science – Dork Chocolate

I apologize for the delay, things kept getting in the way but I really didn’t want to add anymore new posts until I finished my tribute to Kimberly’s award-winning cake. So here it is in all its glory.

As I stated previously, there’s so much to Kimberly’s cake that I’m going to have to break it down by layers and visit all the geeky little details. We’re starting at the bottom and working our way us, we we’ll start with the table decorations… also known as the parking lot.

See the brickwork behind the shrink-ray valet? Kimberly made over 1500 of the little buggers for the bottom layer.

Here are some of the shrunken ships in the parking lot. (And here is where I display my crappy photography skills. I don’t know what I did wrong, but this year’s photos aren’t as good as last year’s, even though I have a better camera. I’ll have to get my sister-in-law to give me a few quick lessons.)

My first photo of this was taken at a different angle and when I reviewed it later that day, it looked like the little green guy was pissing on the wall. I don’t think that was quite the effect she was going for, so I made sure to get a shot where you could see the spray paint can.

Now to the Lobby Tier:

First is Leeloo with her multipass.

The little green toothy dudes from GalaxyQuest

The Doctor’s TARDIS

Mars Attacks! and Planet of the Apes, along with some more movie posters

The Predator is giving the Alien (with the pink bow that you can’t see) flowers…. is this an homage to Alien and Predator, or to Robot Chicken?

Check out the slime. It’s those little details that I love.

Now it’s time to visit the Concession Stand Tier:

Another poor quality photo. Someone else did it better here.

This entrance to Miliways had me squeeing with joy. That shows you how much of a geek I am.

The chick from the mini-series V (I’m trying to forget the full television series).

I love the single shoe next to Audrey 2’s pot.

The concession stand with Popcorn, Reese’s Pieces, Spice, and a Slurm vending machine.

I’d love one for my cube at work.

The third tier is the movie auditorium, showing Plan 9 from Outer Space, and once again, it’s a crappy photo.

At this point, I’m going to stop trying to add a comment for every photo and just post.

The alien egg was hidden at the back of the cake – I didn’t even notice it the first day of the show.

This was probably my second favorite part of the cake: Futurama AND Buckaroo Banzai jokes in one shot. (The “Han shot first” graffito was my favorite.)

The entire fourth tier, and hopefully final crap quality photo.

One last shot of the entire cake.

It only took a month and a half to put Kimberly’s cake up on my site… but it was worth it.

2010 Cake Show: Showcake Competition

March 19, 2010 by snarkygurl

Special Showcake Competition

This was the second year that the Austin cake show offered a division for Showcakes. Last year there were a decent number of entries for this division, but this year there were even more. While the entries in the other categories don’t have to reflect the theme of the show – about a 7th of the decorator’s score in the Showcake Competition is based on how closely they follow that theme. This years’s theme was “2010 – A Cake Odyssey” (they announced early last year that this would cover both Science Fiction and Fantasy).

In addition to the general rules, the following rules apply specifically to entries in the Showcake Competition:

Decorations – Any sugar medium is allowed.

Construction – The entry can be made out of Styrofoam or any other cake substitute if the final design is one that could realistically be made out of real cake.. If the entry is a sculpted cake, it must be made of real cake with 3 in process pictures submitted along with the entry.

Size – The entry needs to meet minimum height and serving requirements. The minimum finished height is 24” and the entry must be of sufficient size that it would meet or exceed a minimum of 100 servings.

Display – Each entry will be displayed on an individual 48” round, standard (29” – 30”) height tables. The entrant will be responsible for dressing and decorating the table. The decoration of the table should compliment the decoration of the cake to complete the theme of the entry. Judges will consider all table decorations as a portion of overall eye appeal criteria. If table decorations are made of sugar media, they will be included in the number of techniques used, originality, creativity and difficulty judging criteria.

Judging – Judging for the Showcake entries will be based on a point system. 100 maximum points with points awarded based on the following criteria:

Application of the theme (15 pts)
Precision of techniques (15 pts)
Originality and creativity (15 pts)
Appropriate design – size, shape, colors, table decorations, etc. (15 pts)
Difficulty of techniques (15 pts)
Number of techniques used (15 pts)
Overall eye appeal – judge’s discretion (10 pts)

Judging will be conducted by a team of qualified judges (this year it included a judge from Sony Pictures).

I tried to post photos of all the cakes, but I may have missed a few. Other than for the 5th to First Place winners, I didn’t get all of the names of the cake decorators because these cakes were roped off and many of the entry forms were out of reach.

Alice in Wonderland

R2-D2

“Pixie Hollow”

“Dream Scape”
(There were two cakes by this title, so I just referred to this one as “the claw”)

(Gandalf? Merlin? Cranky old man with a sword?)

“E.T. Phone Home”

“Baby Na’vi”
(what you can’t tell from the photo is that both the eyes and the tip of the hair/biological USB connector glowed)

“Dalaran: City of Mages Cake”
(I have better quality photos of this cake, but they were all taken after it began to split apart. My WoW obsessed co-worker loved this one)

“In To the Future”
(this was the only moving cake at the show. The top half of the cake revolves)

The Nightmare Before Christmas
(poor Jack Skellington collapsed and had to be removed the next day)

Robots

Science Fiction

“Dream Scape” by Joy Longberg

(Exotic plants? The center support was lit.)

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
(I liked this one a lot – but think it would have fared better in the novelty tiered cake division)

Fifth Place
Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Claudia Estela Rosales

Fourth Place
The Decorator of the Future by Sylvia Wilson
(I think that was the title)

Third Place
Avatar by Lisette Vergara
Business Name: Austin Sweet Treats
(she was last year’s first place winner for this category)

Second Place
Golum by Brian Stevens
Business Name: Crazy Cakes Inc.

First Place
Space by Spacewest
2010 Pan-Galactic Alien Film Festival
by Kimberly Chapman
(No business name because she’s not a professional. She’s simply a highly talented decorator who enjoys designing cakes for her family)

This cake was designed to be viewed from all sides, so giving you one good photo is almost impossible. Up next will be a post with pictures of all the details of Kimberly’s cake.