Sunday Sweets: Eastern Elegance
September 5, 2010 As you may know, Jen and I are at Dragon*Con this weekend, which means we are geeking out with the geekiest geeks in all of geekdom. Which is exactly why today's Sweets are the most elegant, Eastern-inspired cakes we could find. (See, I'm actually having nightmares about being chased through cavernous hotels by roving packs of storm troopers in kilts. Which is not only possible, but actually likely.)
So, onward and upward!
One of the things I most admire about Eastern tradition is the art of Henna, which works amazingly well on cake. Check it out:
By The Evil PlanktonI absolutely love the detail. And the elephants. (Which are edible.) But really, who doesn't love elephants? I mean, think about it. When is the last time you saw an elephant that wasn't doing something absolutely lovable? See? Never!
By HennaLounge
And for a little bit of structural goodness...
By I Dream of CakeYou can never go wrong with cobalt blue and gold. Beautiful.
Next, going a little further East for inspiration:
Some fabulous hand-painting:
And a fabulous fan:
A Kimono-inspired beauty:
And a tiara:
By Pink Cake BoxFinally, we were invited by the lovely folks at Highland Bakery to stop by while we're here in Atlanta, but I don't think we're gonna make it. Which is a shame, because they do stuff like this:
Well, there it is! Next week we may be fully recovered from geek overload, so we'll probably do something really geeky with, I don't know, gears or capes or something. Until then, please send your nominations and ideas to sundaysweets (at) cakewrecks.com. And Wreck On!
Reader Comments (75)
An elephant being totally UNadorable...saw this yesterday on my hubby's facebook. EWWWWWW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a64JEtZMVUc
Wow. That's about all I can say about these. Absolutely amazing.
Absolutely gorgeous stuff!
Those are the most fantastic cakes I've ever seen! The detail in the henna cakes, the kimono-inspired cake, wow, all of them are awesome! I just don't think I could stand to be the one who cuts into them, though! But if someone else wants to cut them, I'll be happy to eat them!
Those are amazing! But they all share one fault: they are much, much too beautiful to be cut and eaten. I think I'd cry if I was served a cake like this.
Incredible. I cannot get over the details and beauty in these cakes! There's so much going on in each one, but none of them is -over- done, which is a risk when attempting something of that nature.
Gorgeous. Thank you for sharing these!
The two elephants cake is beautiful.
I can't imagine the time or the steady-handedness to make those cakes possible. Wow. I get a cramp just thinking about it!
Cutting and eating a Hindu God or any God is just wrong!
Wow! I always look forward to the Sunday Sweets, but today blew me away. Wow wow wow!
I saw an elephant man handle Jeff Corwin which was disheartening as he does not do animal shows anymore because of it :-(
Cakes are lovely though!!
The art of painting the hands and feet with intricate henna designs for festivals and important occasions like weddings is actually called "Mehndi." Just FYI. Gorgeous cakes, though. I especially like the two elephants.
Wow, breathtakingly beautiful creations! Thanks for sharing such gorgeous works of (edible) art with us. Love the eastern theme, btw.
Uh, yeah, my first thought about the elephant's ability to be adorable was the video posted in the first comment. So very, er, not adorable. The elephants on the cakes are pretty adorable, though. :)
*offers the Ganesh cake a peanut*
(guess the reference and win an internet cookie!)
- Gypmama
Loving the Mario Kart game going on in the background of the fabricy cake with fans :)
I love the henna cakes! The decoration is so delicate and intricate.
Oh wow. That is the most beautiful collection of cakes I've ever seen, hands down. Especially the henna cakes.
I'm in awe.
I love all the cakes, but the elephants have to be my favorite.
You should try to make it over to Highland Bakery if you can... it's my favorite spot in Atlanta for brunch! And the cakes are definitely really neat. Hope you're having fun at Dragon*Con, I had hoped to make it over for the parade yesterday but slept in too late! :)
Those are all fabulous!
These are amazing! Finally, a Sunday Sweets not dedicated to Star Wars or Super Mario Bros. That is getting really, really old.
So beautiful! Very inspiring!
Nerds go to DragonCon, geeks go to PAX?
These are all so lovely! I wanted to go to DragonCon SO bad. So many of my favorite author's were there. Hope you made it to the kilt blowing...
I am just amazed by these beautiful cakes. The decorators are artists indeed.
Thank you for sharing them with us.
These are absolutely amazingly gorgeous. The first one -- ohhh.
I'm not sure it's nice to be critical on Sunday Sweets, but the kimono-inspired cake is not really kimono-inspired. Both the design and the decorations look very Chinese rather than Japanese. The sort of buttons and loops... Have you ever seen a button and a loop on a kimono?
It's Sweets posts like these that make it utterly impossible to pick a favourite. They're all so breathtaking!
I was so impressed by the Hindu Goddess cake by Highland Bakery in Atlanta, so I went to their website. I want to move to Atlanta now! Absolutely AMAZING stuff!
Gorgeous! These make the wrecks look wreckier (a word?)
Hey Gypmama, that is a Simpsons reference... so where's my cookie? lol. I love all of the cakes...SO beautiful!
An elephant being unadorable...how about when they're in rusk and decide to rampage through villages? There's a story about one on Cracked.com.
Beautiful!
When I first read about your dream, my eye saw "carnivorous hotels"... so be careful where you run into when the kilted storm-troupers show up.
Love, love, love the two elephants making hearts with their trunks! Too cute!
But the Ganesha one might be a tad creepy to eat. "Uh, could I maybe have a piece that is not god's crotch please?"
Ya'll really need to make it over to Highland Bakery, they are amazing. They just opened a second location in Midtown and it's my go to spot for lunch (and completely unnecessary afternoon cake).
I was up at DC yesterday afternoon and saw most of the costumes Jen had posted pictures of the day before, I'm not sure why, but that really entertained me. :-)
This last week I was at the Oregon State Fair and saw a gorgeous Easter inpsired cake. I took a picture of it with the intent of sending it in to you. These are all stunning!
Melanie
While these are really amazing, I just want to point out that some of us really do (absolutely) adore and love the "geekier" cakes. These are pretty but personally I love the video game cakes the best. Or unicorns. If someone could combine the two that would be heaven.
These are some of the most beautiful, elegant cakes I've ever seen. Great Sunday Sweets this week!
I love the henna/mehndi inspired cakes...I've wanted to do something simpler in that vein myself for a while. Henna art is a great way to practice cake decorating, because there's no way to *really* scrape off a whoopsie in henna either--it stains pretty much instantly!
ALL BEAUTIFUL!
I couldn't eat any of them - too beautiful!
Geenalyn!!!! LOL...seriously, I was going to post the SAME link of that elephant "snack attack" myself! Yes, truly an elephant being totally UNadorable!
My birthday is Tuesday. Anyone who desires can send me any or all of the above cakes. They will be duly admired, then devoured!
How could you not go to Highland?! I'd sweep their floors if they'd let me watch them create the cakes they make!! No, I am not a baker who wants to steal ideas, I just LOVE cake!! Correction: good cake. I will not eat bad cake.
And it's a great post "John, the hubby of Jen"
These are amazing. I love the Sunday Sweets whether they're about geekery or anything else, but I have to admit that while I've seen a lot of pretty nerd cakes on the Internet, I've seen very few Middle Eastern- and Eastern-inspired cakes of this quality. So, this was refreshing eye-candy!
Also, I <3 elephants as well. And obviously-rhetorical questions about how adorable elephants are. ;)
Those are amazing-more like works of art than cakes
Great cakes!
Hope you guys are having fun at Dragon*Con! We just came home today. I walked all around the Marriott last night calling your name in hopes to find you to get a button. : )
There's always so much craziness going on there that no one pays attention to a person walking around yelling, "Jennnnnnn! Jennnnn!!! Jennnnnn with the yellow boots, where are youuuuuu???
You were quite the elusive blogger. I gave myself an A for effort at least. Have a safe trip home!
the elephants at the greenville, SC zoo are known to stick their trunks up the other ones rear....
not adorable. and even more fun to explain to the kids!
In Mehndi is applied to skin in a similar technique as piping. Just think henna paste instead of frosting. Like piping on a cake there isn't a lot of room for scrape off errors. It's really fascinating to see the two art forms in one edible masterpiece.
Me! I don't love elephants!
Nah. Just kidding. That and the koi cake are my favorites. :)