And that's how new categories are born, boys and girls.
Jen: [in announcer voice] "Today in Cake News: Better Art Through Cupcakes." [turning to face side camera] "The Buffalo News reported today that Zilly Rosen of ZILLYCAKES in Buffalo, NY, made a portrait of president-elect Obama using nothing but 1,240 cupcakes!"
Weather Guy: "Wow, that's a lot of cupcakes!"Jen: "It sure is, Weather Guy. I guess you could call this one sweet piece of art!"
Both: "Ahahahahahah!"
Thanks to Jenny B. and Joy for sharing the link. And yes, before you all ask: I AM relieved that Zilly didn't connect the cupcakes to make the world's largest CCC. Talk about a close call!
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83 comments | Post a Comment
*blink blink*
Now, THAT'S a lot of cupcakes.
Wow - that's incredible! Did Zilly make that whole thing yesterday, or start early, with a little election optimism?
I really like it. A lot. That's genius right there.
-Pam
It's really amazing what they can do with cupcakes... This shows someone has some REAL cupcake talent!
That is actually cool... in a matrixy digital kind of way!
I would like one of the three white teeth cupcakes to eat, thakyouverymuch.
wow! It really looks like him too! That is something I could take a bite out of!
That's awesome! I agree...good thing it wasn't one big CCC.
I must be tired... I don't see the resemblance.
Why is his skin blue? Is it some kind of post-racial statement? A nod to the electoral college map?
Well íf Zilly made that whole thing in one day, she had superpowers - or she doesn't need sleep. Or maybe she started early - but made also one cupcake-thing of McCain!
INSANE!.....only in America!
You are freakin' hilarious!
And yeah, that really hurts my eyes!
Well, the cupcakes themselves could obviously be baked ahead of time. And given that each one is frosted in a single solid color, she could have done most, if not all, of that ahead of time too. (Another bonus of NOT frosting them all together as a CCC monstrosity!) And then later arranged them to form a digital "black and white" portrait of whichever candidate won. I suspect she chose blue because it's a little bit more appetizing than grey...or red, though I suppose I could see doing this in red-and-white for McCain.
Talk about a sugar coma!
That really is cool!
Wow!
Wow, she did an nice job!
I love this blog, but I don't think you have to be quite so diplomatic. (I don't think you need a disclaimer at the top of a post about an Obama cupcake tribute.) Hopefully, your readership can handle something like this. Thanks!
Love this blog!
I've given your blog an award... check it out at bumblingbaker.blogspot.com.
Keep the wrecks coming!
This is awesome, but there is a minor wreck here. Counting the bottom row and one of the columns in the middle shows that it's 38 x 32 which is 1216, not 1240.
Should've just stuck to "Over 1200 cupcakes!", but all that sugar is making me crazy :)
Whos gonna eat all that????
Hey, that's cool! Nice work! Perhaps someone has been reading your blog. Wouldn't be surprised.
i wonder who, if anyone, got to eat all those cupcakes?
Good lord anonymous, who cares, really? I don't think Jen was being anything, other than Jen – who by the way, we love!
And why is it always the snotty comments come from "anonymous?"
Regarding the cakes, would you call this is PC, as in "political cupcake?"
Thats cool. You could psp a pic then blow the pixels up to figure out what colour goes where. Not that I'd want to.
At least its size prevents it from being a candidate for ccc punishment.
Now I want cupcakes. I'll have to go get some.
That's awesome! I want to eat a cupcake from the tie.
That is really pretty cool!
The cupcakes at display at the Obama campaign headquarters in
Buffalo, so no McCain portrait. It was the front page picture in this mornings Buffalo News.
WOW! to the cake, and...'wow'... to the friendly neighborhood news commentary. you know they were proud of themselves for that witticism. :)
www.alexladydesigns.etsy.com
Thanks for the positive remarks, and in answer to your questions:
1. I started planning on Friday and Saturday, baked all of them on Sunday and Monday, worked with a friend to cover them all with Italian meringue buttercream and fondant circles on Monday until 10pm, set them up on Tuesday to photograph in my friend's studio, then set them up again on Wednesday at the Obama headquarters!
2. I used blue for the democrats, and made this to send my creative energy up into the "ether" in the days before the election in hopes of Obama's win. BTW, I only made Obama, and I would have set it up and served it even if he lost, in celebration of his historic campaign and in honor or all the volunteers and the work they did nationwide. Buffalo volunteers on his campaign took the cupcakes home and enjoyed them.
3. Yes, you clever counter! There were 1248 in the original design but my family ate too many chocolate ones unbeknownst to me, so I had to take off the bottom line of the design, thus 1216 cupcakes. Not even close to what I would call a wreck, though. If anyone was wondering, the background is vanilla cake w/ vanilla frosting but Obama is chocolate cake w/ vanilla icing.
I love that...a CCC that isn't deformed or scary looking!
This looks strangely like pushpin art. Are you sure this is a bonafide CCC?
So...if you rearranged the cupcakes would it make a picture of McCain? Just to make sure he had the right picture either way the votes went.
This is a great use of what I would think was some kind of grid drawing blown up to ridiculous proportions. For all the time I'm sure it took, the artist(s) surely delivered! Great work!
Hey, Zilly! Glad you found us over here. (And just to be clear, I don't consider your creation to be a Wreck at all!)
Hey hey HEY, now, everyone, let's not get all carried away calling this a CCC, mmmkay? It's a cupcake MOSAIC, NOT a cupcake-cake. Remember, CCC = bad. Non-connected cupcakes without mounds of goopy icing in all the cracks = gooood.
Glad we got that cleared up. Carry on!
It's great to see the finished portrait -- they showed Zilly in the process of very carefully setting it up on the NBC news in D.C. last night. I was really impressed -- it's great to see a CCC that's actually creative!
That is ridiculously cool! Wow!
I am a former Buffalonian! :D I love it! I also love that Zilly did this for the volunteers, for the headquarters - win or lose, this was what she made! Love it! :D
And yeah - mosaic cupcakes = YAY, CCC = boooo!
That's pretty awesome!
What would have been cool is if they had given it more detail by coloring each cupcake with more than one color. It sounds like a pretty intense project, though. I give it two frosting-covered thumbs up! *licks frosting off thumbs* yum!
I saw this on the news this morning and am glad to see it posted here! Definitely one of the most original cupcake ideas I have ever seen.
Kudos Zilly!
(And thanks Jen, for having such a FUN blog!)
Awesome!! Kudos to the Creator...
This is a better link cuz it shows Zilly setting up...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77637592@N00/sets/72157608661883041/
Thanks for telling us, Zilly. I was really wondering if the cupcakes were chocolate. ; D
No, no, no, this is all wrong. The cupcakes should be connected by a 2 inch thick sloppy sheet of unattractive, nauseating icing, and the image crudely drawn on top, with his name misspelled.
That had to be hard to pull off. I really like it.
DANG!!!! I was all set to direct you to that story. I was gonna do it this morning but I was running late for work. Thats two now...the puzzle cake one and now this. I gotta be a little bit quicker on the uptake here
I love the concept and execution! It's like cupcake pointilism.
I love you.
So much. You make me laugh more then the cakes do, most of the time. (:
Ans someone has WAY to much time on their hands. And way to many cupcakes.
---Sarah
lifeastoldbysarah.blogspot.com
A friend of my sis showed your blog to her; in turn, she showed it to me.
May I put a link of your site to my blog?
I have a feeling your website will be a hit. Such great idea about disastrous cakes. Makes me want to go out there and spot these disasters and send you pix.
However, I've never come across one. Except for one nearly birthday cake mistake I recently got for my 21 y.o. son. Check it out:
http://yarnhungry.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/finally/
Thanks.
Yeah but the only problem with the picture is... awww shucks, the election is over, still, right?
Alixandra Hice
http://casahice.blogspot.com
I'm pretty relieved that they didn't ice them all together too--that just kills any chance of it looking nice. I thought it looked neat.
The cupcake portrait matches up very well with his pop-art style adverts/signs--so yay for no CCCs. I'm always impressed when people can put together individual elements to make a larger picture.
Should we read something into the black and blue going on here?
Was chocolate not an option?
Please...NO...not on my food too!
that is just too cool for words!!!
Well I don't actually have anything to add, but the word verification is "gravel". Just thought I'd share...
that's right, BUFFALOOOO!!!
[fellow buffalonian]
this is NOT a ccc! thank goodness!
cupcakes NOT connected by a sheet of sloppy frosting would be...wait for it...just cupcakes! which are wonderful. ;)
ccc = surefire wrecks
-bg
our president-elect is delicious
It's a wreck because it's the ANTICHRIST in cupcake form! (And yes, tongue was firmly in cheek for that comment.)
I knew you'd have this featured, as soon as I saw it on the news!
Yum. Cake you can believe in.
YAY!! Buffalo did something right ;)
This is an awesome creation. And I thought my cupcakes for our Daisy Scout meeting - done in a nice yellow frosting to match the petal we are working on - were creative LOL
Wow! That's a lot of cupcakes! When I first saw the picture I figured it was all M&M's! Well done them!
spackledorf said... our president-elect is delicious
I'm having weird cognitive crossover from passive-aggressive notes.com. You would have to add a 4-letter word to your comment for it to fit in over there, though.
That zillycakes website is phenomonal---BEAUTIFUL cakes!
Congrats Zilly on such great work! Politics aside, that gal worked extremely hard to make not only all those cupcakes, but to set them up. I am in awe. And since I also live in the Elmwood Village, I cannot wait to order all my cakes from her. I love seeing a local business woman get some good press. Congratulations again, Zilly Cakes!
Not really an Obama supporter, but that is really cool. Can't imagine making that many cupcakes!
At first glance I thought they were Necco wafers on a cake...now it all makes sense!!!
And once again we prove: individual cupcakes... way cool; conjoined cupcakes... bad idea.
Is there any way to make that rich black frosting so it's not disgusting food coloring flavored? Or is that chocolate with some food color?
In any event, I'll take vanilla frosting anyday.
This is so cool! Definitely not a wreck.
Pixilation in CCC form! Magnificent.
~Amy B.
If you want to know more about Zilly's process, I interviewed her yesterday about the Obama cupcake art at Cupcakes Take the Cake.
What's really funny is that my husband and I saw this on the news the other night and we both turned to each other and said.. "Now that is the world's largest CCC!!"
CRAAAZZY I tell ya!
wow..the B-lo News didn't just report it..they featured it on the front page! I love that I heard about it on Cake Wrecks first though :)
Now that people, is how to do art with cupcakes! I just wish I could've been there to eat one! Yummy!
"And why is it always the snotty comments come from "anonymous?""
Valarie, you don't know the half of it.
Love it, so amazing. I'm still waiting for the Sarah Palin CCC though, it's only a matter of time.
M&M's would have been much easier
AAAAAARRRRGGGG! Someone on Flickr just included me in their Cupcake Cake set of photos! I feel so misunderstood! What's a girl with cupcake integrity to do in such a situation?
Seriously, thanks for all of the comments above. I can't believe I didn't know about this blog before! I'll be sure to report on some of my own wrecks. Just stay tuned!
As a baker, I can only praise Zilly and hope to god that we see more beautiful cupcake mosaics like this one, and less of those horrible.. HORRIBLE cupcake cakes. Seriously though Zilly, you did an amazing job! It reminds me of the baking version of pixel art!
Amazing, didnt realise it was cupcakes at first!
who gets to eat them?