a way to express her artistic and creative flair.
Read the full interview and see more amazing photographs in WOW!, free with Wednesday’s Cork Evening Echo