Let Them Eat Cake 2011

The theme for this year’s competition was “Historical Romances, Love in any Age”. I liked the theme and set out researching great romantic couples in history. I decided to illustrate the love story of Scheherazade and King Shahryar from the ancient stories of “1001 Arabian Nights”.

I chose this theme because A--I thought it would be fun to create a cake with an “Arabian” design and, B-because it was an excuse to reread the tales from “1001 Arabian Nights” (in addition to being a “cake-nerd” I’m also a “book-nerd” Lit major). It’s always fun when I get to combine two of my favorite activities; baking and reading.

Well, despite all my great intentions I wound up getting side-tracked by many other projects (and re-reading those stories) and didn’t put quite the time into the cake that I should have.

I was happy with the end result and thought the design was pretty, but I felt going in that it probably wasn’t a winning cake. I knew from previous years that there are always some truly spectacular cakes at the event, and this year was no exception.

Here’s a close-up shot of Scheherazade and the King—she’s telling him her mesmerizing stories and he’s falling in love…

I’ll admit I held out great hope for a “best tasting” win because I was serving the killer “Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake”. The guests at the event loved the cake and were gobbling it up faster than we could serve it. We ended up cutting the samples in half so we wouldn’t run out half-way through the show. Unfortunately, we didn’t get “best tasting” either. Oh well, better luck next year.

I always enjoy this event because it’s a chance to meet-up with my fellow cake designers and mingle with other “wedding pros”. Many, many thanks to my friend Maryanne and my intern Amy for making the day even more fun…