I mean, as a dessert I can take it or leave it. If you really want to wow me, I'm all about the ice cream and fudge and brownies. But the reason I love cake is because of all the cool things you can do to it. Cake can look like pretty much anything if the right person is involved. See?
Don't believe me? Here's an "In progress" picture
But I didn't always feel this way. Back a hundred years ago when I got married, I didn't really care too much about my wedding cake. I just wanted it to taste good and not look like a shapeless mass. I think my parents spent less than $150 on my wedding cake and it was a pretty standard, not too exciting cake visually, but it tasted good! And that is what mattered to me. I actually thought all those fancy-schmancy cakes with the fondant and crazy colors were awful. I was of the opinion that cake should look like what it is--food--and that any unusual decoration was just a waste of time and money. But I have since changed my mind.
Shortly before Logan was born, I learned that a friend of mine is a budding cake decorator. She created a number of beautiful cakes for a party I attended. At the party I talked to her about her creations (which were beautiful AND tasty, by the way) and she taught me about the usefulness of fondant and that there was a whole subculture of people that decorate cakes to look like non-cake. My interested was piqued. But being pregnant and tired, I never really researched it.
A month or so later, Logan was born and I got to stay in the hospital for a few days. While I was recovering, I became acquainted with a TV show called "Cake Boss." We don't have cable at our house so I had never heard of this show or this guy who made cakes look like buildings on fire and aquariums with turtles and coral. But seeing as how I was recovering from surgery and had nothing better to do, I watched A LOT of "Cake Boss." I came to appreciate the beauty and just sheer awesomeness of these crazy cakes he bakes every episode. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Then shortly after I got home from the hospital I was acquainted with a website called Cakewrecks (http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ ). I learned that there are lots of people who claim to be professional bakers and cake decorators, but have virtually no idea how to decorate a cake. This website makes fun of the cake disasters that people pay for and some of them are pretty funny. But apart from the cake wrecks, the author of the website occasionally showcases the work of some genuinely talented decorators. Here are some classic wrecks:
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So it seems the universe has conspired against me in the last few months by bombarding me with cakey prettiness and more or less guaranteeing that I eat my words, so to speak. But at least in this case my words are red velvet with cream cheese filling and they look like a snuggly baby giraffe.
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