CAKE-lympics

Yes, it is an apple. A gigantic green apple...cake. Today I competed in the first Cake-lympics and took home the GOLD. We competed in three areas: appearance, taste and interpretation of theme. Do not ask me what that last one means, Ryan made it up hoping it would help his team. Too bad for him it backfired.

The idea for cake-lympics was born last week when Ashley and I were deciding to make a cake for our roommate's birthday. After the covered wagon cake last month, Ryan was itching to use his Ace of Cake skills so he suggested we do what we have termed a "Duff Cake" (a 3-D cake). Our roommate is a teacher so we decided to make an apple. Too bad that when we asked her to come her party, she was already busy that night. But that did not stop us, we decided to make the cake anyhow. Then it somehow turned into a team challenge. The name came after my 8 hours of olympics watching yesterday, and of course with the name came the need for official judges to score it.

We made the cakes today, then tonight had some friends over to watch the Olympics, warm up their critiquing on the synchronized diving and then move on to the cakes. While there was no fancy numerical values assigned to the scoring, which disappointed some of our judges (we'll work on that for next time), we did have the three categories. It was blind judging, in that no one knew who made which cake. Scores were only one vote off either way for interpretation and taste (we each took one category), but in appearance I blew them away (which surprised me) they only had one vote.

There was a lot of trash talking. Even more trash texting. We both had some good ideas. Both cakes looked and tasted great. It could have gone either way. But in the end, it did not. In the end I KICKED THEIR TRASH. Maybe next time Ryan and Ashley. Maybe next time. But probably not.

The evolution of the cakes:

Mine is on the left. Ashley & Ryan's is on the right.

Me -Chocolate cake with chocolate mint frosting to glue the layers together.

Them - Apple Spice cake with cream cheese frosting between.

Me - Mint buttercream frosting colored candy apple green.

Them - Cream cheese frosting under a layer of red marshmallow rolled fondant.

Me - Tootsie roll stem, real leaves and a gummy worm.

Them - Tootsie roll stem and a white chocolate died green leaf.

Closer up. Yes, my worm has a smiley face drawn on with a sharpie.

Theirs is so shiny like a candy apple!

Inside mine had Junior Mint "seeds" hidden in the middle as an extra touch.

Theirs actually looked like an apple with a red apple peel, it was cool.

Really though, they were both so delicious. Our judges had a tough job.

Me, Ryan & Ashley.