Wednesday, September 23, 2009

About Last Night...

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

How do I say this, Orlando? I mean, last night you were simply...well...

Fabulous.

Yeah, that's the word. :)

John and I arrived extremely nervous for my first-ever book signing, but you guys put us right at ease. It turns out you Wreckies are a kind, considerate bunch who are perfectly willing to patiently wait your turn in line for free cake. And oh, what a Wrecktastic cake it was!

This monster homage of Wreckiness was created by the lovely Johnnie of Something Sweet Cake Studio, located just outside of Orlando in Titusville.


In addition to the Wreck pile-up you see here, Johnnie also provided a yummy chocolate and caramel frosted sheet cake, which disappeared like hot...er...cakes. But, of course, that insane carrot jockey stole the show.

Later in the evening, when the sugar buzz was apparently affecting us all, we actually had a real live baby sitting on that fondant carrot. (Relax; we took it off the cake first.) Someone will have to send me that photo, though, because I didn't get it on my camera. [pouting]


UPDATE:
(AHA! Thanks, Sharlene!)

In addition to the showpiece that Johnnie provided, we also had some truly astounding entries in our cupcake Wreckplica contest. Here's the grand prize winner, by Jackie Cochran:


And here's Jackie wearing her prizes: a CW apron and carrot jockey necklace:


Here are the two runner-ups:



(Bonus points to those of you who recognize/remember all of these Wrecks!)

Choosing the winners was beyond difficult, though; just look at some of the other entries!

(Yes, someone dared to bring a mini CCC [patooie!] to MY signing. The horror! Maybe that's why he or she left her name off. ;) Oh, and the mini order form says "please put vegan icing on it." Heh.)

It's the perspiration wedding cake, in miniature! How cool is that?!?

You can find all of the cupcake entries in the Cake Wrecks FaceBook album.

Thanks again to Johnnie, Sharlene of Photo Art Works (who took all the pretty pics in this post), the Winter Park Borders staff (especially managers Jeff & Selene), and all the rest of you who braved the rain and 5:00 traffic to be there. Here's hoping you had even half as much fun as John and I did!
Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that all went well last night! Love the Carrot Jocky Cake!

Lauren S. said...

Jen and John,
It was so great to finally meet you and take part in your very first book tour! I wish you lots of success and luck! :)

~Lauren S.

Dani said...

Those are truly awesome Wreckplicas!

kyooty said...

love that flower baby :)

Rebecca Knight said...

BAHAHAHA! Those mini-wrecks just made my night :D.

I'm so glad the tour is going well so far. Congrats, and I can't wait to join the fun in Portland, OR this Friday!

Kelly said...

That fabulous homage is AWESOME! And I can't wait to see the real baby on it. (Was there too much wine served with the cake that it got to that point that a real child was involved?!)

The cupcakes were terrific as well.

Jael said...

My brother is planning to go to your Seattle signing. I'm so jealous I can't go too... it looks like this one was a ball! Safe travels!

Anonymous said...

nice "giraffe"!

Anonymous said...

can you get the book in canada or only in the USA?

msyendor said...

Hoo, boy. Tough choices. But I think the Vegan Icing mini-CCC (ccc?) wins my top vote. Me, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my schedule stays clear when you hit Seattle. 'Course, it can't compare with your schedule. Flying on sugar there. For real.

Kim said...

How long was the party going on? I want to come to the San Francisco signing, but I wouldn't get there until 7ish...

Anonymous said...

Glad it went well. Those are great Wreckplicas. (I wish I'd made up that word, it's awesome.)

Sometimes I wonder, is it ever odd to you that you've ended up doing something whose symbol is a mohawk-wearing, carrot-jockeying baby? I mean, how cool is that? (Picturing 2nd grade Jen saying, "When I grow up I'm going to blog. About really scary cakes and baby dolls and carrots will all be a part of it. Yeah.")

Anonymous said...

It looks like your "World" tour is going to be great fun. But but but, why aren't you coming to Boston? We eat cake! Some of them are ugly! (And New England in the autumn is staggeringl beautiful.)

*sniff*

Katie Bird said...

AHAHA i really want to see the real baby riding the carrot! That would have been halerious! Yay for the first signing!!

Anita C. McCants said...

Looking at all those ugly cakes
has really made me hungry for
cakes. No kidding. It's 10pm
and I'm getting ready to go to Wal-Mart for cake.

Thanks for the laughs. Wishing you
much success.

whitby98 said...

I had so much fun at Borders last night! It was great to finally meet you and your sweet husband - you are both adorable and I wish you all the success in the world!

WRECK ON, JEN AND JOHN, WRECK ON!

Cubsmom said...

Thank you so much for a great evening! Me and my kids loved it. It was defiantly worth driving 352 miles for! And hey, we were making memories people, they can always go to school tomorrow. After all, this was instilling a love of literature through cake.

You are a sweetheart and a real stitch and that hubby John is a real sweetheart too. I loooove you Mum Donna, what a gem of a M-I-L! I would totally hang out with her, she was so friendly and so very proud of you.

Thank you for paying so much attention to Sean and Rosie. They really enjoy the blog and as I said last night, I'm so glad it's kept PG.

Have a wonderful time on the tour. Go wiki Sarah Vowell, she has the same wit as you do and I think you will really like her. Keep us posted!

Wreck On!
Ariel, Sean and Rosie from West Palm

Rissa @ Hazel and Honeysuckle said...

I laughed out loud at the homage to wreckage cake! Gorgeous!

It looks like you all had way too much fun! ;) I'm so jealous - please do an extended world tour and come to Australia! (OK, so maybe it's a bit far... But I can dream, right?)

Liv said...

That cake is a fantastic homage to all things Wreckie LOL... and the cupcake 'wrecks' are awesome recreations!! :P

Hope everyone there had a great night..I wish I was in the US, so I could make it to one of the signings :(

Twirly McSwirl said...

Glad you could put a face to my name. Sorry it wasn't a prettier one! ;)

I'll continue stalking you all in a not-so-creepy way.

Also, if you DO sign a copy of Lost Symbol, pleeeeeease take a picture for me! I have, uh... royalities. Yeah, that.

Vickie said...

Waaaaahhhhhhhh! I wanna go to a book signing! Waaaaahhhhhhh! But the "World" tour doesn't go around the world! I would LOVE to see you in China! (Not sure the wreckiness would go over well here, though . . . people might think that Americans truly eat babies!)

Best wishes to you. Orlando has set some pretty high standards for everyone else. As Yoda would say, "May the Wrecks be with you!"

CanCan (Mom Most Traveled) said...

The Wreckplicas are awesome, way to go superfans!

I want to see that real baby carrot jockey!

Melanie said...

I love the monkey and the perspiration miniatures, AWESOME!!!

爱乐 said...

i want a carrot jockey necklace! please tell me there's a way to buy one!

爱乐 said...

oh, and i just adore all the cupcake wreckplicas! it was great to see kids get in on the fun too!

Mick said...

The vegan icing took me back. Once upon a time, I used to be a vegan and the worse part was you couldn't really eat any cakes or biscuits from the shops. So if somebody had specially made a 'vegan' cake..it was such a luxury.

....hence not been a vegan very long..

Anonymous said...

awesome! great job getting through it with panache.
Laura R.

Susan L. said...

Who ate the poop pile on the round "Cake Wrecks" cake?

And wasn't the wookie cake a mini CCC too?

Susan L.

- said...

Holy amazing cakes, Batman! I'm in awe of what everyone brought, these are all so incredible. I'm glad to know that even though your book tour comes nowhere near me (boo!) I still get to enjoy all the fun.

Good luck with all your flying and traveling and all of it! I know it's awful, but at least you have a great time once you're there.

HorribleLicensePlates said...

Those cupcake cakes are sooo cute.

Anne S. said...

Jen and John,
Thanks for all the wonderful Wreckage; both the blog and the book are the funniest stuff I've seen in quite a while. So cool to meet you guys, and the cake and the cupcakes were all pretty awesome, too. I'm sure you'll show the other cities you go to as good a time as you showed us!

Jimh. said...

Looks awesome! Wish we could make it to the Seattle or Portland signing! Things just won't work, though! :-( love the wrecks!

TArney said...

Wow! Now I'm even more excited for Saturday in Seattle.

You'll be there on my birthday and I can't think of a better gift (even if I do have to drive down from Canada) :)

Can't wait to meet you hope all the signings go so awesomely

Miranda said...

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

Unknown said...

Bought your book last night! Haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but I know that it'll be great! Glad that it was so reasonably priced. Can't wait to see you in Dallas in a couple of weeks =)

Etiquette Bitch said...

WOW! and mad props to Johnnie! very cool, very wrecky...in a good way!

Amanda in Austin said...

I am humbled by those mini cake wrecks, especially the plaid melting wedding cake. Truly wrecktastic! And so tiny!

Cheryl said...

We really had fun at the signing! For anyone who reads the blog and is anywhere near a signing, be sure to go! I was the maker of the baby "baked" into cupcake, and was kind of pouting to my boyfriend that I didn't win, but it was so fun to make it really was ok and I got the nifty bookmark, too :) My boyfriend was so cute - he suprised me with an oh-so-sweet cupcake key chain as my prize!

A good time was had by all! :)

Melissa (& Billy) said...

LOL those cupcakes are awesome! I bet it's hard to make a wreck look just right, when you're trying to do it on purpose. "It doesn't look wrecky enough! More sprinkles!" XD

And I agree--the carrot jockey was incredible! =D

Best wishes on the book tour!

Mira8 said...

wow, those wreckplicas ruled. Glad it all went so well!

lisadh said...

I can't convey how freakin' excited I am to meet ya'll in Austin!!! Best thing on my calendar for months!

Good luck on your plane trips - I know it won't be easy for you, but we thank you for it!

Cheers!

Little Lovables said...

wow, that looks like a lot of fun!

Heather said...

Oh, I really hate to be the one to ask this, but can you reference the original cakes? I don't know how to look them up, and I really want to know the story behind some of the originals!

Anonymous said...

Is that a Mohawk baby carrot jockey necklace on the winner? I covet that necklace.

Sister of Tangerine Hat-Girl said...

Man, I'm so excited! I saw most of those things in PERSON! Well worth the frantic school-day car trip, I'd say.

monkeyjen said...

oh man! this sunday is Folsom. Sorry CW, leather trumps cake.

joyce said...

I just love the upsidedown wedding cake with the feet.

Has anyone thought of an upside down wedding cake with the four feet of the bride and groom figures??

y'all are awesome!

Unknown said...

zomg, i want that naked mohawk baby carrot jockey necklace too!
where can i buy one?!

Synthia said...

I'm glad that your first night went so well! And I do have to add that I'm super sad that I won't be getting a signature in my book. :( Why no stops in Southern California? Anyway, best of luck on the rest of the tour, and SoCal will miss you!

lizzydee said...

Ok so like i want a caret jockey nickles!!! Ware did she get that????

ME! said...

That is TOO much fun! Gotta love the inspiration of Cake Wrecks!

Congrats on the "world tour" :)

12 hour pills said...

XD The vegan icing one kills me.

Unknown said...

It's great to see all the mini wrecks, but it also really sucks, especially for us how are going to your later booksignings, because the ones that we were going to do are now already done and photographed :(

Paula said...

I want a carrot jockey necklace!!!! Where do I get one?

Anonymous said...

I had such a great time at the signing I even blogged about it! (Check it out if you want to see a great pic of Jen!) http://studiorose.wordpress.com/

The necklaces were handmade by Jen and her handsome/hilarious hubby, who handed them out as prizes to the top three Wreckplica Kupkake Kreators. So if you want one, you need to attend a signing and come up with an amazing cupcake. :) I coveted one of those necklaces like you wouldn't believe, but alas, my cupcake didn't make the cut. Still, it was a great time and I highly recommend skipping work, dropping out of school, abandoning the kids - whatever you have to do to go to a signing! I drove 137 miles, and it would have been worth it to go twice as far!

Cubsmom said...

Hey Jen,
I wanted to tell you about what happened to my 11 year old son Sean yesterday. You remember "Mr. Chatty" from the Orlando book signing, don't you? Well his teacher asked him why he missed school the other day and my gifted and talented son goes and tells her the truth, that we were playing hooky to go see the Cake Wrecks lady. Next thing you know, she has pulled the web site up for her class and they all love it. Everybody's laughing and my son is the coolest guy in class!!!

Thanks Jen! Who knew he could use cakes to become popular? Love it!

Wreck on,
Ariel In West Palm Beach

Kristin said...

yes yes i want a naked baby carrot jockey necklace, PLEASE let us buy these.

Spookloops said...

AGH! I live 10 minutes from that store, but had to go out of town for work the same day! So sad I missed it!!

Alyssa said...

I couldn't agree MORE! Johnnie does a fantabulous job of mouth-watering cake confections and she is equally creative in her decorating!! My church group has enjoyed several offerings!!
I have had some great laughs over your book and website!!! My stomach is STILL hurting!!! :D :D
Much success in your book!!!

Aaron of Minneapolis said...

He he he... :-) I love that cake in the first two pictures!

Congratulations on the book, too!

Anonymous said...

Johnny at Something Sweet is absolutely amazing. She does all of my cakes, and even her homage to cakewrecks is incredible. She's the best!

Aimee

Wow! said...

Ironic how the "Vegan Icing" cake looks like a slab of bloody meat...

RJLittle said...

Aw, you were in Winter Park less than two months ago and I missed it. If only I had discovered your blog just a little bit sooner (these past two months or so, I've been going through reading the entries in order from the beginning). All well, it's still a great blog ^_^