Saturday, May 8, 2010

The University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Nothing to see here, non-University of Chicago people! This is a special post just for the UC scavenger hunt, so these are NOT the Wrecks you're looking for. Move along, move along.

What, you're still here? Ok, fine, here's some background info:

"The University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt was founded in 1986 by (yep, you guessed it) a bunch of nerds from the University of Chicago. Over time, it has grown to become what many consider to be the world's largest scavenger hunt, with items ranging from homemade nuclear reactors, to elephants, to the one you're about to see right here. A cabal of University of Chicago student judges write all Scav Hunt items and awards points to final submissions, keeping the list secret until the beginning of the Hunt, and teams race to beg, borrow, steal, and do as many of the 250+ items on each year's list over a four day timespan."


Well, this year I was honored to have Cake Wrecks included on the famous list! Here it is, clue #79:

"It’s Scav Inger Hunt's 23rd birthday, and 99.9% of mohawked baby carrot judges agree: I WANT SPRINKLES. Craft a thoughtfully artistic, yet still scavvly commemorative cake, and it better be purdy enough to be featured as a Cakewrecks Scavday Sweet. Under Neat That: submit your Wreck by Friday at 10 pm, and we’ll let Jen pick the one destined for internet fame."

And here are the submissions! [drum roll, please]

From the GASH Team, a "My Little Pony":

Or so they claim.

From Breckinridge House's team: a "thrillin' failure" (their words) of Michael Jackson:

(True story: When John & I first saw this he asked who it was supposed to be, and I guessed "Edward." I'm not sure who that insults more: Twi-hards or Team Breckinridge. So...sorry, everyone.)

From Sonia A.'s team, a "wooden labyrinth game":

In Sonia's words: "We tried."

Stop the press! Someone on the Snell-Hitchcock team actually has a working knowledge of fondant:

Not bad! Definitely the nicest cake you'll see here today, although I haven't a clue what all the stuff is. (Other than the sombrero. [Assuming it IS a sombrero])

The Federation of Independent Scav Teams claims this is a wreckplica of several items on the list:

Which frightens me. What else is ON this list, anyway? 0.o

From Macpierce's Master Chef Allison:

"Scab Hurt" Heh. Heh.

From the Burton-Judson Team (aka "Dr. Scodel's League of Atrocious Wonders"):

Christine tells me they were going for cute, "but I think something might have gone wrong."

From the Glass Panopticon:

Ah, classic Wreck elements. I like it.

And finally, the Max P Team used real honest-to-goodness carrot jockeys, in addition to "misspellings, left out numbers, poo swirls, ant sprinkles, a rainbow of various other sprinkles, and an umbrella, all to top off a CCC shaped like a furby":

Yep, I'd say we have a winner!


Best of luck to all the teams who participated.
(Naturally, any team that didn't submit a Wreck should be doomed to failure.)
Thanks for the fun!
Anonymous said...

Gah! That clown is going to give me nightmares. Forever. *shudders*

Stephanie said...

Sounds like great fun! Wonderful wrecks and I think you picked the best one to win :)

SunnyCyclist said...

I like that you called the the last one a ferby, though it's probably Totoro from the anime My Neighbor Totoro.
Liza in Portland, OR

Stoich91 said...

Hee hee. I don't know what this is about, but we shouldn't let these people loose in a bakery. God forbid they get a hold of the pro's tools, like airbrushes and plastic flotsam. :) Great efforts, the lot of 'em!!!

r. said...

That Edward/MJ cake should have won. I haven't laughed that much at a cake since that UK logo tiger thingy.

VW: Sidet. Sidet cake der? It's wrecktastic.

Loren said...

This looks like fun! That's not right, I thought U of C was where fun went to die...

/Northwestern student

Jess said...

This has got to be one of THE funniest things I've seen in a long, long time!

Thank you to my pal Susan for turning me on to this. I laughed so hard, I nearly cried!

J-Bird said...

These are all absolutely Wrecktacular! But I agree that the final pic is the Winner Hands Down. I guess this means that you're an official celeb, Jen. Great job to all the participants and big congrats to you for the honor.

Rebecca O said...

GO MAX P SCAV!

For all of the times we've not done homework to read this blog- WORTH IT x 25 points!

Jess said...

I think the furby...may actually be Totorro...

Rebecca O said...

GO MAX P!

For all the times we read this blog instead of doing homework- WORTH IT x 25 points!

Gary said...

Do we get to vote for which one should win?

Because if we do, I say it's "My Little Pony" by a length.

WV: kapoo. Gesundheit.

Kate Monster said...

Yay my sister's team won! She described it over the phone and it definitely do justice to just how wrecky it is.

Garland said...

I think that last one looks more like Totoro, especially with the umbrella

Julie in Arlington said...

I am stunned! Although, I have to say that the whole scavenger hunt idea is a very creative and relatively harmless idea for "dead week" activities.Unlike when I was at Rice and some people would etch "things" on rival dorm buildings with dorm room made lasers. I have to agree that the CCC won the competition.

Sarah B said...

As a U of C alumna I am SO SO happy with this post. But I have to say I think Burton Judson should have won (not that I'm in anway swayed by having lived there.)

Dani said...

Lol you just made my day!

Backstory we were watching 90's tech on Modern Marvels and my two year old fell in love with the Furby. I dug in the back of the closet and found my actual Furby that her Dad gave me back when we were dating. She has christened it Owl (and she's right that's what it looks like)

I showed her the "Furby" cake and said "hey look it's a cake of Owl." She looked at it raised a sceptical eyebrow and said, "Uhhh no."

Classic Steve said...

That first cake, while sloppy and ambiguous, looks darn tasty.

Annie said...

Here's the rest of the 2010 ScavHunt list (I'm an alumna from MaxP, haha):

http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu/2010.pdf

TisforTonya said...

I think I want to go to the University of Chicago.

Anna said...

Awesome. How fun to be included in the tradition. Love the wrecks!

Anonymous said...

Just thought you'd like to know, that is NOT a "furby". It is a Totoro. From My Neighbor Totoro.

Amberdawn said...

Haha, that winning team definitely did their research.

Tracy said...

That last CCC looks like Totoro to me.

Anonymous said...

Frightening to think that these might take on a status of their own. Oh, it looks like that has happened. "Umm, professional baker, can you make me a really digusting lump of fallen pastry with piles of poo." You are my morning's entertainment :-). Norine

Holly K. said...

The last cake isn't a furby, it's Totoro!
http://image2.mouthshut.com/images/ImagesR/2008/2/925076704-141001-1.jpg

That cake totally made my day.

CookieMonster said...

I love it!

Culinarychiq said...

Ah, so THAT'S what happens when you stick a My Little Pony in the microwave! The other cakes look a little too wrecky to be any good if that makes any sense at all LOL although I do love the fondant cake and the last one is wreckily adorable:)

One question though, why is there a llama on the Scab Hurt MacPierce cake? Is that the llama's name?

mizdarlin said...

Definitely the "My Little Pony" was IMHO, the best (?) the only one that made me laugh out lound when I saw it..but guess your choice had more classic Wreck elements...still, I believe that pony cake is the most gawd-awful excuse for a cake I 've ever seen-and I love it!

Anonymous said...

have you ever seen "My Neighbor Totoro"? I believe that is what the winning cake might be...japanese wood spirit, a "totoro"..

anyway, yes, def. the best one!

Anonymous said...

The "Furby" CCC looks more like Totoro. Can you say "Epcot"?

Kathy D

Allison Stillwell said...

I want a Totoro cake!!!

Anonymous said...

I have but one thing to say about the Furby vs Totoro controversy... EPCOT!!

Kit-Kat-Ket

Sherry said...

I especially love the fact that the winners' cake was actually a cupcake cake, which I know you hate! (And so do I!)

Anonymous said...

Previous Scav Hunt items:

-hovercraft
-breeder reactor
-get married
-buffalo
-El car
-shoot a Twinkie across the Midway

And they used to have a Mike Royko item every year. Now that he's dead... they should still have it!

"U of C will teach you think, teach you to drink. Social skills... you're on your own."

Anonymous said...

Ah!! Totoro cake!!!

*Jumps in glee*

That's officially deemed the winner in my book too.

Blue Sarah said...

For a CCC the furby one is quite good (or bad, if it's not actually suposed to be a furby)

Scarlett Robyn said...

Scab Hurt? that sounds like something a two year old would say after they had picked off their scab!!!!!
Funny as always, thanx!

Kate said...

To all calling the Furby CCC Totoro:

I can confirm that it is indeed supposed to resemble a Furby and not Totoro. The Wreckerators had no knowledge of what Totoro is prior to creating the wreck.

Unknown said...

Ha, fun post!
I've got to throw in another 2 cents that the Furby CCC is probably a Totoro CCC.

I sumbit as evidence 2:47 minutes of magic that is Totoro discovering an umbrella. (I love this scene so much! :) ) Sans carrot baby jockeys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hJuLBhnets

Jessica Olin said...

The last one is so ugly it's cute. Thanks for working on a Saturday to share these with us.

Tricia L said...

I rather like the fondant cake. Someone has talent and may make it to Sunday Sweets someday.

As for the rest, their parents must be so proud that their tuition payments are being used wisely.

wv: stros
My, but these are mon-stros-ities.

Cat said...

As a member of the Max P team, I can assure you with confidence, it is a FURBY. But a wreck of a furby. One of our t-shirts reads, "Keep uchicago weird" on the front and has Demolition Furby destroying campus Tokyo style.

Marianne said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE the cupcake cake! that is truly a wreckplica. where did they get the mohawk babies?? I thought things were urban Cakewreck legend.

Fanboy Wife said...

That is a great scavenger hunt!

Aliza said...

Love it!! I didn't know that Chicago had a scavenger hunt, but University of Waterloo's engineers do one with a list like this every year. Back when my friends and I were undergrads, I lived for the tales about their "skunt"!

Congrats Jen on making their list, and winning over some new fans! Now to send the link to my waterloo alumni friends...

Anonymous said...

@Culinarychiq:

The llama is the MacPierce mascot. It gets incorporated into a lot of the items we build (as well as our team shirts).

Also you cannot believe how excited we were to see this as one of our items :D.

-Long time Wreckie and MacPierce Scav team member

Unknown said...

I got very excited and was going to say that the last cake was Totoro...but after reading the comments and discovering it IS a Furby, I guess my happiness kind of withered away. LoL. I thought the umbrella was a dead give away. I suppose Totoro and Furby are similar, but Totoro wins in my book.
^-^ ...I'll just pretend it's Totoro.

Brittany, in WV

proudnerd said...

UofC alumna here. Unfortunately, I graduated before Scav Hunt started.

What a treat to see a favorite website and my alma mater conjoined!

The only thing that surprises me is how little research some of the teams did. They should have all had a minimum of 20-25 Cake Wrecks elements on them.

EugeneTeam said...

to totoro or not to totoro? either way i would love to see a catbus cake. and.... go!

Emily M said...

I went to UofC law school, but this sort of makes me sad that I didn't experience the true unabashed nerdiness that is UofC undergrad!

Unknown said...

//"That Edward/MJ cake should have won. I haven't laughed that much at a cake since that UK logo tiger thingy."

@R., that UK logo CCC had me laughing like nothing before. thus hooking me on CakeWrecks... though, without Jen's (and John's) wit, it wouldn't be so successful.

huge kudos, CW! getting featured in a university tradition :D
i like the furbie wreck!
what the heck is a Tortoro-whatever-character? xD

Evalis said...

Anon @ 8:48

umm... a breeder reactor? They put a nuclear reactor on the scavenger hunter list? lol

B said...

@Evalis

Yes- and it was built.

Snitchcock Scavvie said...

Thank you so much for doing this for the Hunt, Jen.
Yes, Max Palevsky's wrecktastic cake is definitely a "Demolition Furby."

I was on the Snell-Hitchcock team, and we (obviously) interpreted the item as "make a Sunday Sweet," which nobody else did. The items on top of the Snell-Hitchcock cake are an Easter Island statue, a vending machine, and a monowheel, all items we built in previous years. In addition to being gorgeous, it was delicious.

Terri Coop said...

Jen - I love it!

This is exactly why I tell my young clients NOT to go to a Junior College. This is the stuff that dreams, memories, ambition, and lifelong friendships are made of!

Congrats to all the U of C teams for destroying these cakes! I couldn't be prouder if I had wrecked them myself.

Anonymous said...

Yes!!! Thank you from one very happy U of C alumna :). When I was on a scav hunt team (oh goodness. Was that really fourteen years ago??) we had to create the world's most disgusting pizza, which was far less appetizing than these cakes. After loading ours with tripe and edible insects (plus some peanut butter to make it stick in the throat) the judges informed us that one of our team members had to eat a whole piece in order to get the points. we did it, but we would much rather have eaten any of these fine wrecktastic creations.

-Liz in Seattle

Former Snell My Hitchcock Captain said...

in response to Julie in Arlington...

Scav is neither harmless nor a "dead week activity." It is a religion. And we are good at it.

UofC Alumna said...

Such good memories! I remember when I lived in Max P and the hammering, drilling, and general insanity of the Scav team in the courtyard would drive me crazy- but it was always worth it in the end to see the stuff they came up with! Thanks Jen for voting Max P the winner, unfortunately it wasn't enough to prevent Snitchcock from ultimately winning the hunt :(

ialmostlaugh.com said...

LOL those are all funny! GREAT blog!

Jenny Jo said...

Heh heh. My husband knew the breeder reactor guys. We've got photos...

Currer813 said...

I am SO EXCITED to see that the U of C is on the Cake Wrecks blog!

Jenny, AM 2008

Sharon said...

I thought Slimer and Jabba's love child was a World of Warcraft goblin...then I saw its ears had fingers. -.-

And I don't recall anything in LOTR looking like a brown epcot center.

I never cared for Mickey Mouse. I like him even less now that he's turned to skin bleaching and plastic surgery to look like Porky Pig.

Anonymous said...

I think the unicorn should have won!

Anonymous said...

I think the last one is supposed to be Totoro? (Studio Ghibli)

Unknown said...

ZOMG, a Totorro wreck. Best ever.

Anonymous said...

OMG, Burton-Judson's "clown" looks like the spawn of Bette Midler and an Oompa Loompa! Love it!