Sunday, July 20, 2008

I Guess You Gotta Play the Game



Spying the pictures from last year, I realized that it isn't enough to simply whip up a great recipe. Apparently you've got to become a food stylist too and accessorize your cake. So here goes my attempt at "doing it up."

I spent several hours on Friday shopping for "staging" my cakes. I'm going for classy sophistication in this one, with some romance thrown in for good measure since it's for Valentine's Day. I made a second cake so I could include a cut piece that shows that this blackberry cake is indeed purple, thus the purple roses.

If this doesn't get their attention, I don't know what will.

I'd rather stick with whippin' up new recipes than this stuff.

3 comments:

Dan said...

It's a good thing I just reread the rules. The rules clearly state that this time around, the cake needs to have a piece cut out of it to show the texture.

Even though I have a piece from a separate cake in the picture, I think I'll need to take a picture again tomorrow with an actual slice removed from the cake.

I also read some of the fine print: they don't like "exotic" ingredients.

I think my use of Frangelico hazel nut liqueur in last year's Thanksgiving Cake may have eliminated that one, and the other two used some things that were a little unconventional.

I can tweak those a little bit for the entries this year, and thankfully the new cakes are fairly straight forward.

The only "exotic" ingredient is for my Mother's Day cake that uses something that can be found in most Mexican aisles of a supermarket.

Montana Sherry C said...

I know you prefer the baking end of things, but my, oh my, you have a great eye for design, too.

That's a heck of a photo.

I totally want to eat that slice of cake.

Dan said...

Thanks for the kudos Sherry.

I've got to come up with four more designs. I appreciate the encouragement. I don't enjoy this side of it, though I'm trying to make them look the best I can.

I'm scratching my head over the St. Patrick's Day cake though.

I think I'm going to try and find an Irish flag or two and stick 'em in the insides of the cake. And maybe pick some shamrocks from my yard and strew 'em all over the platter.

How crazy is that? It's a CAKE!