In a post on Instagram, a bag of Calbee crisps lies on a table. A young woman, instead of picking up the bag to open it, cuts into it with a knife. In another post, a Hong Kong-style milk tea in a teacup and saucer is placed on a table. The cup is decorated with the logo of the Black & White sweetened condensed milk cans found in many cha chaan teng in Hong Kong. A young woman picks up the cup as if to take a sip, puts it down, picks up a knife – and slices it open. These are just two of the eye-popping illusion cakes that Hongkongers Alison Chan Fong-ki, 28, and Cony Lam Yuen-fan, 29, have been making over the last two months. One year ago, Chan opened Dear Harley Cake Studio at PMQ , a fashion, arts and crafts hub in a heritage building in Hong Kong’s Central district on Hong Kong Island. The duo customise cakes, and host cake-decorating classes, birthday parties and bridal showers. With the recent introduction of social distancing regulations to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Hong Kong limiting their classes, the duo have found themselves with extra time on their hands – so they decided to get creative with their cakes. View this post on Instagram Hong Kong’s milk tea....#CAKE Even the plate is edible! That’s why I love #sugarart - For orders / private classes: whatsapp: +852 6151 6861 : dearharley.hk@gmail.com - #奶茶蛋糕 #黑白奶蛋糕 #幻覺蛋糕 #babyboycake #造型蛋糕 #散水餅 #甜點桌 #茶餐廳蛋糕 #訂蛋糕 #百日宴 #百日宴蛋糕 #生日蛋糕 #香港蛋糕班 #chipscake #蛋糕班 #hkparty #香港馬卡龍 #馬卡龍班 #香港馬卡龍班 #milkteacake #milkteacakes #bb女蛋糕 #香港幻覺蛋糕 #珍珠奶茶蛋糕 #bubbleteacake #bubbleteacakes A post shared by alison chan || Hong Kong (@dearharley_) on Jun 24, 2020 at 6:58am PDT “We think of ideas about how we can catch people‘s attention on cakes, people who are not initially so interested in cakes. So we started to make everyday-life illusion cakes and made fun videos out of it. People like it a lot so we are very happy about it,” Chan says. The cakes they make look very much like their real non-cake counterparts – Christian Dior handbags, Hermès gift boxes, a bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (a prized red burgundy wine) complete with wooden crate, Uno playing cards – even a television remote control. Anything is possible, says Chan. “When we have an idea of what we want to make, we get the real object to get the exact shape, the texture, the material, the colour,” she explains. “Then we start to bake the cake, then try to craft the cake to the same size with filling inside. Then we mask it with fondant, then add top decorating sugar pieces. We also add colour dust at the end to make certain objects look more realistic.” When it comes to mimicking designer bags and purses, even the stitching is added to the cake, and careful attention is paid to making the brand names as real as possible. View this post on Instagram Happy birthday @jwchubz and thanks for the cool video! @tarzan_ip •Red velvet cake •Italian meringue buttercream •Oreo crumbs #uhkvideo #uhkfood #uhkphoto - For orders / private classes: whatsapp: +852 6151 6861 : dearharley.hk@gmail.com - #薯片蛋糕 #熱浪蛋糕 #幻覺蛋糕 #babyboycake #造型蛋糕 #散水餅 #甜點桌 #蛋糕 #訂蛋糕 #百日宴 #百日宴蛋糕 #生日蛋糕 #香港蛋糕班 #chipscake #蛋糕班 #hkparty #香港馬卡龍 #馬卡龍班 #香港馬卡龍班 #crispscake #bb女蛋糕 #香港幻覺蛋糕 A post shared by alison chan || Hong Kong (@dearharley_) on Jun 22, 2020 at 5:58am PDT Chan’s interest in baking began at university, when she made brownies and cupcakes. Seeing pictures of beautifully decorated cakes inspired her to take a course in Britain on cake decorating, though she only took one out of four modules. Lam completed all four. Chan and Lam have known each other for years. Both went to the same secondary school, Holy Trinity College in Shek Kip Mei, in the heart of Kowloon, although it wasn’t until after they graduated that they became friends. “I saw her taking cake decorating classes so I was interested too,” says Lam, who is also a professional dance instructor and a backup dancer for Canto-pop stars including Aaron Kwok Fu-shing and Hins Cheung King-hin . “Hins was supposed to have a concert last year, but it was cancelled because of the [anti-government] protests. He had a special party for the crew and we surprised him with a cake that looked like the stage of his show. When he saw the cake he almost cried,” Lam recalls. One of the most difficult challenges they’ve faced was in making a birthday cake look like a particular gazebo in France, in which the cake recipient had married the year before. Chan had puzzled over how to make a cake that was hollow inside and, in the end, she used royal icing to create the structure and placed it on top of the cake. “That piece stressed me throughout the whole week. I was nervous creating it but it came out really nicely and they loved it. There are so many things you can learn and try in the cake decorating world. When I get requests like this, I try to find solutions and I always want to improve; if you don‘t try new things, you are just [walking on the same spot].” The cake studio is named after Chan’s nephew, who inspired her approach to the cake studio. “When I babysat him, he was so cute, that pure happiness and innocence made me really want to do things that I love to do in life, not just to look for money and business to survive in this city. He brought me back to the root of happiness.”