Originally staged in her Acme prefabricated house in Stepney, East London, in 1976, the remake of the sculptural installation, An Edible Family in a Mobile Home, accompanies the touring exhibition Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990 at Tate Britain and the Whitworth. This major recreated artwork contains five life-size sculptures of family members made from cake, biscuits and meringues, which will be steadily eaten by the public. 

An Edible Family in a Mobile Home had not been seen for almost 50 years until the first restaging of a replica in 2023 outside Tate Britain, with updated elements by the artist. The 1976 installation was presented in Baker’s actual prefabricated mobile home – one of a handful of prefabs that arts organisation Acme were providing for artists as live/work spaces.

Alongside the refurbished dressmaker’s dummy mother, the figures of a daughter, son, husband, and baby are made out of garibaldi biscuits, meringue, and various flavours of cake (including a vegan option). The house is papered floor-to-ceiling in newspaper pages and magazine clippings dated to the mid-seventies adorned with icing decorations. In the bathroom, appropriately dated music from the era emanates from a vintage radio and in the sitting room the father watches 1970s comedy on TV.

Baker originally staged her installation aged 25 over the course of a week. Visitors ate pieces of her cake ‘family’ and Baker served cups of tea, performing the role of polite female host. In the living room, a father made of fruit cake was slumped in an armchair surrounded by tabloid newspapers; in the bath, a teenage son made of garibaldi biscuits lay in chocolate cake bathwater against a background of comics; and in the kitchen, a mother constructed from a dressmaker’s mannequin with a teapot for a head offered a constant supply of fairy cakes, sandwiches and fruit from compartments in her hollow abdomen. Baker baked, sculpted and decorated each of these family members herself over the course of a month. 

At Tate Britain, the cakes were baked by Lili Vanilli and meringues were supplied by Cotswold Meringue Company, while at the Whitworth, they were baked by Manchester’s women-owned and women-run Long Boi's Bakehouse. Assembled by Baker and her team, visitors were invited into the house to sample the edible sculptures and talk to the ‘hosts’. The hosts, specially trained by Baker, included students from Chelsea College of Art and young women recruited through the race and class inclusion charity You Make It at Tate Britain and students from the University of Manchester at the Whitworth. 

Following a period of research with the UCL’s Institute for Making, Baker used a contemporary icing to decorate the walls of the house, while the building’s structure was slightly adapted to improve accessibility. 

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Additional support has been secured from Acme, and People's Postcode Lottery.

Credits

Artistic Director: Bobby Baker

Production Designer: Miranda Melville

Technical Director: Steve Wald


Producers: Caroline Smith, Rebecca Gremmo in London and Bren O'Callaghan in Manchester

Development: Ilana Mitchell, Idle Women

House Fabrication: Miraculous Engineering

Materials Development: Ellie Doney

Cake: Lily Vanilli in London and Long Boi's Bakehouse in Manchester

Meringues: Cotswold Handmade Meringues in London and Long Boi's Bakehouse in Manchester 

Makers: Katy Christianson, Millie Holland, Terri Mercieca, Maja Quille,  

Host Producers: Daisy Gould in London and Rebekka Anstem in Manchester

Artist Liaison: Gemma Lloyd

Production Office: Melissa Bradshaw, Kemi Williams, Rose Sharp

Evaluation: Dora Whittuck

With special thanks to Rachel Fleming-Mulford and Linsey Young,

without whose early support and enthusiasm this re-staging would not have been possible. Thanks also to Poppy Bowers, Senior Curator, Olivia Heron, Curator, and all the staff at the Whitworth.

See full list of credits and supporters here.