the polls are open! and we’re in the finals! vote early, vote often, vote here. You’re allowed one vote per electronic device. laptop, computer, iPhone, iPad, any other iThing you have access to. If you’re at work, I suggest temporarily “borrowing” your coworkers’ computers to vote as well. You know…if you want. Like yesterday, I’m up against some really awesome cakes, so it’s not going to be easy.
A crazy person can most likely be defined by a) their desire to enter really weird contests and b) their relationship to tiny, tiny decorating. I think you all know where on the spectrum I fall.
This is my big reveal: my friend Movita Beaucoup is holding a competition called “Bake My Cake 2012.” It is a competition to make her the best birthday cake ever. EVER. it is being judged over the next few days (details here; there will be Olympic-style cake heats!), and I am as excited to see the other entries as I am to have entered this cake into the ring. This, dear friends, is my submission for Bake My Cake 2012: I call it “Movita Beaucoup’s Bakery Story.”
So special is this birthday, there’s actually a vertical photo in my post. That never happens. This is Movita’s cake, based upon some things I know about her.
Fact: Movita is a ballerina. And probably a very talented one at that. These little ballerinas flew in all the way from the 1960’s to celebrate her birthday; they are very excited to perform in her honor.
Fact: Movita is going to baking school very soon. She’s starting a totally new career and I think that’s awesome. She would like to open up a little storefront someday. I think she’ll do it. The baked goods represent her current shift from ballerina to bakery maven.
Fact: Movita is obsessed with Bakery Story. She plays it all the time. It drives her to distraction. She lives for it. So, the top portion of the cake represents both her love of Bakery Story and her eventual pastry shop, where I’ll come visit her and we’ll bake our faces off.
Fact: Movita loves pistachios, lemons, and vanilla cake. Her cake is a vanilla buttermilk cake with lemon curd and pistachio filling, covered in a classic vanilla buttercream.
So in short, I made Movita her very own Bakery Story for her birthday. Here are some more photos:
Pastries surrounding the lower tier of the cake. Those are decorated Cheerios, people. I used the honey nut, chocolate, and fruit-flavored ones. I dipped them in either white or dark chocolate and then doused them with sprinkles.
A close-up of the bakery counter. Foam core + clear plastic + dowels for stability.
Movita’s bakery menu behind a dollhouse cake. I did not make that. Although I suppose I could figure out how to make that.
Hungry ballerinas, or as I like to call them, The Three Doughnettes in their first ever performance.
Elegant sprinkle cakes on a dollhouse silver tray. Only the best for Movita’s bakery.
A peek inside the cake.
Uh, oh…wait a minute…
Cake monster. I guess tiny things attract other tiny things.
37 Comments
I am speechless. And that never happens. This is frigging incredible. I think you just won.
thanks, Kim! it looks crazy (lunatic-worthy, it seems!) but it was a blast to make; especially the wee donuts. I feel like i won already, because i know Movita likes it. 🙂
Absolute madness! My jaw literally fell open when I opened this post!
thanks Eva! “madness” would be exactly what it was like to make this cake. fun madness, but madness nonetheless. 🙂
You know how I feel about this cake. It makes my heart sing. But then, to top it off, I see that wee sausage in the background of that last photo, icing covered finger in mouth? Sigh.
Best birthday ever.
dear movita, that wee sausage thinks the buttercream is the best thing that’s happened to her since her first cookie. she couldn’t help herself; i don’t blame her. she says to tell you happy birthday, and that she’s happy to bring a smile to your face. we’re both overjoyed you love our cake.
If you don’t win, I’m staging a protest. There will be pickets. There will be loud, crazy people holding up signs of mini-donuts.
well, i mean…now i almost hope i don’t win. just to see the protest of mini-donuts. maybe that can be arranged if i do win…like a celebration protest?
Shannon, this cake is amazing. I so hope you win. I think you captured Movita in a cake brilliantly. Good luck, friend.
Jennie, thank you so much! and a huge thank-you for alerting me to my spam filter getting “over-exuberant” with comments. it should be fixed now.
if i could, i would actually capture Movita inside a cake. I’d bring her here to live with me and she could bake me things and teach me how to dance less like a goat.
Oh man, I knew it was going to be good but this? Everything about it is perfect! So much thought and effort, and so many skillz.
Carol Anne, i wonder on what planet decorating tiny Cheerio donuts with sprinkles, making bakery counters out of foam core, and littering cakes with random ballerinas holding mini-donuts are considered “skillz.” I guess on Planet Us they are. 🙂 thank you! your cake is magnificent; talk about skillz! if i tried to do that, it would topple over by the time i hit the second tier. it looks brilliant.
What a beautiful cake with a wonderful backstory! I’m totally rooting for you to win.
You should patent Donut Cheerios, then call General Mills. You would make millions!
thanks Brianne! Movita deserved an awesome and weird cake, and that’s about as awesome and weird as i can manage with my amateur decorating skills. 🙂
sadly, i did not invent Donut Cheerios, although you have a point: don’t know why GM hasn’t thought to make a “donut” variety considering they have every other flavor imaginable. I saw these done online a few times and it’s based on an American Girls (yep, the dolls) recipe book. I will say i think i went a little crazier on them than the original recipe calls for. 🙂
I am with Movita on that one! That wee little sausage finger is ADORABLE !!!! Gorgeous cake. I hope you win ! Now, can you make me one too? THAT LOOKS DIVINE !! I want one !!!
Lynne xx
This cake is unreal! Wow, you really outdid yourself. Truly amazing. I love your little cake snatcher too, I have one of those and it makes me smile from ear to ear when my camera catches her in the act.
I am off to go vote for this darling cake. Hope you win!!
maggie, thank you so much! it was so much fun to make, and my little cake snatcher loved watching me do those donuts (and i’m pretty sure i can attribute the ‘missing’ ones to her also.) 🙂 she’s got a big sweet tooth for such a tiny thing. If your sweet wee babe is anything like mine, i bet those opportunities to catch them in the act are endless. 🙂
This cake is stunning, beautiful, amazing, stupendous and the list goes one! I sinceerely wish you the best in this comp which you are sure to do wonderfully in 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
aw, thank you thank you!
This is so creative!
kale, thank you so very much!! it was a total blast to make.
Wow, what a great cake 🙂 Looks like quite the piece of srt!
art! Sorry!
HA! Kiri, you totally made me laugh; glancing at your comment on my phone, i thought i saw a different word (i think the phrasing “piece of…” helped). and it made me giggle. a LOT. 🙂 thank you very much.
Honestly, this is just breathtaking, Shannon. Like Take-My-Breath-Away-From-Top-Gun breathtaking. I love it.
…aaaaaaand now i’m singing the song. and having a slow dance with my cake. thank you for making my day, all day today.
And what a magical world you’ve given your daughter. Not that it’s my position to say so, but that’s what I was thinking when I looked at the photos of her peering over the cake. I was thinking “how awesome it is that she sees you doing things like this with such imagination.” What a happy thought!
Katherine, you make me tear up a little with happiness; that’s so sweet of you to say, and a very happy thought for me as well. My whole entire life is dedicated to making her childhood as magical as mine – lots of arts and crafts, music, and general fun, even if we were learning something in the process (and don’t you always learn things best when it’s fun). She’s a smart cookie, and helps me with all of this; she even dipped a few of those tiny donuts in chocolate and sprinkles for me, although i think she got to eat those. she’s also a pro at mixing dry ingredients. it’s a pretty interactive house around here, and i wouldn’t have it any other way. i hope she appreciates it and looks back on this time with good memories, for sure. i know i will.
That is SO ridiculously cute! Complete with mini doughnuts!? Well done!
Jen, thank you! and i must apologize for my totally rude spam filter; i didn’t realize until just now your comment had gotten sent to wordpress Siberia. fixed! i know you’re not spam. 🙂
This is my first time visiting your blog and wow I am so glad I found it. This is absolutely stunning. Such beautiful work!!
beth michelle, thank you so much! I had a seriously fun time doing it. I don’t do things like this often, but it’s fun to get crazy with cake every once in awhile.
I know this post is a little outdated to be getting a brand new comment, but I just wanted to say… I was wandering around Rachel’s (Movita’s) blog, because I love it and she hasn’t posted in a little while so I was looking back for something new (to me) to read, and I found her Bake My Cake posts from last year. Of course, she got a lot of great entries, but the moment I saw yours I knew who had made it and I was just so blown away by all the little details – I love love LOVE the little cheerio donuts! If I’d been in-the-loop back then you would have had my every vote (from every computer I could get my hands on). Shannon, you rock so much! 😀
I wonder who really is more outdated; your comment or my response!! 🙂 vacation will do that to me; i get lazy. I’m so happy you found my Bake My Cake entry! And you have to love Movita for letting me do that, truly; such a fun project and one i would do again in a heartbeat (just wish there was some way for her to have seen it in person!)
Tell you what: if she does it again this year, i may or may not be screwed, because i tend to think of things either way too large for actual execution or i just can’t think of anything good at all. Either way, i’m going to need your help, if you find me worthy of it. And i should thank you for the reminder that Bake My Cake should be coming up soon…i’m going to start brainstorming something crazy.
PS: you totally rock too.
OMG – this is insanely INCREDIBLE! I don’t even know what to say beyond that it’s beautiful, adorable, sooo creative, and that I really want it! : )
Thanks, Monica! That cake was so fun to make. Partly due to the mini donuts and the excuse to purchase vintage ballerina figurines, but mostly because i did it for a great friend. it’s what i would call a win/win project, for sure. Definitely for those of us who may like fiddling with tiny things. 🙂
[…] She participates in every contest I have on this blog. Like Pumpkin Carve-Off. And Ginger. And Bake My Cake. And then she writes about it all in eloquent fashion on her blog. It’s disgusting […]