After waiting 12 years for Kate Bush’s eighth album, a team from EMI visited her home to investigate. ‘Here’s what I’ve been working on,’ Kate declared, before producing a cake from the oven. The execs left without hearing any hint of a work in progress. Three months later, Kate released Aerial, a critically acclaimed triumph. Or so the story goes.

True or not, the anecdote reflects Kate’s 45-year relationship with the record label, marked by her intense privacy and refusal to conform to expectations. It also demonstrates the star’s playful sense of humour. The cake is therefore a good metaphor for the album itself and it felt like a strong starting point for a cover redesign.

In tribute to Kate’s 1970s career beginnings, the album cover draws on vintage recipe cards, referencing the typography of the seventies as much as the garish colours and dubious-looking dishes.

Kate was a pioneer of vegetarianism at a time when the diet was very unusual. The cake I created in Kate’s honour contains the ingredients of her favourite Waldorf salad: celery, apples, walnuts and mayonnaise, with the addition of glacé cherries for extra kitsch (and set with pectin, of course).

Aerial

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