ICES 2011 Charlotte - The Cakes

OK, so on Tuesday we talked about all the great people I met at ICES.  So today I wanted to showcase some of the great cakes I saw at ICES.  There's just a couple of problems...  Firstly, Chaddy brought his new lens and while most of the cake shots turned out good, some were just so blurry that we couldn't use them.  Lesson learned: bring the general purpose kit lens next time.  Secondly, we didn't do a great job of keeping track of which person did which cake.  BUT! I refuse to let that stop me from posting the pics.  Please please, please though - if you who know who did one of these "unknown" cakes please leave me a comment so I can give these people proper credit.  They certainly deserve it!

And just to be super clear and perfectly ethical - I didn't make any of the following cakes, these are only some of the amazing cakes I took pictures of at ICES 2011.

 

Cake by Barbara Evans

Look at the cake above by Barbara Evans.  I love the unique cake shapes, the piping and stringwork.  I even love the color.  And the lace molds are nice - in fact a LOT of the cakes there had Earlene's molds on them.  They are the best!!

 

Cake by Dalila Cabrita

This cake by Dalila Cabrita was SO striking!  A black cake is hard to pull off, but this one is awesome!!  The leaves and flowers appeared to be all hand-painted and the buzz was that all the feathers were made individually!  The parrot by itself was incredible.  Even the eye was glossy!

Cake #1 by Unknown - ID in the comments!

I dared not touch any of the cakes, but I wanted to touch this one SO badly.  The topper was SO pretty but I just couldn't tell how it was made.  Sculpted?  Mold?  Both?  I just don't know.  I am in awe.

Cake #2 by Unknown - ID in the comments!

I thought this cake was a great use of lace molds.  I have never seen this type of layering with the pearl and lace mold, but I really like it.  I even liked the little gumpaste urn on top!

Cake #3 by Unknown - ID in the comments!

The cake above was one of the prettiest examples of brush embroidery I think I have ever seen.  This is not a technique I have ever used before, but now I may have to try it!

Cake #4 by Unknown - ID in the comments!

I thought the cake above was really cute.  It made me smile when I saw it.  Even though I didn't do it, it is very much my style of cake.

Cake by Sheila Miller

This was the first time I have seen a cake on its side and I like the look!  This is a cake dummy, but I'm not sure how *I* would turn a cake on its side and make it look that good.  The curls around the bottom were so cute and girly.  And the cake stand?  Nuh Uh!  Not a cake stand at all!  It appeared to be made from gumpaste - it was certainly edible!!

Cake #5 by Unknown - ID in the comments!

This cake shows a great use of the Cricut machine.  There was lots of details on this cake and I really liked the darker color palette.

Cake #6 by Unknown - ID in the comments!

The piping, the swags, the pearl work on the cake above was AMAZING!  There is so much going on with this cake, but it all meshes perfectly together to make a cake masterpiece.

Cake by Elizabeth Dickson

Wen I first saw this cake, I thought "Oh cool, they used fabric on the cake board" - NOPE!  That's all hand painting and there is a lot of it.  Just beautiful!

Cake by Juanita Holloway

I have used marbled fondant on a cake before, but never a cake like this!!  Juanita has taken something we normally consider casual and made something completely elegant.  Great work!!

Cake by Melonie Stanger

I don't want to play favorites here, but it seems like a lot of the cakes I oohed and ahhed over had Melonie's name beside it.  So much so that I sent her a Facebook Friend request from the hotel room later on that night.  This cake was right up my alley.  I like the button-covered hourglass tier, I really like the fondant knot on the bottom tier.  Together, I love it all.  And Melonie's from Georgia too, just like me.  Maybe someday we'll get to meet!

Cake by Terry Tuttle

I'm not exactly sure what this style of cake is called (is it Australian style?), but it's very pretty and unique looking.  Terry is very talented!!

Cake by Jo Drummond

You would not begin to believe the level of detail on this sewing basket cake!  Everything here is edible, I really wished the picture was better, and I'm so glad it wasn't really blurry like some of the others.  Even the cake board was covered in a tape measure.  I just LOVE that idea!  Great job Jo!

Cake by Vera Cainco

Maybe you can't really call this cake - I don't exactly know.  I looked at it for what seemed like an eternity and I'll be darned if I could figure out how it was done.  It was just absolutely fabulous!  My hat's off to you, Vera!

Display by Penny Cunningham & the Carolina Memory Makers

The centerpiece of the whole show was this huge Corvette cake, and I should be horse-whipped for not taking the time to find out more about this awesome cake.  I'm not sure if it was life-size or not, but if it wasn't, it was really close to it.  And then I get around to the back and see all the detail - wowzers!  Does anyone know who did this?  Chaddy Googled it and couldn't find it online.  Update:  He did come through finally and found an article about it here:

Display by Penny Cunningham & the Carolina Memory Makers

And if I read correctly, fellow blog frequenter Angela Barton made those amazing basketball displays.  They looked SO real.  Chaddy wanted to touch one of them, but I wouldn't let him!  He swore they were real basketballs!

As you can see, I was in Cake Heaven at ICES.  If there's ever one close to you, take the time to make the trip.  I couldn't be a part of the entire convention this time, but I drove 6 hours and paid $50 for a 1 day admission and it was worth every penny and every minute in the car!  Let's not even talk about all the stuff I bought!!

Enjoy your weekend!