to think cake should look like cake?

[MooncupandPizza]

The seeming tide of luridly coloured cakes that are demonstrations of crafting ability rather than baking sills and barely look edible upsets me.

I can accept a hedgehog shaped birthday cake with chocolate fingers for spikes or fork-combed icing to make it look spikey, for example, but bright green/blue/red icing just doesn't look tasty and doesn't make me want to eat it.

Cake should look yummy and edible.

And don't get me started on "cupcakes" with immense swirls of pastel buttercream icing (though pastel colours are marginally more edible-looking) - sickly!

Grumble grumble.

Red icing tastes manky. Style over content.

I do these kinds of cake. I can assure you that how they taste is just as important. The last big cake I made for instance was a lemon poundcake with homemade lemon essence and fresh rind from lemons from my friend's tree. It was filled with white chocolate ganache and lemon curd. The fondant was homemade marshmallow fondant also flavoured with lemon.

It was a huge viking helmet shaped water polo ball. The horns were homemade rice crispies covered in white chocolate. It had something like two dozen eggs and a couple of pounds of butter.

MrsTerry, I have two red food colour pastes in my collection, one is no-taste and one is high colour. I pick and choose between them depending on what I'm doing.

Usually my cakes have a regular bit of cake on them for people who just prefer a slice.

Homemade rice crispies! Ooh, I need to know how that works!

My friend just made a vagina cake. Very anatomically correct, it was.

I would even prefer a cupcake (work of the devil that they are) to that.

Give me a 1980's birthday party butterfly bun any day.

nooo OP, colourful cakes are fun! (pretends that DS and DD didn't have red and blue icing for tea )

sorry I meant rice crispy treats. I make mine with melted marshmallows, butter, a pinch of salt and a couple of caramels for extra flavour, poured over rice crispies and stirred up. It is usually the bit of my cakes the kids go for.

these are some of the ones I've made. As you can see, none of them look like cakes.

www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1640610095052.2088121.1230792900&type=3

I do make regular cakes too, usually for my family. I make a lot of lemon flavoured cakes because my son and a couple of my friends and associates love lemon. A couple of those cakes have a chocolate base though.

Homemade rice crispies did sound a bit labour intensive..!

Would add a whole new level to competitive breakfasting though

Hopandaskip - I know that they probably do taste delicious too - or the ones from a good baker/cake maker would. THat one with the lemons sounds really amazing...but I'd just prefer it to look like a cake.

I have watched Cake Boss and enjoy looking at cakewrecks but if anyone wants to make me a birthday cake, just give me a plain old round chocolate layer cake with plenty of very chocolatey buttercream icing, please! (and you've loads of time 'cause my birthday was this week so you can plan well ahead for the next one!)

P.S. Hop - couldn't get your link to work!

Hopandaskip your link doesn't work, but I'm so very intrigued to see your cakes! Please try again

My cakes very rarely look like cakes but they very rarely look like a work of art either. Normally they just look like a disaster on a plate. If there's any icing there it's usually to hide where the cake has sunk or broken.

I always make a huge effort with the appearance of my children's birthday cakes - I've never liked cake much anyway, so eating it afterwards is not my priority!

Mind you, it was a big mistake to make DS2's birthday cake in the shape of his favourite stuffed toy. We didn't dare cut into it because he was horrified at the very thought of hurting or damaging it, so the whole thing had to get subtly chucked in the bin after three weeks when he wasn't looking...

Embers, try again? I had it set to friends only.

Awesome, it works now so I will have a proper look. Thank you!

V. impressive Hopandaskip and the mushrooms look particularly amazing but I am afraid I still stand by my original statement - cake should look like cake if I am going to want some!

Anyone had a lovingly had-crafted Thomas the Tank Engine cake followed by a week of green/blue poop?

But YABU, and YABU for liking chocolatey buttercream Treat yourself to a proper chocolate ganache instead.

However YANBU with regard to cupcakes. Hideous atrocities.

Wow am seriously impressed Hopandaskip. They are amazing, you are very talented, I may have to steal a couple of ideas for our next bake sale. (might attempt the froggy pops - kids'll love 'em!)

In some respects I agree, but in others no way!

Last year I made DS1 (3yo) a much asked begged for guitar cake. Chocolate sponge, red icing, white fret board, liquorice strings sweetie tuning pegs; the works. It took me 2 days of baking, carving & icing. It cost a bomb, my fingertips were bright red for 4 days and I swear the nerves took at least 2 years off my life. But it was worth it for the look on his face when he saw it. It made me cry, but I was eight months pregnant at the time. 9 months later he still talks about his red guitar cake.

Chippy - you have clearly never tasted my mum's chocolate buttercream icing which involves a lot of cocoa. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

However, perhaps I shall attempt chocolate ganache for my next cake.

And yes, I had very green poo after my DD ate very green icing. Took me by surprise 'til I remembered.

Bella I may make some exceptions for children's cakes...some small exceptions but the guitar didn't have to be red....could have been a more edible-looking colour!

Sounds amazing - I don't mean to slag off the amazing efforts that go into these cakes...just don't particularly want to eat them and a cake that doesn't make me want to eat it just seems wrong.

Moon cup, perhaps you would have liked the praying mantis cake. The base looked like regular chocolate cake once it was on a plate and is a really rich chocolate cake with fudgey icing on top.

Thanks for the compliments everyone :)

Chocolate ganache is super easy and so good. My 10 year old usually makes it for me.

Chippy - we had Percy last year. Green poo. This year, I ended up using every shade of sugar paste under the sun for various characters on DS1's cake, and he ate a different one each day. It made going to the loo so ... exciting.

I have splinters too, because on the one hand, I absolutely love being asked by DS1 to make a cake to his specs and it's fun, but on the other hand, I prefer a proper, cylindrical cake. And sugarpaste is a bit rank.

Hopandaskip - your cakes, and your cake pops look fab.