Sunday Sweets: An Ostentation of Peacock
October 3, 2010 I recently stumbled across a gaggle of peacock cakes... Gaggle? No, that's not right. {Googling...}
I recently stumbled across a muster of peacock cakes that were too beautiful not to share with the world. I also learned that there are a lot of interesting words that mean "a lot." Lets explore both, shall we?
This peafowl has quite the colony of tail feathers:
This cluster of tail feathers is much more classical:
I really love the bushel of...uh...talent on display here:
The parcel of hand-drawn lines on this modern design is so intricate:
I want to throw this into an episode of Mad Men where they do a commercial for NBC.
This wedding cake doesn't have the skein of feathers that the other cakes do...
The plethora of mosaic tiles here really sets this bird apart...
By Kake Bakery
This trio of cakes showcases some stunning Mehndi designs:
I'm totally in love with this wedding cake:
And finally, just wait until you see the coterie of tiers this next cake has to offer:
That's a blown-sugar peacock on top. Let's take a closer look:
By Schmish
So frilly and delicate, it's more beautiful than a kaleidoscope of butterflies. (Yes, that's really what you call a group of butterflies. Awesome, right?)
Have a Sweet to suggest? Then e-mail it to us at Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com.
Reader Comments (103)
A - Thank you for the lovely peafowl
B - Thank you for the amassed bundle of group words.
If it's a tickle of feathers, does that make it possible to have a tickle of Elmos?
~~Di
Stunningly lovely. Creators are truly amazing artists!
Those are way too beautiful to contemplate eating...
How Animalia of you. :o)
Niiiiice!
Sweet!
I like!
Love, love, loving those cakes! My last name is Peacock.
How do I post a picture on here? I had a peacock cake for my wedding 4 months ago and it's completely different from the ones on here...they are mostly beautiful.
The word for a group of ravens is "murder," As in a murder of ravens. But I doubt very many people make raven cakes.
Oh, wow! I had already decided I wanted to do a peacock cake for when my boyfriend and I get married (that's assuming we can still get around under our own steam by then!). I had already found some of these, but a bunch of them are brand new to me. And they are AMAZING! Thanks for bringing them!
mendhi and metallic are my favs....
Holy Peacocks, Batman! Those are gorgeous. I especially like the second one, even going so far as to link over to the website to find out how much one of these beauties would set me back!
Admittedly, these cakes are beautiful and very well done.
BUT I don't care how beautiful or intricate these designs are--they might as well have been decorated with intricately detailed spiders, slugs and maggots. ANY bird or feather + cake = shudders of revulsion from me.
Not to be a pain by posting twice, but I just had to share that after 10 minutes of being away from this site, my heart is still racing from the anxiety caused by imagining birds sitting on top of cakes. OK. Deep breaths. In. Out. Aaaand, still grossed out. :-)
I wish these were posted in June! I just got married in July, and peacock feathers were all over the tables, in my hair, and on the invites. When picking out our cake, I briefly mentioned this theme, and the baker showed me a picture of a peacock cake she created. The result was horrifying enough that if I had it, the pic would have been sent in to CW! Kinda gave up the peacock cake idea after that.
*Mehndi... I think. But a beautiful post!
Wow I now know how beautiful peacocks look on a cake. Makes me want to run out and buy those yummy creations. As for cutting into one not to fond of that so I hope whoever gets these takes tons of pics!
This makes me want to have another wedding reception... 3 years after our wedding! :D Soooo pretty!
These are all amazing but I think I loved your parliament of collective nouns the best. I was laughing out loud by the time I got to "cackle." Kind of appropriate, when you think of it.
I especially like the one with the tail made of daisies.
I really do <3 cake wrecks and I check it every day so as to not miss a single one. But I have to admit that I do look forward to Sunday Sweets the most. :D
I really do Love the wrecks on cake wrecks and I check it every day so as to not miss a single one, but I have to admit that I lok forward to Sunday Sweets the most. <3
I chose to read this post without the "pea"... Great fun.
Now I want to get married again (to the same guy, you know) so I can have a peacock cake!
Wow, these bakeries sure strut their stuff ;) (Sorry, couldn't resist a pun). I'm not a huge peacock fan, but I am a fan of any bakery that does something truly beautiful... and the talent involved with some of those designs is just fantastic-- the handpainted peacocks and trees were gorgeous, the hand-drawn lines was precise and really neat, the mendhi was beautiful, and wow, that blown sugar peackock-- WOW!
Year ago, I was at the beach with a boyfriend, and we were standing at the end of the pier, watching the fish and jellyfish.
It was quiet and romantic, and he said, "You know what you call a group of jellyfish?"
"Um, no... what?"
"A smucker."
Bwa-ha-ha-ha. Quiet, romantic mood ended, but the laugh was worth it.
This is the first time I've commented on your wonderful Wrecks, though I've been a regular peruser & chuckler for a year or so. I don't know why I haven't let you know! Maybe because you have SO many followers. Thanks for the "pretty" Sunday sweets, the peacocks. We don't need pretty every week, but once in awhile it's nice.
I love the wedding cake with the single feathers. Gorgeous. But did the artist actually write her website on the cake, or is that just for the photo? I can't tell whether it's really talented photoshopping or really tacky advertising or maybe the cake is for a bakers' fair?
-Holly
The blown glass reminded me... Everyone has by now heard of the documentary "Kings of Pastry," yes? I figure Jen & John have, and probably several zillion times over...
Anyhoo, I highly recommend seeing it! Kinda re-defines Sunday Sweets in an extraordinary French way.
I loved the post, but I do agree that there were some word-usage issues. I don't want to be nit-picky, so am not sure if I want this published. I loved that you sent even those of us who knew the words scramblign for our dictionaries to see if our "huh? that's not quite right?" instincts were correct!
Cluster was ok, since the word refers to a grouping of similar things (in this case, feathers). Plethora was brilliant, trio makes it a three-peat, and profusion is abundent and that's apt. You successfully parceled out new words to expand people's vocabulary (ie that one was fine, too). And kaleidoscope took a bit of Googling, but turns out that's the collective noun for butterflies, which is just a beautiful use of language (I actually thought that was a perfect Jen&John-ism!).
But here's the ones that were a bit off:
Colony is a grouping of people, plants, germs... not sure if it can be applied to inanimate objects (feathers)
Bushel is a measure of capacity... technically doesn't work with talent, but I do rather like it ;)
Litter is either an untidy gathering of articles or is a number of animals born to an animal at once. Neither definition works for lovely feathers!
Skein is referred to thread or wool-- it is "a lot" but of a specific thing (and not feathers).
Menagerie is a collection of animals-- not sure if that works for inanimate metallics (and was there more than one metallic used?). But if you'd said it was a menagerie of peacock cakes, that would have been perfect!
Coterie is a small group of people with shared interests (e.g. Cake Wrecks fans!)... again, not sure if that could apply to tiers of a cake since they're inanimate
Sorry to suddenly turn all nit-picky on you!
OMG, great sunday sweets post! My fav so far! Loooove the henna peacock cakes!
Aliza,
Your comment is awesome! Of course I posted it. We actually put a bit of foolishness in there intentionally but you nailed a couple that I hadn't researched thoroughly enough.
I gotta say that I think it's a shame that these beautiful, interesting words come off as highbrow when used in normal conversation. Wouldn't it make our language just a little bit better if we added some color now and then?
And Aliza? I hope you have a splendid evening!
john
I love peacock feathers, and this post just made me love them more! I especially love the Mehndi design one. such gorgeous and intricate detail!
>>Skein is referred to thread or wool-- it is "a lot" but of a specific thing (and not feathers). Aliza<<
Ummm, not to be nit-picky in return, but a "skein" is also a group of geese, ducks, or other waterfowl in flight, according to Merriam-Webster. When you see a V formation of geese flying by... it's a skein of them. *S*
I just love odd words, don't you?
Merry at Annie's Book Stop
wv: awerserr - these cakes aren't just awesome, they're awerserr!
Number 1, you kill me. Very funny post. Mmmmmm....peacock. Cracked me up :-)
I liked them ..a lot.
Corina
Spectacular!
Thanks for posting these! I love peacocks (was even known to stalk some in Wales on my honeymoon). Now I want a birthday cake like one of these. :)
OMG i love peacocks more than anything! these are awesome!!! thank you , thank you, thank you!!!
English nerd moment:
I think by lots of words for "a lot" you mean lots of synonyms for "collection" or "large quantity"....... :-P Yay peacocks! <3
john (the hubby of Jen) said...
Mamakitty 1978,
The term "Peafowl" is used to describe the type of bird as a whole.
I think.
But what do I know?
Wreck On!
john
---------
John. Not only do you have that wrong but you misss spelled it as well.
The word is Peefoul and it describes my cat.
Cake on!
Kristi
Thought you should know... I was shopping at my local Target yesterday, and I overheard a college-age girl telling her friends about this post, and how they HAD to go check it out. So, yeah... you guys? You're famous.
FINALLY - wedding cakes that are not "wrecks" on this site that I actually like. Well, not the white and pink, though I like the design, and basically nothing that is mostly white, but the designs are gorgeous and not foofy and cliched. I like.
Such a relief. I was starting to feel a bit...irritated by wedding cake posts because I really dislike the usual girly flowery pastel and white foo-foo wedding cakes that are supposed to be "good". I found myself preferring the wrecks because at least they were interesting.
It´s good to see a post of good wedding cakes that tickles my fancy!
These are GORGEOUS! I adore peacocks!
OMG I love Peacocks! The first cake is to die for. I'm not big on over the top wedding cakes, but my goodness that was lovely. It gave me some wonderful ideas for my own wedding. Thank you!
It has already been decided by a friend of mine that when (or if...) I get married, I need to have a peacock cake.
I really love the first one. I love peacocks.
I love peacocks! Usually I'm bored by the Sunday Sweets posts (probably my fault, not CW's!) but this one was just great.
Stunning. I love the Mehndi ones...just beautiful.
Surely no one would actually cut into one of those - they are all way too pretty to eat!
To Holly, who posted on October 4, 2010 12:18 PM regarding the company name on the single-feather wedding cake picture:
The company name WAS photo-shopped onto the image (but the "tacky advertising" idea is pretty funny, too!) :) Before we started adding these watermarks, we found more than a few of our cake pictures on other people's websites, as if it was their work! Not everyone gives proper credit to the artists, as was done here - (THANK YOU).
Because of a few "bad apples," we now watermark all of our photos that are posted online. It may seem like shameless advertising, but it's really more self-preservation! :)
This is a great site, and some great choices for showcasing peacocks!!
I didn't realize peacocks on cakes was such a motif...
I would imagine the current cake from the Advanced Baking Class in my program was inspired by it, but sadly it's not anywhere near as beautiful as these. It's nice, it's just... the specific position, and the look on it's face make me think it's.... "discussing country matters" with the cake.