Sunday Sweets: Modern, Funky, Cool!
August 23, 2015 Traditional cakes are awesome, sure, but sometimes you want a crisp, modern twist:
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(By Torta Deliziosa)
...like this!
Check out that 3D grid pattern. Stunning!
Another clever design:
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(By Sweet Sensations, Inc - now closed permanently - & featured here)
Those paper-like bubbles add just the right amount of interest - no color needed!
But for those who want ALL the colors, I've got something for you, too:
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Graphic, geometric, and totally groovy.
(Look closely; there are patterns embossed in the pixels!)
This pinwheel cascade is the stuff chevron-covered dreams are made of:
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(By cakelava)
Ahhhh.
And here's a new-to-me technique that I just love:
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(Bakery unknown; all source links are 404. Anyone recognize it?)
Ruffly swirl goodness!
But perhaps you prefer something a bit more awesomely angular. Even, dare I say, spectacularly spiky?
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(By Yellow Cake Company)
It's modern art come to life - and ready to be plated.
Speaking of art, here's one that looks like an edible, 3D oil painting:
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(By Lucia Simeone)
Plus: Poppies! My favorite!
These asymmetrical petals remind me of Old Hollywood glamour:
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(By Charm City Cakes)
Can't you just see this as a satin dress from the 1920s?
(And notice that oh-so-subtle peach ombre coloring. Beautiful.)
Color, whimsy, and more impressive patterns:
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(By Kim Giles, featured here)
Love how most of the color is blowing off the cake - and how it takes an extra moment to see all the white-on-white designs.
And finally, some superb swoopiness with just the right balance of modern and traditional:
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(By Torte Di Nadia)
That pink ruffle bit is blowing my mind. Love how it bridges that bold, modern cube pattern with the delicate flowers! SO GOOD.
Hope you guys have a Sweet Sunday!
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Reader Comments (30)
Love the girl blowing colors cake
Can't wait to see the wreck versions.
I can appreciate the work that went into these cakes, but they are just too "out there" for my taste, too modern.
I love how there are matching napkins/pieces of paper randomly around the spiky cake. It's a tiny touch that adds so much to an already gorgeous cake.
These make me want to get married again and actually splurge on a crazy cake! That spike one is uh-mazing.
They're lovely, and I appreciate the construction that went into them, but --blergh-- so much fondant.
[Editor's note- So many people have tried low end fondant and think it's all like that. And yes, some brands taste like playdoh. But the really nice stuff that custom bakeries use is really quite tasty. Imagine if you judged all cheese by Kraft singles. Or all cars by a Ford Escort. So why do we judge all fondant by Wilton? john (the eater of yummy fondant)]
i was imagining the pattern of the charm city cake (that is the one in baltimore that used to be on food network?) in a busby berkley (sp?) number.
This has to be my favorite Sunday Sweets ever! It's great to see the new trends in cake decorating; extra 3D graphics, yes please. Just gorgeous. I can't decide which is my favorite. Yep, I just looked at them again, and they're all terrific. Great job Jen and John finding the best of the best.
All gorgeous! The first one took my breath away (one of my two favorite colors!!) and I hardly had a chance to get it back until the end of the list.
One thing that made me very sad, though; the bakery that created that second cake, "Sweet Sensations," being out of business. I hope the artist who decorated that beauty has found an alternate bakery to grace. Seems like such a shame that the *cough*-Mart and other no-talent-required bakeries will continue to pump out the atrocities (although they DO make me laugh!), but there is one fewer source for the non-Wrecks.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the color spike cake. And the poppy cake too.. So original. Totally amazed by what these cake artists can create.. Amazing. (the other cakes are cool too, just aren't ringing my bell today).
I couldn't eat these. They're too pretty to cut.
John (the eater of yummy fondant), I am sure you are correct that there is some fondant out there that is good. But I've had fondant from a few upscale (well known on TV) bakeries - it wasn't good. :( Which was kinda disappointing. The cake was absolutely beautifully decorated - but.... :) (Not trying to be argumentative here - though I am good at it - or so I've been told.)
The Sunday Sweets are gorgeous - as usual.
[Editor's note- Lissy, this is the internet. At this point, we're required to hate each other because we don't completely agree on something inconsequential and complete subjective. So... HOW DARE YOU NOT LIKE FONDANT?!? I've had fondant that tasted like love!!! Your wrongness is only matched by your wrongitude!!!!!!!
Have a nice Sunday. -john (the disagree-er of commenters)]
Sigh... what a pleasure to view these imaginative cakes, such quality. Thanks for sharing.
So many impressive cakes. I appreciate modern design. I have to say the poppy theme is my favorite cake...I really love poppies. :)
That last cake gave me a flashback to 1983. I expected to see Q*bert hopping down the blocks.
The peach ombre cake reminds me of a tube of lipstick.
Everyone is calling the sixth cake the "spike" cake. Did no one else see it as origami? In fondant? Amazing. And the matching paper napkins support the origami interpretation. So creative.
.....so that peach ombre petal cake didn't look like labia/vaginas to anyone else? Just me? Okay then.
Thanks for a few moments of calm and beauty. I'm sitting in the middle of the wildfires in north central Washington, with smoke, flames and destruction all around. I really, really needed something positive and you guys supplied it, again.
The peach ombre is really more 1930s (not '20s) gown-esque. And thanks, Lara. Now that can't be unseen. :(
john, don't you diss my Escort -- them's fightin' words. ;) (1993 Ford Escort wagon: my first and only brand new car.)
Back to the cakey goodness that is today. Love the Art Deco peach ombre cake, the bubble cake and the poppy cake (I wonder what the inside of the poppy cake was -- double points if they did some sort of poppy seed filling!)
I just got home from a wedding that had the "leaning tower of cake." So close to being a true wreck! The decorating was great, but the structural engineering left a bit to be desired. I kept debating whether or not to take a picture for you, but eventually decided against it. I want to stay friends with the newly-married couple!
Lara, I came to the comments just to see if anyone else saw it! I think they should have went with a different accent color.
Love them all! Now, waiting patiently for the wrecks of these to ensue!
The bottom section of the last cake reminded me of the quilt pattern "tumbling blocks", although since it is greyscale I'm now leaning towards illustrations by MC Escher. Hmm, has there ever been an Escher cake featured?? That would be awesome.
The gray chevron with cascading yellow daisies/pinwheels is very 60s mod looking. Love all the wonderful work on these beauties. Glad I'm not the only one who is looking forward to the "what she ordered/what she got" versions of them.
I love Sunday Sweets! I laugh all week with the wrecky cakes, but on Sundays I just say wow ... wow ... wow!
The cake with all the different colored squares reminded me at first of different colored paint chips. I love how there are designs pressed (?) or stamped (?) into some of the squares! And how the different colors go up and around the cake, wowie wow!
I'm with the person who said the "spiky" cake reminded them of origami. That's what I thought of when I saw it, too. The poppy cake looks like it came straight from a painting! These are all breathtaking! I enjoy Sunday Sweets very much!
Lara, I'm with you. It's gorgeously done, but too "Georgia O'Keefe-esque".
Of course, I've worked in obstetrics for several years, so I can see female genitalia in all sorts of innocent designs.
Just to wade into the fondant debate, I'm with John (the eater of yummy fondant). A good quality fondant is not as sickly cloying to my palate as butter cream. But having looked closely at these cakes, I'm not absolutely certain they are all made of fondant anyway, Erica and Lissy. The third cake with the colourful embossed squares could well be make using modelling chocolate, as could the bottom tier of the final cake with the graphic pattern using diamonds. Modelling chocolate holds its shape well for such geometric designs. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the graphics on the bubble blowing cake could also be modelling chocolate. I would also be very surprised if the poppy cake is fondant. The top tier looks like butter cream to me and the bottom tier could also be butter cream to get that gorgeous texture. I am pretty sure the stems of the poppies are either chocolate or royal icing. And if it's not, the spikey / origami cake could certainly be made out of a crusting butter cream. The colour is right for butter cream, which makes me wonder if the spikes / origami would be too heavy for a butter cream cake if they were made out of fondant. A trend in cake decorating at the moment is the use of edible rice paper for flowers and other decorations. The spikes / origami would, if made from edible paper, be light enough for a butter cream cake to support and would explain how the shapes have such lovely crisp folds. Despite what these cakes are made of, they are all absolutely gorgeous and, being the Internet and taking John's (the disagree-er of commenters) lead, I hate it when people try to be clever with comments about labias / vaginas where none exist. The cake artist who made that beautiful cake deserves respect not ridiculous ridicule.
"Swoopiness" will now need to be incorporated three times into conversation this week.
@John--I fully intend to steal the following "..., this is the internet. At this point, we're required to hate each other because we don't completely agree on something inconsequential and complete subjective."
Simply excellent.