Sunday Sweets: C'est Bon!
July 22, 2012 Bonjour, mon amis! Today's sweets are mostly inspired by Marie Antoinette, so you know what that means: Prepare your eyeballs for an over-the-top feast of excessiveness!
(And no, we won't be having any gruesome headless sweets commemorating Marie's rather gruesome end. Sheesh. Get your mind out of the guillotine.)
Yep, it's all decadence and girliness from here on out! And yay for that, because have I mentioned I've been helping my husband Matt at football camp all week? Yes, I've been sharing a house with 25 teenage boys for the last five days. I could use a little girliness up in here.
Fortunately this first beauty is a sight for my pink-deprived eyes:
;)
And how appropriate that it includes a fabulous fondant fan, because I'm already feeling the need to fan myself!
;)
[Swoon!] Such loveliness!
And here's the lady of the hour herself...
;)
By CakeCentral member Lindasuus
...sweetly putting to shame every Barbie-torso-stuffed-in-a-cake ever made.
This one is so absolutely flawless and stunning, I'm convinced it doesn't really exist.
;)
By Cake Coquette (More detail shots at the link)
We've all just collectively dreamed it or something. (We have excellent imaginary taste, you and I!)
Now here's a solution to that pesky problem of how to hide plastic cake pillars: Simply pipe a decorative cage of icing between the tiers for an elaborate camouflaging exoskeleton of awesomeness!
;)
Er, on second thought, you might want to just leave that to the pros.
I thought this Fabergé Egg cake was a winner on its own ... (Seriously, doesn't it look like a 1st place trophy to you? Or is that the football camp talking?)
;)
...but then I scrolled down and realized the egg was only one quarter of the whole cake!
;)
Wow. The layers look like carved marble or porcelain, and I love those unique shapes, too. It's hard to believe the tiers wouldn't shatter when you went to cut a slice!
I think more food should be adorned with edible pink tassels, don't you?
;)
I love this color scheme so much; fun, flirty, and fit for a queen. I bet ol' M.A. would lose her head over it!
Oooh, sorry Marie. Too soon?
;)
Submitted by Anne Marie B. and made by Rosey Confectionary Sugar Art
Oh, don't stare at me with that doleful expression. Turn your attention instead to the amazing miniature dessert table in your boudoir. And hey, is that rug edible too? Incredible.
Here comes another amazing egg cake. I'm not really sure if fancy eggs are a Marie Antoinette thing, but they're both similarly lavish, so it works for me.
;)
Just gorgeous. If I was serving this cake, I don't think I'd let them eat it, youknowwhatI'msayin?
(Like "Let them eat cake?" Marie's famous line? You know? Yes? Never mind.)
This is probably my favorite cake today:
;)
Submitted by Devon C; by Cake Opera Co.
I thought it was Marie masquerading as a... um... masquerader, while holding a kangaroo for fun, but the website informs me that this is actually an 18th century French figurine, masked to conceal her illicit rendezvous, and juxtaposed by the fawn in her arms meant to represent birth and innocence.
;)
So, I was close.
All of these fanciful confections make me want to host a Marie Antoinette party! How about you? Here's a checklist of everything we need:
;)
Powdered wigs, macarons, frilly shoes, masks, more fancy eggs (I guess they really are a thing) tiny top hats, (pretty sure that's NOT a thing, but I'll go with it), and of course, cake!
Does this cake remind you of a hot-air balloon, too?
;)
Submitted by Promise W. and made by Ganache Patisserie
And did you know that the first manned hot-air balloon ride took place in front of Marie Antoinette and the French court? And that it was "manned" by a sheep, a rooster, and a duck?
True story.
Here's another one: this cake is fantastic! Do you see the little movie-scene applique? Too cool.
I'm not sure how inspired by Marie Antoinette this final cake is, but it's incredible. At over three feet tall and almost two feet wide, I'm pretty sure this is the cake they serve you when you die and go to heaven:
;)
Oh, wait. Actually this is the signature cake for the Hilton Hotel in Silver Spring. Which, after a week at football camp, sounds enough like heaven to me.
Have a Sweet to submit? Then send it to Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com!
Reader Comments (55)
OMG those look like sculpted porcelin :O they are amazing and beautiful
Very appropriate post today! The final stage of Le Tour is happening now, finishing in Paris at Champs-Élysées.
In truth, Faberge eggs are more associated with Czar Nicholas II and his family. However, the overall theme is beauty and opulence. Also, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Marie Antoinette owned an egg or three (or more) since the House of Faberge predates Carl Faberge, arguably the most famous of them. And Faberge art is just so gorgeous. Faberge and cake? Can't lose! So... sounds to me!
I don't understand why it's okay to talk about sex but not violence. They go together so well you know.
Et bonjour, mes amis! (ahem)
While she might have had decorated egg shells sitting around, and these cakes are certainly fit for a queen, it's absolutely definite that Marie Antoinette didn't have any eggs made by Faberge....Faberge's website says that the first Faberge egg was not produced until 1885...more than a century after Marie lost her head.
More interesting trivia -- while it's possible that Marie uttered the words "let them eat cake -- there's no mention of the phrase in any of the documents from that time.
absolutely stunning...let us eat cake....
How do you get the teenage boy stink out of the house after there are 25 of them there for a week? Seriously!!
Fantastic cakes. I loved the frilly purple shoes. I want a pair!
Surely everything looks better with pink tassels!
Wow! Lolita-fashion cake Heaven! I totally squeed!
Anyone would be "head over heels" for these cakes! :-D Personally, I think the last one is just a bit much. I like the detailed, recessed rose... but then it's... like... sitting on rolls of toilet paper. A fitting finish to the end of the post? :-) BTW...Love BOTH your blogs. Thanks for the every day smiles in an otherwise hectic world.
I'm confused. Who wrote this piece? Odd that there's no introduction or credit given.
[Editor's note- Lindsey wrote this post. Generally you can find the author's name at the bottom of the post near the comments. -john]
New favorite phrase: "elaborate exoskeleton of awesomeness".
@ ev: How do you get the stink of 25 teenage football players out of your house? With CAKE, of course!
My new favorite phrase: "elaborate exoskeletons of awesomeness"
@ ev: How do you get the stink of 25 teenage football players out of your house? With CAKE, of course!
Yeah, that last cake is kind of awful. Looks like an alien spaceship carved out of cream cheese.
But the rest are amazing! Love the one that puts Barbie torso cakes to shame. So sweet!
What's with all the eggs? Faberge eggs didn't come about until about a century after Marie Antoinette's death. So are there just a lot of misinformed bakers out there, or am I missing something?
The fourth one is so beautiful. I think I want my wedding cake to look like that. Although I've seen things on this website that have me a little scared of ordering a nice wedding cake...
Thanks so much for featuring my Marie Antoinette cake. It was indeed real...and it was buttercream!!
Yes, just so much yes. The third one especially-- Rococo as all get-out. I love simple, modern cakes, but this post is full of examples of frilly-done-right.
The earliest record of the phrase "Let them eat [brioche]" dates back to the book Les Confessions by Rousseau, which was finished in 1769 when Marie was still a child, and didn't even live in France yet. It was never attributed to Marie in the book however, simply "a great princess." It's also believed that he may have simply made the quote up, given how inaccurate much of the rest of the book is. The quote itself wasn't attributed to her until nearly a century later.
She was actually very progressive for a queen at that time.
Love them!! All sooo gorgeous! I loved that the wee top hat on the Marie Antoinette vignette cake/thingy with the purple shoes and "pretty" decapitated Marie with a mask on?! is actually A PIECE OF CAKE!! I want a top hat made out of a slice of cake!! My fave cake has to be the one that "doesn't exist" because it's too,too much for words! Sooo pretty! Thanks for girly glamourous French-ish inspired beauties!
Wow! Some of these cakes, in the hands of the wrong bakers, could turn *so* tacky, *so* quickly. They're amazing just on their taste level, besides the magnificent construction!
However, as Anna Nimous gently pointed out, it's "mes amis," not "mon amis" (if you were talking to just one of us, and he happened to be a guy, it'd be "mon ami"). Marie would know!
Just saying, but in the beginning sentence "Bonjour, mon amis!" it should be 'MES amis"
WE spent forever in French class going over that =P
amazing work, so detailed am flabbergasted at the talent out there x
Tiny top hats? Totally a thing: http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/fashionably-steampunk-tiny-top-hats
Also, that last cake reminds me of the inside of a coffin somehow.
So I'm beginning to think all the people who are "Professional Artists" as the world calls them, double as bakers. I guess the ones who failed art class go work at the little bakeries to provide us with wrecks.
Yeah, I have to agree with those who were anti-last-cake. It's definitely time consuming and well constructed, but the design I didn't like. Especially since it was sitting on what appeared to be toilet paper rolls, lol. A lot of fancy for not much attractiveness...
All the rest of them were amazing though.
Eggs are a symbol of fertility and luxury, and 18th century France saw the introduction of chocolate eggs (emptied eggshells filled with chocolate). So if your theme is elegance and luxury, an elaborately painted egg is quite fitting. Egg-shaped architectural elements are also part of Rococo, so it first the time, even if Fabarge eggs postdate the Bourbon Dynasty.
Fondant, fondant, fondant. Does anyone even bother with anything difficult and talented anymore?
So, were the people at Hilton specifically going for the "this cake is held up by 8 rolls of toilet paper" or what? Beautiful cake, but I bet that is iced Scott Tissue on the bottom, that stuff is crazy rough.
Wait, your husband's name is John, not Matt... right?
I think most people missed the author of the post because we're all staring at the last cake,wondering if that's really toilet paper. And what the heck exploded in the middle?
So, for those of you who missed it, Jen didn't write today's post ... Lindsey did. And Lindsey is apparently married to Matt, and enjoys the smell of sweaty teenage boys (she'd have to, in order to endure a week of that in her home!)
All of today's cakes are gorgeous but for the life of me, I can't stop staring at that third one. OMG, it's amazing!
I'm kind of in love with the gold one, too.
macaroons is spelled with two o's.
But the little meringue cookies featured on these cakes are called macarOns. Like this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaron
rose, Macarons and Macaroons are two different things.
Macaroons may be spelled with two "o"s, but the cake is adorned with macarons. Look it up. (I just learned about macarons earlier this week. Was it on this site?) I apologise if I sound pedantic.
French macarons, which appear on the cake, are spelled with one "o." And they are heavenly.
Sorry, it's *mes* amis.
The second to last one, where it says: Here's another one: this cake is fantastic! Do you see the little movie-scene applique? Too cool.
Is it just my screen, or is there no picture there for anybody else either? It's just empty space then it shows that last one.
Oh, those pink tassels are adorable! And macarons are different from macaroons.
I could never order such beauties. How could you ever bring yourself to cut into them?
@kat - At first I thought there was a missing cake photo too, but then realized the "little movie scene applique" is on the hot air balloon cake. The "here's another one" refers to another true story - not another cake.
@kat - At first I thought there was a missing cake photo too, but then realized the "little movie scene applique" is on the hot air balloon cake. The "here's another one" refers to another true story - not another cake.
That last cake looks like it's being held up by rolls of toilet paper.
Beautiful!
The last one looks like a cross between a wedding cake and a poodle.
How do you cut into one of those?
I think the tiny tophat atop the powdered wig is authentic to the period. They were very into hats.
Stunning cakes! But a common misconception, Marie is attributed to the "Let them eat cake" saying, but it isn't historically accurate. That always bothers me when I see it in the media :)
Since when do the grammar nazis occupy Cake Wrecks?
Jeesh. I thought the cakes were lovely.
(incidentally, should "grammar nazi" be capitalized? I asked my husband, and he helpfully suggested I ask one)
Amazing collection, such great artists out there, makes me bow in the dust for such talent!
In advance, please forgive any typo´s ;)
Tiny top hats ARE a thing! You can buy some really gorgeous handmade ones online.
How does anyone bring themselves to eat these things??