Sunday Sweets Gets Thankful
November 18, 2012 This Thursday we Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, so I'd like to take a moment to contemplate a few of the things I'm thankful for this week.
First and foremost, I'm pretty thankful I'm not a turkey.
;)
Although this little guy still made me a chuckle.
Also making me happy this week: bakers who know what a cornucopia looks like.
;)
By Design Cakes
YES.
After a week of seeing nothing but poop tornadoes, I can't tell you how thrilled that topper makes me.
(What poop tornadoes, you ask? Oh, JUST YOU WAIT.)
I also like how the side flourishes look like fancy napkins. One year I folded our napkins just like that and stuck them inside all our wineglasses. It looked really cool, and once you wrung them out a bit, they were kind of like Merlot-scented wet wipes. You should totally try it!
:D
This time of year always reminds me to be extra thankful for my favorite color:
;)
Sub'd by Sandra G. and made by Topsy Turvy Cakes
And orange you glad some bakers still know what a pumpkin looks like, too?
Sunday Sweets takes roughly three times as long to put together and write as our usual weekday posts, but even when I'm up 'til 2AM hunting down a baker credit, or combing through my sixty-fifth page of image results for that one perfect cake, I'm thankful. 'Cuz just like you guys, I love great cake art - and I especially love that it inspires so many of you:
;)
For example, CW reader Chad made this - and it's only his third cake ever.
(!!!)
Chad, you should really have us over for dinner sometime. I could fold the napkins.
Let's see... I'm thankful for buttercream icing:
;)
(and tiny ears of sugar corn!)
And I'm thankful for fondant:
;)
By TLB Cakes
Not to mention delicate hand-painting, and my favorite color combination! (Teal and orange...mmm...)
I think I speak for John as well when I say I'm extra thankful for daisies:
;)
By Cake Is Life
(DAISIES!!!)
I'm happy that cookies have become just as much of an art form as cake, and that they can be silly and fun:
;)
By Jill FCS
(It's all about the eyebrows on that center turkey. Ha!)
...or elegant and abstract:
;)
Submitted by Clinton S. and made by Sharp Cookie
One of the coolest "cookie bouquets" I've ever seen. Reminds me of 3D paper art!
I'm thankful that even though I "just" talk about cake, I still learn new things every day:
;)
By Custom Cakes
Like the fact that turkeys have pony tails coming out of their chests. (John looked it up; they totally do.) And mega kudos to this artist for hand-sculpting and painting the feathers instead of using real ones. That's doing it right, right there.
And finally, I'm extra EXTRA thankful that - every now and again - I get to completely blow people's minds:
;)
Yes. Yes, it is.
I know you don't believe me, because John and I didn't believe this cake ourselves, and spent a solid thirty minutes researching it and getting all the details from the baker, Heather Porter of Frost This. She tells us she got the shiny skin texture by brushing on various shades of piping gel, and the "pepper" and spices are crumbled sprinkles.
;)
The lettuce and lemons are real, but everything else is cake - even the deviled eggs and pie you see next to it on the table. You can see pictures of the whole display at a charity event here. (It was the photo of all those people around the cake that finally convinced us; we figure someone would have cried fowl if they smelled cooked meat instead of icing. Heh. I'd still like to see a photo of this being served, though, Heather!) {UPDATE: D'oh! You guys broke the charity site! THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS. I guess keep trying?}
I hope you guys enjoyed! As always, if you have a Sweet you'd like to nominate, please send it to me at Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com.
Oh, and one last thing!
;)
Yep, so if you didn't grab one last year, please pick up a copy (or six) of my book Wreck the Halls! It's got oodles of never-before-seen wreckage spanning Halloween to New Year's, all in one perfectly giftable 232-page hardcover!
Best of all, it's only $6 on Amazon right now. SIX LOUSY DOLLARS. And if you order more than $25 worth, you'll get free shipping! Seriously, if you guys don't buy these things out in five minutes I will deem you all terrible money managers who hate laughter, rainbows, and carrot-riding Mohawk-babies. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?
Oh, and if you want your book(s) signed by yours truly, you can buy a customized bookplate here.
Reader Comments (39)
OMG that last cake blew me away :O i would have to see pics of it being sliced up to even believe it.
I'm thankful for Sunday Sweets - always incredible.
All of the cakes were wonderful, but that last one was just perfect.
And yet, unbelievably, that last one got *3rd place* at its charity event?!?!? How is that even possible with that incredible creation?
While its nice to see a company from my hometown, The Sweet Life Bakery makes terrible cakes. They may look nice, but they taste HORRIBLE! lol So that can be sort of a wreck in itself...you know, looking at a pretty cake and then tasting crap. (the poop tornado is on the inside)
Even more amazing than the last cake is the fact that it got THIRD place (?!?) at the benefit. I mean, come on! Awesomeness on a platter.
The ponytail out the chest is called its beard. Turkey hunters cut them off as a type of trophy; the longer the beard, the older/bigger the bird. I learned this the hard way when I taught 5th grade in a very rural school. One of my boys went out crazy early, killed his bird, field dressed it, and brought the beard in to show everyone. :O
This was the same school where a girl brought her fighting rooster in for a demonstration speech. The next year the state outlawed game fighting so all the fighting cocks went backwoods.
Good times.
I can't choose!So many nice ones!But I WOULD take the cornucopia with the grapes for my mother.
She likes decor with grapes on it.
That fake turkey looks much better than any real turkey I could ever make. Amazing.
This morning I was a bit unnerved but also intrigued by the banner over your blog--it featured two blurred-out pink cupcakes with the promise of "CUPCAKE ON CUPCAKE ACTION!!!" with a sidenote of "In The Raw!" (as opposed to "In The Cooked", I suppose). I didn't click on it, but I was tempted...in the interests of scientific observation, of course. I mean, what can a baked good actually DO to another?
Please tell the "Help Not Hassle" people that their server is blown. I really want to see the whole turkey display!
Wow. I mean, after the recent "cooked turkey" cake with the -- as one commenter put it, and I'm inclined to agree -- "poop wings", it's good to see that a baker can, in fact, make a "cooked turkey" cake that not only looks like a cooked turkey, but looks like a cooked turkey done well!
thanksgiving is my fav time of year Jen, and to make it extra special, i make MASHED POTATOES!!!!! Now i know what y'all thinking. no. not boring mashed patatoes. it is what you put on top that is special. what you do is:
1. make a hole for the gravy
2m fill half the hole with corn
3. fill the other half with turkey bits(meat only)
4.douse it in gravy; mix together well
5. dig in beeyotches!!!
P.S. do not attempt if you are a messy eater. your family will not be thankful.
Pretty sure those are orange slices around the last cake, not lemons. But you probably don't see many oranges there in Florida. ;)
Oh, foul, fowl internet! All I got from clicking to see the "turkey" spread was a pape saying "bandwidth exceeded". No fair!
Amazing job to CW reader Chad! I can't believe that is only your third cake you've ever baked. Unbelieveable. I LOVE that turkey. :)
I also can't believe that turkey is cake (at the end of the post). It looks so real to me!!!
Shoutout to you & John, Jen. You guys do such an amazing job putting together Sunday Sweets posts each week. The cakes always take my breath away. It evens out the laughs that come out of my mouth Monday-Friday.
Jen, thanks so much for all your hard work! These Sunday Sweets were an even bigger treat than usual. And thanks for telling us about the sale on your book--just got both on Amazon! May your Thanksgivving be as sweet as these gorgeous cakes look. :-)
Gorgeous!! Thanksgiving colours are so warm and wonderful. Now I'm feeling all cozy and holiday-ish.
I think I'm way more excited to see these alleged poop tornadoes than I should be.
I logged out for ONE MINUTE to get my kids, opened the site back up and found the text of the page changed!
Yes, in the space of ONE MINUTE you people had broken the charity site! Gee-mi-nitiny! Can't leave you folks alone for even a MINUTE!
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later. Got this message when I tried to go to the pictures of the turkey made by Heather Porter of Frost This.
That's because the site is getting an enormous amount of visitors coming from here. Jen broke it. :P
Lol! Merlot-scented wet wipes have just become a new Thanksgiving tradition!
Man, that last Cake is amazing, but... Maybe it's just my New Englander heritage speaking, but WHY would you make a cake that looked like a pie when you could be EATING A PIE? Pie is so much better than cake.
Really, I'm on the wrong site to be expressing that kind of blasphemy though. ^^;
I love that last one ... but isn't it sitting on a bed of kale (not lettuce)?
BATMAN LOVES CAKEWRECKS!!!!!
Sunday Sweets is always a treat, and this week is no exception. After yesterday's cooked turkey disaster, the one you shared today was a pleasure to see. I bow down to the baker's Mad Skillz. I love the panicking turkey cake. Makes me think of how I must have looked on days when teachers announced a pop quiz and I hadn't studied the last few days (or weeks). ;)
Beautiful cakes! Another reason to be thankful for Cake Wrecks!
The promise/threat of poop tornadoes to come has me a bit scared!
I see that look every day, Cheryl. Every blooming day. Why are my students still surprised that I give "pop" quizzes? They get popped every day!
Those little gingerbread pilgrim cookies are just too cute. And so's the turkey at the top of the page.
But I'm astonished by the realism of the the "Custom Cakes" turkey. That one looks like he's ready to strut off the table.
I love them all, but especially the cornucopia and the turkey made out of cookies.
The cakes are beautiful, as always, but my main reason for commenting is to yell THANK YOU at John. A flock of turkeys crossed the road in front of my car on Friday and I couldn't figure out the ponytails!
As someone who used to raise turkeys, turkey beards creep me out!
The turkey dude with his snood and beard appears to be a Chocolate turkey ( there really is such a variety) which is worth a whole flock of in-joke points from all us turkey farmers. He even has the right spurs on his turkey ankles and the right look of distrust on his face.
Just stopped by to mention I went to Hannaford's today (my first time inside a grocery store in more than a year - woo-hoo, healing! - and as usual, they had a disappointing array of perfectly lovely cakes. EXCEPT. There was a turkey cake with six odd-looking tail feathers and a surprised look on his face (otherwise, not too bad, really) and a CCC (ptui!) made to look like two small open faced pies -- if pies were six inches across and had two inches of frosting that looked like piecrust, sort of, and kind of blueberry and apple filling. But there were too many witnesses to take a pic, especially the lady who calmly shoved in between me and the display to look at the nice cakes more closely.
There are no words to express how beside myself with joy I am at turkeys and cornucopias which LOOK LIKE TURKEYS AND CORNUCOPIAS... (sigh)....
TURKEY HOOVES!!!!
*pant*
*pant*
The turkey cookies on either side of the shocked one have derped eyes like everyone's favorite grey pegasus...
Do we have a brony baker?
Take a look at the zoom-n image on Amazon. I believe it's the pre-sticker version. :)
Thank you so much for posting the turkey cookie bouquet that we made at my business, Sharp Cookie. I am so very honored to have been included, especially as a cookier. I didn't know much about Cake Wrecks before( I have been too busy trying to run a small business in the toughest economy of my lifetime) but I am now a huge fan. We have been known in the cookie business to take ourselves way too seriously (it's just a cookie, after all). I have made my own cookie wrecks (I am self-taught) in the past and continue to do so but in the process, I have tried to create a business where we not only think "outside the box" but we don't even have a box. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving week as well as holiday season.
that was FREAKIN AWESOME! (@ last cake)