Sunday, September 27, 2009

Sunday Sweets: Tour De Force, Pt 1

Sunday, September 27, 2009

John and I are having a fantastic time meeting so many of you on the "world" tour, and we're also having lots of fun seeing what the fabulous bakers who volunteered their services at each event are bringing to feed you guys. We'll be posting more pics of those cakes as the tour progresses, but for today I thought it'd be fun to troll through these bakers' sites and show you some of my favorites.

First we have Johnnie of Something Sweet Cake Studio. I've already posted the great Wreck Tribute cake she made for Orlando, so here are a few of my favs from her site:

This is competing with the Darth Vader cake to be my all-time favorite baby shower cake. C'mon, a snorkeling/scuba-diving baby? What's not to love here?

And on the more elegant side:

Gorgeous flowers, and I like how Johnnie hand paints so many of her cakes.

For Portland we had three separate people/bakeries providing goodies: Sadie Damon and her pastry class students from Western Culinary Institute, Jessica Hill of Black Sheep Bakery (who provided a yummy chocolate vegan cake), and Angel & Robin of The Dessert Tray. Since Angel & Robin are the only ones with a site for me to lurk on, here's one of their oh-so-lovely designs:

Note how they were able to make cherry blossom branches withOUT making them look like poo logs. See? It CAN be done!

For last night's event in Seattle, we had Paul of Jet City Cakes and Matt of Starry Nights Catering collaborate on a cake project that will absolutely knock your socks off when you see it. But that will be another post, so you'll have to stay tuned. [evil snicker]

Paul and his wife Liz specialize in sculpted cakes, like so:

(Look at the detail on the screen! Suh-weet!)
And so:

(Why yes, that IS an Alien wedding cake. Why do you ask?)

Matt and his wife Denise (and helper Heather), however, specialize in more traditional designs:


Those are hand-painted chocolate shells. Gorgeous.

Like I said, stay tuned for lots more pics of the "World" tour events. John and I are scrambling to get our photos in order and post-able while traveling like mad every day, so just bear with us a little bit longer.

Thanks again to all of today's bakers. You guys have made each stop so much sweeter (pun intended) and it's been fantastic meeting you all!

- Similar Sweets: Cake Nouveau
Unknown said...

After yesterday's bridal shower disaster zombie cake, it's a pure delight to see these beauties! I can't wait to see the cakes from the tour, but I also understand how hectic things are for you right now! Thanks for keeping up with the posts and bringing a smile to so many faces!

A Paperback Writer said...

Well, the black cake is impressive, but to me, it's not appetizing.
Yes, I agree that non-poo-log branches are better on wedding cakes also.
Thanks for sharing cakes that worked.

Janella said...

Beautiful! I love the cherry blossoms!

Anonymous said...

Choke...gasp-bwhahaha!
Poo logs?

Wendy said...

Although it's not for everyone, that "Alien" cake makes this nerd girl very happy.

Melissa said...

The cherry blossoms and shell cake are gorgeous. And that PacMan cake - holy nerd, Batman! I love it!

Marylutn said...

What do you do if a baker brings you their masterpiece and it's really a cake wreck? Marylu

Unknown said...

This makes me want to go back to school and learn how to do this. So inspiring when they get it right!

Jennifer Rose said...

I love that Alien cake :D Would have loved something like that at our wedding

M'Lynn said...

That Alien cake might be the single best thing I've ever seen.

heather (errantdreams) said...

1. LOVE the alien wedding cake & Pac-man cake! BWAhaha!

2. Really really hoping to make it to the Bethesda signing! I put me & my husband in as maybes, and I'm optimistic right now.

3. Even more hoping the copy I pre-ordered from Amazon gets here by then. If not, I'll get one at the bookstore and just cancel my order. :)

Anna Kauz said...

I had a babyshower cake very similar to the first one! It was adorable!

gena said...

Ditto the nerd girl. My DH, who cares not a whit about this sort of thing, pronounced it "the coolest wedding cake he'd ever seen." We've both watched the Alien/Aliens films so many times we know the dialog, so yeah, very cool! And the cherry blossoms were lovely, too.

Anonymous said...

OMG the little alien wearing a top hat! Off to die of cute overload now...

Kristie Walker said...

It was great to meet you last night--I hope you got a chance to taste those amazing cakes, because they even TASTED wonderful! Thanks for coming to Seattle! (Well, Lake Forest Park.)

--Colin, Kristie, and Annie (one of the cute babies!)

quichepup said...

Love the diving baby cake. Hope you are able to rest between stops.

I want the Pac-Man cake for my next birthday.

What happens when I trip my non-existent brother?
pronebro

Kate said...

Hmm...maybe I've just been looking at this site too long, but the branches still look like poo logs to me....

Anonymous said...

That alien cake is amazing, but all that black frosting would make me fear of staining my toilet's porcelain

Ros said...

Those branches do look a bit like poo logs, sorry. The flowers are good, so that helps to distract the eye from the branches. But, in general, dark brown icing is best not piped into logs.

Lydia and Matthew said...

I have such cake envy over that alien cake.. and I thought my event horizon wedding cake was nifty. That thing just knocks my nerdy socks right off!

Dawnspring said...

Miranda - the aliens are supposed to look phallic. HR Giger, the artist who designed them for the movie, is well known for his, erm, risque art aesthetics.

That said, I think it's one of the best wedding cakes I've ever seen! Aliens is one of my all-time fav movies, but the wedding cake makes me think of Spaceballs which is even better! The 'groom' looks like the dancing chestburster from the diner scene!

Anonymous said...

I love Sunday sweets!! it's good to remind the public that there actually are GOOD BAKERS/DECORATORS out there in the world!

Tha Babyshower cake is totally cute!!!

StuffCooksWant said...

I wonder why I crave a hunk of cake after I read your posts... at least on Sundays. Many other days, not so much. Pretty pretty today!

Dani said...

wow. im diggin' that alien cake. feeds my inner geek.

Jessica said...

I'd like to mention that the vegan cake was provided by Black Sheep Bakery in Portland. I just made it. blacksheepbakery.com if anyone's interested.

Anonymous said...

Did you see the "teeth" on the alien cake? Now that's good use of those silver candy balls!

Anonymous said...

I'm not that impressed by the first cake. It looks more like an old man dressed as baby New Year.

EmBee said...

Not to sound like a TOTAL geek but my son and I are arguing over the alien cake... Are those giant worms from Star Wars (what son believes) or from Dune (my guess.)

Please let us know who's correct!
:-) Or more appropriately, who's the BIGGER geek.

heather (errantdreams) said...

EmBee: I'm afraid neither of you is right, you pretender-geeks you! (kidding!)

It's an HR Geiger-style alien theme, from the Alien/Aliens movies. The "worms" are the young stage of the aliens from the movies, which burst from people's chests. :)

Evil Genius said...

Thank you so much for a great time last night. It was sweet, exciting and just a bit weird. Uh...wait...we are talking about the book signing in Seattle, right?

We at Jet City Cakes were totally stoked to do the cake for you and our new found friends at Starry Nights were an absolute gas to work with. Total pros that are not afraid to work with another bakery. We plan on more collaboration in the future thanks to Jen and John!

On the Alien Cake: that is one of our faves as well. Dawnspring, when I put the little top hat on the groom I TOTALLY thought about the alien in the diner in Spaceballs. As for the last question, they are actually from the movie Alien (or Spaceballs, whatever) not Dune or Star Wars. Although a Shai-Hulud* cake would be awesome. Any takers?

*bonus geed points if you know that reference.

Thanks Everyone!

Paul- Evil Genius, Jet City Cakes

Anonymous said...

I was lucky enough to have a birthday cake from the Dessert Tray. Not only are their cakes beautiful, they're totally delicious. My husbands loves, loves, love their German Chocolate cake!

Melinda said...

Oh wow! These definitely have me excited to see what these bakers made for your book tour!

KrysTros said...

Wow, even though the alien cake is just a little scary, it is awesome!

Anonymous said...

It was so great meeting you and John today! (I was the shy mom in the orange tank with her little boy - whose face was covered in chocolate - in tow.) Love that you called out all the geeks in the room... this Webmaster appreciates your appreciation of us. :D

Priscilla said...

Both the Pac Man and the alien wedding cakes are waaaay cool!

ecath said...

whoa! very impressive!

Nonna said...

I love the second one the best and the one with the seashells too !

Stella said...

I can't stop chuckling everytime I read, 'poo logs'.

Christy said...

Okay. Alien cake?
Best. Cake. Ever.

Makes me want to get married just for the cake.

Unknown said...

I am so envious of the couple who gets the Alien cake for their wedding. That is awesome.

shelikesitraw said...

The alien cake looks too awesome to eat. I hope it's not filled with highly corrosive acid! But a yellowy-green color might be a nice touch. :)

Our Little Blessings said...

I've been to the Dessert Tray. They're great! I'm surprised Beaverton Bakery didn't do a cake. They are very well known bakery in Portland.

Bree said...

The Alien cake is all kinds of awesome and the Pac-Man cake brings back some sweet 80's memories.

Fuzzy Izmit said...

I want an Alien cake... dang it, but I am already married!

Krista said...

That cherry blossom cake was my wedding cake! Wellllll, a version of it. So pretty, we loved it.

Cupcakes Lady said...

Waw..The Alien cake ...thats a work of art. Respect to that cake maker. xx ;)