"fancy cakes" news and stories

I love making cakes, and after I made a few for friends, I became the resident birthday cake baker -- not with a box mix and a quick lather of frosting, but rather a myriad of flavors, frostings, and marzipan decorations on top. And now it might be time to take the whole practice to the next level.

Disney's FamilyFun.com is having a best cake face-off and they have some super funky cakes on display, one of which won their "Great Cake Contest." These definitely aren't those simple, old-school cakes. There's a cake-filled dear head mount for hunters, elaborate castles, Pooh in the honey, and some really, really great food-themed cakes -- spaghetti, a bucket of KFC with a whole slew of chicken, and the awesome cheeseburger above. What's even better about this whole thing -- there are recipes for each so you can try them on your own.

Check out the cakes and weigh in below: Do you think the best cake won?

When we were celebrating Slashfood's first birthday, I featured a cookbook about birthday cakes, but today deserves another birthday cake cookbook because it's my birthday, and a birthday just isn't the same without cake. If you have ever seen one of the Food Network cake challenges, you might already know who Colette Peters is. She is an extraordinarily talented baker and cake decorator who, fortunately, decided to share more than a few of her tricks in Colette's Birthday Cakes. She provides some good basic recipes to work with, including chocolate and white cake recipes, buttercreams, ganache, fondant and others. Once the basics are mastered, you can move on to the decorating. The techniques provided in the book are good, but as with most artistic things, good instructions will not necessarily result in a showpiece. There is no substitute for practice, but with the great photos, recipes and tips from Colette, your cake making will probably improve by quite a bit. Just take care not to make the cakes too elaborate or no one will want to cut in to them for a taste!

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