Sunday Sweets: Tour De Force, Pt 1
September 27, 2009 John and I are having a fantastic time meeting so many of you on the "world" tour, and we're also having lots of fun seeing what the fabulous bakers who volunteered their services at each event are bringing to feed you guys. We'll be posting more pics of those cakes as the tour progresses, but for today I thought it'd be fun to troll through these bakers' sites and show you some of my favorites.
First we have Johnnie of Something Sweet Cake Studio. I've already posted the great Wreck Tribute cake she made for Orlando, so here are a few of my favs from her site:
This is competing with the Darth Vader cake to be my all-time favorite baby shower cake. C'mon, a snorkeling/scuba-diving baby? What's not to love here?
Gorgeous flowers, and I like how Johnnie hand paints so many of her cakes.
Note how they were able to make cherry blossom branches withOUT making them look like poo logs. See? It CAN be done!Paul and his wife Liz specialize in sculpted cakes, like so:
(Look at the detail on the screen! Suh-weet!)
(Why yes, that IS an Alien wedding cake. Why do you ask?)Matt and his wife Denise (and helper Heather), however, specialize in more traditional designs:
Those are hand-painted chocolate shells. Gorgeous.Thanks again to all of today's bakers. You guys have made each stop so much sweeter (pun intended) and it's been fantastic meeting you all!
- Similar Sweets: Cake Nouveau
Reader Comments (47)
After yesterday's bridal shower disaster zombie cake, it's a pure delight to see these beauties! I can't wait to see the cakes from the tour, but I also understand how hectic things are for you right now! Thanks for keeping up with the posts and bringing a smile to so many faces!
Well, the black cake is impressive, but to me, it's not appetizing.
Yes, I agree that non-poo-log branches are better on wedding cakes also.
Thanks for sharing cakes that worked.
Beautiful! I love the cherry blossoms!
Choke...gasp-bwhahaha!
Poo logs?
Although it's not for everyone, that "Alien" cake makes this nerd girl very happy.
The cherry blossoms and shell cake are gorgeous. And that PacMan cake - holy nerd, Batman! I love it!
What do you do if a baker brings you their masterpiece and it's really a cake wreck? Marylu
This makes me want to go back to school and learn how to do this. So inspiring when they get it right!
I love that Alien cake :D Would have loved something like that at our wedding
That Alien cake might be the single best thing I've ever seen.
1. LOVE the alien wedding cake & Pac-man cake! BWAhaha!
2. Really really hoping to make it to the Bethesda signing! I put me & my husband in as maybes, and I'm optimistic right now.
3. Even more hoping the copy I pre-ordered from Amazon gets here by then. If not, I'll get one at the bookstore and just cancel my order. :)
I had a babyshower cake very similar to the first one! It was adorable!
Ditto the nerd girl. My DH, who cares not a whit about this sort of thing, pronounced it "the coolest wedding cake he'd ever seen." We've both watched the Alien/Aliens films so many times we know the dialog, so yeah, very cool! And the cherry blossoms were lovely, too.
OMG the little alien wearing a top hat! Off to die of cute overload now...
It was great to meet you last night--I hope you got a chance to taste those amazing cakes, because they even TASTED wonderful! Thanks for coming to Seattle! (Well, Lake Forest Park.)
--Colin, Kristie, and Annie (one of the cute babies!)
Love the diving baby cake. Hope you are able to rest between stops.
I want the Pac-Man cake for my next birthday.
What happens when I trip my non-existent brother?
pronebro
Hmm...maybe I've just been looking at this site too long, but the branches still look like poo logs to me....
That alien cake is amazing, but all that black frosting would make me fear of staining my toilet's porcelain
Am I the only one who thinks the top of the Alien cake looks like two (can I say "penis" here?) penises? Yikes! (The rest of it is pretty awesome, though I agree it's not appetizing.)
Those branches do look a bit like poo logs, sorry. The flowers are good, so that helps to distract the eye from the branches. But, in general, dark brown icing is best not piped into logs.
I have such cake envy over that alien cake.. and I thought my event horizon wedding cake was nifty. That thing just knocks my nerdy socks right off!
Miranda - the aliens are supposed to look phallic. HR Giger, the artist who designed them for the movie, is well known for his, erm, risque art aesthetics.
That said, I think it's one of the best wedding cakes I've ever seen! Aliens is one of my all-time fav movies, but the wedding cake makes me think of Spaceballs which is even better! The 'groom' looks like the dancing chestburster from the diner scene!
I love Sunday sweets!! it's good to remind the public that there actually are GOOD BAKERS/DECORATORS out there in the world!
Tha Babyshower cake is totally cute!!!
I wonder why I crave a hunk of cake after I read your posts... at least on Sundays. Many other days, not so much. Pretty pretty today!
wow. im diggin' that alien cake. feeds my inner geek.
I'd like to mention that the vegan cake was provided by Black Sheep Bakery in Portland. I just made it. blacksheepbakery.com if anyone's interested.
Did you see the "teeth" on the alien cake? Now that's good use of those silver candy balls!
I'm not that impressed by the first cake. It looks more like an old man dressed as baby New Year.
Not to sound like a TOTAL geek but my son and I are arguing over the alien cake... Are those giant worms from Star Wars (what son believes) or from Dune (my guess.)
Please let us know who's correct!
:-) Or more appropriately, who's the BIGGER geek.
EmBee: I'm afraid neither of you is right, you pretender-geeks you! (kidding!)
It's an HR Geiger-style alien theme, from the Alien/Aliens movies. The "worms" are the young stage of the aliens from the movies, which burst from people's chests. :)
Thank you so much for a great time last night. It was sweet, exciting and just a bit weird. Uh...wait...we are talking about the book signing in Seattle, right?
We at Jet City Cakes were totally stoked to do the cake for you and our new found friends at Starry Nights were an absolute gas to work with. Total pros that are not afraid to work with another bakery. We plan on more collaboration in the future thanks to Jen and John!
On the Alien Cake: that is one of our faves as well. Dawnspring, when I put the little top hat on the groom I TOTALLY thought about the alien in the diner in Spaceballs. As for the last question, they are actually from the movie Alien (or Spaceballs, whatever) not Dune or Star Wars. Although a Shai-Hulud* cake would be awesome. Any takers?
*bonus geed points if you know that reference.
Thanks Everyone!
Paul- Evil Genius, Jet City Cakes
I was lucky enough to have a birthday cake from the Dessert Tray. Not only are their cakes beautiful, they're totally delicious. My husbands loves, loves, love their German Chocolate cake!
Oh wow! These definitely have me excited to see what these bakers made for your book tour!
Wow, even though the alien cake is just a little scary, it is awesome!
It was so great meeting you and John today! (I was the shy mom in the orange tank with her little boy - whose face was covered in chocolate - in tow.) Love that you called out all the geeks in the room... this Webmaster appreciates your appreciation of us. :D
Both the Pac Man and the alien wedding cakes are waaaay cool!
whoa! very impressive!
I love the second one the best and the one with the seashells too !
I can't stop chuckling everytime I read, 'poo logs'.
Okay. Alien cake?
Best. Cake. Ever.
Makes me want to get married just for the cake.
I am so envious of the couple who gets the Alien cake for their wedding. That is awesome.
The alien cake looks too awesome to eat. I hope it's not filled with highly corrosive acid! But a yellowy-green color might be a nice touch. :)
I've been to the Dessert Tray. They're great! I'm surprised Beaverton Bakery didn't do a cake. They are very well known bakery in Portland.
The Alien cake is all kinds of awesome and the Pac-Man cake brings back some sweet 80's memories.
I want an Alien cake... dang it, but I am already married!
That cherry blossom cake was my wedding cake! Wellllll, a version of it. So pretty, we loved it.
Waw..The Alien cake ...thats a work of art. Respect to that cake maker. xx ;)