Sunday Sweets: Get OUT - That's Cake?!?
March 15, 2009 I've seen a lot of amazing cakes, people, but even I can't believe my eyes on this one:
According to these news articles, this life-sized Barbie doll is actually cake. Seriously.
That's pastry chef Jean Michel Raynaud there, too, unveiling his chocolate mud-cake Barbie in honor of the doll's 50th anniversary. (According to an interview he did here, Raynaud is the creative director of Sweet Art in Sydney.)
But let's get back to this "cake", shall we? (Still wrapping my brain around this - bear with me.)
Obviously not all of this creation is edible, but that's true of all cake masterpieces so I'm not going to quibble. Especially because in addition to the gold tulle skirt, two thousand Swarovski crystals were used. Sweet and sparkly - me likey.
Considering that the skirt base is most definitely cake if any of it is, I am particularly wowed by the super realistic "fabric" draping and stretching around the "knees":
When you consider that was carved out of a dense chocolate cake, it truly is a jaw-dropping work of art.
And thanks to Angela R. for being the first to send me the story.
Reader Comments (135)
wow...honestly so awesome:)
holleee crap. Literally gasped when I opened your page today. That's amazing
Okay, I know it's gorgeous and all, but this is a waste of resources (like money) that just sickens me. Like having solid gold fixtures in your bathroom. Maybe I don't always clean my plate, but seriously, did they KNOW there are kids starving in Africa??? And a giant edible Barbie still rated higher? Disgusting.
That IS amazing...but the last picture is kind of disturbing. I feel like she's saying something like, "Skinny b!tch! I'll cut you!" And with 5 little girls right there watching!
Wooooooo!
An Australian Sunday Sweet!
(Sort of.)
I am totally amazed. I mean, that is some serious craftsmanship!
Great sweet to wake up to! Thanks!
There's a whole lot of pics, including of the eating of Barbie, at http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?src=refinement&query=z.i.H4sIAAAAAAAEAO29B2AcSZYlJi9tynt_SvVK1-B0oQiAYBMk2JBAEOzBiM3mkuwdaUcjKasqgcplVmVdZhZAzO2dvPfee--999577733ujudTif33_8_XGZkAWz2zkrayZ4hgKrIHz9-fB8_In7dfLn91etf49f4NX6PX_dskV3kvyb9-pj-_xtOsnpS5Ok0e5v_miN8uvExDX7NpK6q9mVWZ4vm19LP8PPX2t3Br78Z_kno_7_eu9fXzek78-qv6f3Nr2Tn5tdfU38HlF87O59aVMwf-P-vjZ873NGidW-6338dalzaL-xfeO_XpT_qhQUb_vnro_ku_vr1-POJhdH5m187D6HYPxnKjoVy3oHi_ubX6hCK_ZOh7FkodQeK-5sok5uXfk388WvrH0ymXfz2G5q2v7H5nGiSr8ynv2bw16-Vu66833-tvPE-tr__2s3Kvvlr4g-Dym9lX7ycuhfd779OVXscYf_irya5_5X5C8-vPbtamt9_TfPHr4t3mvXEIRj89WvnmcPA_4N-X_lf2D9-3SaAFv7560zzd-614K9f-92z524q6A_7RVZ7aHt__EbNtFrlT9bLWenRN_jUAPxxwHmwcx-t_h_GykqLyAMAAA..&rid=85249343&rcat=Event&rt=AUS%3A%20Erika%20Heynatz%20Celebrates%20Barbie%27s%2050th%20Birthday" REL="nofollow">Getty
Meanwhile I'm shaking my head at the need to fit the opera house into every documentation of anything that takes place in Sydney.
Oh wow! How Crazy is that. And on top of it Barbie doesn't look a day over 27. :-P
wow. that's crazy.
i have to wonder how it would be to get a piece that was just a finger or a hand though... maybe a little weird. i'd ask for part of the dress.
WOW! Now that's absolutely gorgeous!
Apparently they did use a mannequin - it's just the dress that is cake.
"In their elaborate creation, a mannequin was clad in a couture gown of iced cake topped with coiffure and accessories."
No photos of cut cake found yet - but am still searching.
Wow, that cake is just jaw dropping amazing. Hats off to the chef!
That is the most beautiful, life-like barbie-doll I have ever seen. What a talent he has!
Glad you posted this- it is AWESOME. Barbie toilet holder cake on steroids?
What astounds me is the proximity of this delicate cake to the WATER. Heat and humidity are the bane of fancy sugar work. I'd like to see the construction of this thing!
HOLY COW! that's amazing.
Pictures of the cake being served would be good, but pictures of the little girls screaming as they are presented with bits and pieces of Barbie would be even better. ;)
Love your site!
WOW! That is amazing!
There are more photos at http://tinyurl.com/ckmanr I'm thinking any food product that gets it's hair done by Joh Bailey & is wearing $50k worth of jewellery isn't likely to be actually eaten (much less photographed being eaten)...lol.
That kind of puts my, "stick a barbie in the top of a cake" to shame.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that eating that would read disturbingly like cannibalism.
wow. Just... wow...
That is....
Wow!
Absolutely AMAZING!
Holy cats.
Though I gotta say, biting down on a Swarovski crystal could do some serious damage to your molars.
Her knees are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too low on that dress. Still, it's a great masterpiece.
Oh my gosh. I have never seen anything like this and I am pretty into cakes. I gasped when I saw that maniac cutting it. You do not cut that cake.
I am stunned.
Wow! I'm speechless!
. . . . . . . . . .
Mikey
Absolutely stunning. But...
Wouldn't eating it be sort of macabre? You know, decapitating it, amputating the limbs, and all that.
That's an amazing cake. That it is even able to stand up and not tip over is amazing enough.
I'm thinking that cake is entirely too realistic. I hope they didn't really cut it up in front of those pony-tailed and pig-tailed little girls or their parents and caregivers will be answering screams in the middle of the night from Barbie nightmares for years to come.
At least it's not red velvet??
Well, they did cut it up and serve.
http://www.aol.co.nz/lifestyle/photogallery/barbie-cake-sydney-030909
Sixth picture if I remember correctly. At least it was the gown and not Barbie herself who got eaten. Also, kids eat cakes and goodies in shape of animals and even people all the time, so perhaps we can give them credit to not have nightmares about the skirt cake.
Uh...I get the hand piece?
Angie (from over at www.HalfAssedKitchen.com)
That's AMAZING!!
Well, here goes the old crabapple ME again, but I have to say that while the feat is laudable (and lovely in the way a fairy tale is), the whole Barbie thing has always bugged me for its insinuation that the "perfect" woman should have a neck like a giraffe, legs like paint brushes (with feet the size of a hamster's), a bust like a butt, and a smiling, always-agreeable, and fairly blank expression (kinda like the Miss America pageant contestants' requirements). Real women don't look like Barbie, so she's a goofy role model for smart young girls.
I wouldn't worry about the kiddies--I bet they all love to eat cake enough to hack into that!
Mmmmmmm...CHOCOLATE...gggghhhhhaaaauuuuggghhh....(ala Homer Simpson).
>^~~^<
WV: "natorel": It's just not natorel the way Barbie is built!
I think this post holds the record of most quotation marks used in a single Cake Wrecks post...
I think I have a bruise on my jaw from where it hit the floor. The cake dress is stunning. The only problem with edible masterpieces is that they don't last long. The good thing is that they're edible.
That is amazing. Wow. I wonder how long it took to create.
~Amy B
It's really .....the best stick a barbie in it cake ever. lol!
While I'm not a huge Barbie fan I know most little girls are. That would have been the party of their little lives!
Um...and please...please...don't equate the Miss America system to the image Barbie gives. Yes in the past that was the ideal look....but things have changed there. The pageant is based on knowledge and the person not just their looks. Now the Miss USA system.......yeah....go right ahead and base the whole image thing on that. *gets a funny taste in her mouth just from saying it. lol*
And seriously, I'd so have asked for a chunk of that cake and giggled.
I'd hit that. The cake I mean.
So honestly when I first opened this, I thought it was a strikingly well done, but still obnoxious bride-buddy like we've seen in the past. Then when I read it was Barbie, *I* wanted to be the one with the knife.
And in the additional pictures posted in the comments, it totally looks like the model is desperately trying to upstage the cakey beotch.
Weeeeell...
it's definitely amazing artistry. I'll give it that. And unlike FreedomFirst I'm okay with stuff like this - after all, it gave the cakemakers work, they had to buy the supplies from somewhere, etc. It stimulates the economy, which lord knows needs it. Plus think of all the happy kids who got free cake.
But I can't get past the whole person-shaped thing. I get that animal crackers are one thing, but...I can't dig cutting up and eating something that looks alarmingly like a human, y'know?
Hrmn.. I don't quite get it. Why is this one a 'sweet', while http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/05/when-brides-have-no-budget-or-taste.html" REL="nofollow">this one was a wreck?
I always find this kind of thing a bit dumb really. I like cakes to look nice when you present them but I also want them to look like you would want to eat them. I mean, why bother make something like that out of cake? Sorry Jen, I've been thinking that about some of the things you've posted for a while 'pretty but ... pointless' The 'Gee whizz, it's made out of cake!' doesn't do it for me, I guess. Shrug.
See, I actually find this kind of wrecky! They used a mannequin for the top, and the top doesn't match the bottom if you know anatomy! The mannequin has the beginning of the hips, but the hips are repeated below. It just looks very disjointed to me.
Sorry, that's the nurse in me talking. This lady's anatomy just looks *wrong*
I think I made the same face as the little girl in the bottom picture at the thought of actually cutting and eating that cake. If you've ever actually chewed on a Barbie or her clothes, you'd know that they taste kinda gross.
Janice in GA said I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that eating that would read disturbingly like cannibalism.
Tasty, tasty cannibalism.... with chocolate!
Honestly, there needs to be someting in the description on the main page that clearly states that the cake is ONLY in the dress!
The upper body, head, hair, etc are NOT cake! They are mannequin parts.
Amazing piece of work! But I wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to cut it - images of Dexter begin to swirl through my head. :-p
Does anyone on here read the comments before posting? Obviously the whole thing is not made out of cake! It's a mannequin. As for the "children starving in Africa" argument. Well then hey, why not just stop all art, music, and industry that are "pointless" because they're such a waste of money. Obviously that is a ridiculous statement. People are allowed to create art no matter what! Come on!
Also, it's not cannibalistic or traumatizing. The whole thing is not made out of cake. It's just the DRESS SKIRT and the rest is a plastic mannequin. Again, READ people, before you comment the same inane statements repeatedly. Educate yourselves!
the reason that atrocious wedding cake bride dup was a wreck is because it looks awful! It looks like a fat slouching hot mess and the barbie one actually looks gorgeous. The craftsmanship between the two is like night and day.