I work as a baker(surprise) in a cafe located in our public library. In April there will be a “literary cake display”. I want to enter, it’s a public contest.
The cake is to be decorated to illustrate a book. Not necessarily a reproduction of cover art, but something that will depict the story.
Last year was the first annual event, and it’s gonna be kind of hard to top the winner. It was quite simple, a heart shaped cake with chocolate icing. In the center was a molded pink candy image of the female genetalia, for The Vagina Monologues of course. I asked the gal where she got the mold, and she told me it came from a gay pride store in Kansas City.
Everything on the cake has to be edible. Last year someone did Dune, using brown sugar for sand, and gummi worms for the sandworms. You get the idea.
But I’m all in a “so many choices” sort of dither, trying to decide on a design. So where do I turn for suggestions? My fellow Dopers, of course. I’m a pretty good decorator, but not so brilliant in the imagination department. Tell you what, if I use a Doper suggestion I’ll send you a couple dozen cookies, (it’s kind of hard to mail a cake).
The Book of Kells… if you want something colorful & artsy - melt different hard candies for a stained-glass effect.
or a cake that looks like an ocean w/ beach (using blue jello for the water, gummie fish in the water, vanilla cookie crumbs for the beach), a row boat w/an old man (made out of fondant) fishing… recognize the scene? It’s a Hemmingway classic.
I’ve been thinking this over. I guess if I understood the point of the contest, or if it had a theme, I would try to choose something to fit that. I was surprised at last year’s winner, too!
Anyway, I’ve been looking around some book sites and trying to think about popular books. It would seem that something like Harry Potter must be done to death. And I seem to recall that you’ve done a Narnia cake in the past?
As I looked, I kept finding myself drawn to books with an animal theme for some reason. These are my choices so far, because they’re good books and there seems to be some scope for the imagination:
Other ideas were The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I wasn’t sure if these were good suggestions because basically it would be just a cake with a building on it, but the Dark Tower in a field of roses might be very striking.
You could build a Ministry of Truth with a clock tower. The clock could have a dial with thirteen numbers on it and the building would have “Big Brother is Watching You” on the side. Maybe you could put a sign over one of the doors “Room 101”.
And a map of the UK labelled “Airstrip One” and a toy (candy) aeroplane on it.
And so on. Not very cheery but a lot of fun to get as much detail in as possible.
Thanks for the ideas so far!!! Dung Beetle, I really liked your Flowers for Algernon idea, that will go on a “first choices” list! But everybody else had good ideas too.
I haven’t done cake contests before, what I’ve competed in has been gingerbread structures. That may be what you were remembering Dung Beetle, because I did do one I titled “Pavilions of Rivendell.” And ivylass, Stephen King would be a gold mine of ideas.
If it’s a Stephen King cake, does it have to refer to his fiction? I read his book on writing and have never been able to shake one image in it.
While he was writing the Tower series, someone sent him a photo of a teddy bear, tied and gagged. A note with the picture said, “write the next book or the bear gets it.” It tickled him and he posted it by his desk.
I think a bound and gagged teddy bear cake would be cool.
Can you do something that depicts a literary character? A deerstalker cap, a magnifying glass and a calabash pipe would be fun to do for Sherlock Holmes. I guess since there are only a couple actual novels, your cake could represent a collection of stories and thus Sherlock Holmes. Or, you could paint a creepy hound (Baskerville hound!) into the magnifying glass.
How about a big beautiful A for the Scarlett Letter?
Pretty much, unless something else turns up before April.
I really liked your Flowers for Algernon idea, so for now that’s what I’m planning on. Of course many other ideas were good, but I liked that story too, although it was so very sad. I can
I can do the mouse in fondant, make him three-dimensional, and the same for the flowers. Then I can mold chocolate panels for the maze.
