A Whale of a Tale

[shining flashlight spookily in face] Come gather 'round to hear a tale of a Wreck.

And not just any Wreck, either.

A wreck [dramatic pause] to the third power.

Er, or something like that.

Last week a local news website in DC ordered a cake for their fifth anniversary. The site is named DCist, and Sommer, who sent this in, asked the bakery to just write their name across the whole cake.

Here's what they got instead:

Bringing a whole new meaning to the Fail Whale?

You've got to admire the tenacity of this decorator. Even while operating under the assumption that the customer wanted something written "on a whale cake", he still went ahead and just wrote those instructions out instead. The fact that the baker actually made more work for himself (by writing the extra text) while trying to make less work for himself (by avoiding drawing or carving a whale cake) is what makes this such a gem. Ah, good stuff.

Thanks to Sommer and to DCist.com, which also posted it (under the same clever title, I might add - great minds and all that) here.

- Related Wreckage: Wreck Creators

Sunday Sweets: Ribbons and Lace

This week I figured we'd take a break from the geek themes and instead feature some Sweets that showcase amazing piping skills. This kind of cake art is becoming pretty rare in these days of all-fondant cakes, so it's nice to be reminded of the painstaking talent that a lot of the more traditional bakers possess. The designs can be deceptively simple, but it takes a practiced hand and a lot of patience to get results like these.

First, let's start off with some lovely scroll work and piped pearls:

(Made by Yukiko, aka Rosey Sugar.)

Gorgeous.

Here's a fondant-free example:

(Submitted by Amanda T. and made by Das Meyer Fine Pastry Chalet.)

That's all hand-piped! Here, check out the detail:

This next one contains some mind-boggling string work. (String work uses royal icing, which hardens after it dries.) Just look at this:

(Made by Jill's Sugar Collection.)

Those triangular pillows on the side were made by layering royal icing in a lattice pattern. It's incredibly fragile, and there's no room for error. That goes double for that astounding bottom ruffle of strings. Each strand is piped individually, and is literally suspended over thin air. Look how perfect the spacing is:

I love the color on this next one:

(Made by Annie K. of Annie's Art Book)

Orange and white - awesome! Love the ball and the butterflies, and the way this baker used the molded lace edging is really unique and modern:

Doesn't it look like crochet? Hard to believe it's actually icing.

And last is the most technically difficult of today's bunch:

(Also by Rosey Sugar. Thanks to Donatella for the link!)

What makes this cake so impressive is the icing drop strings and the hanging scroll border. For the strings, each strand was in effect piped in mid-air. The tip is pulled away and placed in the same spot, hopefully leaving an unbroken string. Then, to really show off her mad skilz, the decorator did a second tiny loop inside of the first one:

For the scroll border, royal icing is layered on a flat surface, dried, and then carefully adhered to the base with more icing. Have I mentioned that this stuff is incredibly fragile? 'Cuz it is. I've been told that for a cake like this, you have to do the string work onsite; the slightest bump or jarring would cause them all the break right off.

Well, hopefully you have a better appreciation for piping art now! Thanks to today's bakers!