Cake holes, but not as we know them – the view from Bompas and Parr's Big Rooftop Tea & Golf Party

Date
31 May 2012

We’ve seen them build a chocolate climbing wall (scaled by Peter Andre), we’ve listened to them explain the surprisingly logical reasoning behind exploding wedding cakes (no one ever eats it anyway), and we’ve even been mildly drugged by them with seductive rags of ether. So naturally when we heard that London’s favourite culinary wizards, Bompas and Parr, were taking over the Selfridges roof for the second time – the first being their plight to flood the roof with an emerald green boating lake – and creating a crazy golf course made entirely of cake, we were excited.

‘The Big Rooftop Tea and Garden Party’ is part of Selfridges’ timely The Big British Bang celebration, and is pretty much as quintessentially British as you can get. As you step on to the atsroturf-bedecked, six-storey-high roof in the blinding sunlight you are greeted with the reassuring tinkle of good china, which is coming from the delectable Daylesford Organic restaurant that sits alongside Bompas and Parr’s latest extravagant venture: a crazy golf course with obstacles resembling 8ft high replicas of London’s greatest buildings and sites – entirely made of pastel-coloured cake.

So how does it not melt? Why isn’t anyone eating the cake? Why crazy golf? What’s going on? These are just a few questions that arose during our brief spell on the roof, none of which, unfortunately, I can answer. And if I did, would that ruin the fun? Perhaps the best way to experience the mind-blowing creative force that is Sam Bompas and Harry Parr is just to sit back, enjoy what’s put in front of you, and get very excited for what they will bring next.

Above

Bompas and Parr’s Big Rooftop Tea & Golf Party (photo: Gareth Davies)

Above

Bompas and Parr’s Big Rooftop Tea & Golf Party (photo: Gareth Davies)

Above

Bompas and Parr’s Big Rooftop Tea & Golf Party (photo: Gareth Davies)

Above

Bompas and Parr’s Big Rooftop Tea & Golf Party (photo: Gareth Davies)

Share Article

About the Author

Liv Siddall

Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and worked across online, print and events, and was latterly Features Editor before leaving in May 2015.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.