bake my cake 2012 – group 3

UPDATE! Winner declared! Shannon’s Cake: Movita’s Bakery Story took the heat with 50% of the vote! Congrats, Shannon! See you in The Finals…

More cakes! You people went ca-razy voting yesterday. We almost broke the interweb. So, let’s do it again! Here is the third grouping of baked awesomeness. Get yer vote on at the bottom of the post…

. . .

fredi, faye and bella’s sleeping dragons cake

You might remember Faye from Ginger 2011. She’s one of my students. So is her mother, Fredi. Her sister, Bella, dances too. Also, before reading the note these fabulous ladies sent me, you should know that every year I receive about 400 packages of Marshmallow Peeps from my students, I got to EAT THIS CAKE, and I have an autographed Sherree Fitch book of poetry in my office.

In honour of your 40th birthday in the Year of the Dragon, and inspired by Sheree Fitch’s classic poem, “Sleeping Dragons All Around,” we present to you a Mocha Maple Chocolate Cake!!

In the poem, a young girl awakens a whole household of sleeping dragons in a midnight fridge-raiding pilgrimage to sneak a piece of this cake. Our creation combines a mexican chocolate cake with a mocha belgium chocolate centre and maple meringue frosting. The “dragon’s teeth and scales” are burnt sugar.

While decorating the cake, a Peep, hearing it was your birthday, unwittingly wandered too close and became mired in maple merengue. It was able to wrest a golden scale from the side before escaping the ensnaring teeth.

My inner dragon could easily devour this cake in a day, but she’s not allowed. So since we believe birthday cakes should not be virtual, we’ll be sharing this cake at a ballet class near you. Bring your dragon!

Enjoy!!
Faye Fredi Bella

Oh, this cake was enjoyed. BY MY BELLY. Teeth and scales made out of burnt sugar? Brilliant! The maple meringue frosting was sheer delight and paired perfectly with the rich chocolate cake. Also, you may have noticed that there are three photos up there. Not two, as requested. Fredi, Faye and Bella sent me seven photos. I guess if they don’t listen to me in class, it’s not likely they’ll listen to me outside of class. But because I actually got to eat this cake, I posted three photos. Deal with it. It’s my party, people. Also, you should know that I shared this cake with a large number of my students, who kept exclaiming, “it’s got a chocolate SLAB in the middle! It’s…” (inaudible, icing smeared muttering) “… so gooooood.” Enough said.

. . .

shannon’s cake: movita beaucoup’s bakery story

This is Shannon’s cake. She has a blog called A Periodic Table. It is the bomb. She sent this note with her entry:

Happy Birthday! I made you your very own Bakery (Life) Story Cake.

the info:

cake name: Movita Beacuoup’s Bakery Story

cake flavor: 4-layer, 2-story vanilla buttermilk.

cake size: 1 10-inch round, 1 8-inch round.

cake filling: a from-scratch lemon curd with ground pistachios (because i know how much you love pistachios, and i think you’re fond of lemon as well)

cake frosting: vanilla buttercream

the decorations: vintage ballerinas, hand-decorated cheerios, an abundance of sprinkles, foam core bakery counter with clear plastic sheet “glass” windows, construction paper/plastic sheet window, construction paper menu, foam core tables with match stick bases, muslin tablecloths, dollhouse silver tray, miniature cake, and porcelain plates.

quote from mr. table upon seeing the finished product: “wow. that is literally insane.”

theme: I know how much you love Bakery Story, and i know you’re switching gears from ballet teacher to bakery school student in the fall, and i know how awesome you are, so i thought i’d do a little still life of, well…your life. the ballerinas represent your current career, and the bakery represents you opening up a little super-terrific bakery someday so we can all visit and hang out and chatter about crazy things and bake our faces off. You’d be great at it. And i would totally come for the grand opening. I think you’re fantastic. And so do those ballerinas; they flew in all the way from the ’60’s to celebrate your 40th with you. If you’ll notice, three of them have stolen pastries and are dancing with them.

oh! and i know you said two photos maximum, but i wanted you to see the details. there will be copious “how i put this f**ker together” photos on my blog. 🙂

So, Rachael (Movita), there’s your cake. i hope you love it to pieces. I really wish you could see it in person because it is EPIC. i’ll have a blog post about it nearer to your actual birthday. I hope you have an excellent one.

shannon (a periodic table.)

People, this is cake insanity. Aaaaaaand it made me a little teary. It’s perfection from top to bottom. Brilliant concept. Every little detail. The wee pastries. The vintage ballerinas. The little tables and miniature serving trays. The window, menu, bakery case, tablecloths, plates, the teeny-tiny donuts… sigh. And when you’re completely terrified about the year ahead? About heading to baking school? Well, this cake is just the thing to make you feel a little better. A little inspired.

When I think of the time and care Shannon took with this creation? Well, I love her to pieces for it. Also, when Shannon hits it big – and she will – remember you heard it here first. I can feel it in my bones.

(If you’d like to read Shannon’s blog post on this cake, click here. You won’t be disappointed.)

. . .

wendy’s movita-inspired foodgasm cake

Things you should know: Wendy has an awesome blog called Chez Chloe. Wendy ate this cake for breakfast on Friday. Wendy and her daughter, Chloe, hate the m-word (moist) almost as much as I do. Wendy used the beautiful backdrops in these photos to hide her Magnum, P.I. posters.

Hi Movita,

This cake is for you and my boy who is turning 24 the 1st of May!

I thought and thought about what to bake. Despite a flood of ideas, just one failed to surface and I procrastinated a bit. Then when I saw the chocolate cake you made on Wednesday, it hit me. So call me unoriginal or brilliant but I decided if this was the cake you baked for your mother… someone should bake it for you. It was incredible. The first words out of my almost 14 yr old daughter, Chloe, was foodgasm. I was proud and scared in the same moment.

I had so much fun making it.

Can’t decide if we should share it because we just want to inhale it ourselves… but I so love to see other people experience chocolate ecstasy. Hmmm and I wonder where the daughter gets it from. Our neighbors will be happy.

Thanks for the inspiration and have a wonderful entrance to a new decade. It’s a good one!

best,
wendy

First off, Wendy is a genius. Baking one of my new favourite cakes? Nicely done. I adore her decorating style – just the right flair. The beautiful peaks of icing on top are beggin’ you to dip a finger in there! And the candles are perfect. I want to pick up that plate, hide in a closet, and dive into that sucker. Alone.

I also feel that you should know that Wendy went to cooking school IN FRANCE at age 35 and got into all sorts of trouble with her younger classmates. She even had a crush on a 23 year old who took her on the back of his bike through the streets of Paris at 2 am. Read her bio, and you’ll want to grab life by the fistful just like Wendy does. She’s basically my idol. She should probably be yours too.

. . .

sharyn’s mexican chocolate masterpiece

Sharyn has a blog called The Kale Chronicles. This ain’t your typical food blog, because instead of highly stylized food photography, she creates paintings of her recipes. Dudes, that’s next level. You should seriously check her out. Also, you should buy me one of her paintings so I can put it in my kitchen.

Sharyn sent this note with her entry:

Dear Movita (aka Rachael),

I made you a birthday cake and am bracing myself for the commentary. In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about the cake and why I made it. You can read that here: http://thekalechronicles.com/2012/04/27/mexican-chocolate-beet-cake-its-somebodys-birthday/.

It pretty much says it all. I took some actual photos. I’m sending one and also the photo of the painting I used on the blog. But I plead ignorance: I don’t know how to size photos. I hope that doesn’t spoil your birthday.

I can’t wait for the fun around all of the birthday cakes.

Cheers!

Sharyn

All is forgiven, Sharyn. You photos didn’t crash my computer. And your cake is the bomb. So you didn’t spoil my birthday. Nope, not one bit.

When I opened Sharyn’s email, I squealed with delight. Look at that painting! Plus, that cake has Mexican chocolate in it. And cinnamon. And beets! And Sharyn says I can de-healthify this recipe by serving it up in a pool of caramel sauce. See? She gets me.

Also, Sharyn thinks red velvet cake is a sham. I’VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR TWO YEARS. Red food colouring isn’t a flavour, people. Move on.

A vote for Sharyn is a vote for art. And a vote against using red food colouring to create a trend that is way stupid.

. . .

There you go – get voting!

Votes must be cast by 8 am Atlantic Standard Time (7 am EST), Tuesday, May 1. The winner from this heat will proceed to the final round of voting on Tuesday, May 1st. For more on how the voting is gunna go down, click here.

Don’t forget to cast your vote in the Group 4 heat… and come back on Tuesday for the final round of voting.

12 Comments

  1. Debra Kapellakis on April 30, 2012 at 8:13 am

    The others all looked good but I just couldn’t resist the one I voted for.



  2. […] thing… can you please go vote for me at Movita’s place! Then I’ll […]



  3. […] polls are open! vote early, vote often, vote here. You’re allowed one vote per electronic device. laptop, computer, iPhone, iPad, any other […]



  4. thekalechronicles on April 30, 2012 at 11:08 am

    I am so happy that you don’t like red velvet cake (She shudders). Who would, with cakes like these to choose from? Your fans are talented. Maple meringue! Fake bakeries! Cheerios impersonating doughnuts!



  5. Stephanie Barnhart on April 30, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    No fair grouping all of those wonderful cakes together! This was by far the most difficult grouping. I just might have to cheat and vote for more than one.



  6. […] they are voting for the best cake over at Movita Beaucoup. My Mexican Chocolate Beet Cake is in Group Three. You might not think it is the best cake there, […]



  7. JJ johnson on April 30, 2012 at 2:45 pm

    Tough competition up against ‘the bakery shop’
    Foodgasm looks like it would taste the best so….
    for flavor and satisfaction, chocolate foodgasm takes the cake!



  8. sheree on May 1, 2012 at 8:09 am

    Sheree Ftich here —-mocha maple choclate cake lover and author of sleeping dragons all around. This cake looks dee-dragon -delicious. How do I vote ?



    • movita beaucoup on May 1, 2012 at 8:17 am

      Dear Sheree,

      The polls just closed. (sigh) But I’m thinking fans such as Fredi, Faye and Bella just might be willing to bake you your very own dragon cake…

      Thanks for stopping by. I have to go email Faye now. She’ll probably pee her pants.

      xox movita



  9. Charles on May 2, 2012 at 4:44 am

    Aw, damn, I just missed the voting 🙁 Oh well… they all look so wonderful… pleased to see that other people agree with me as well on the whole “red velvet” rubbish. Where did this fad even come from?



  10. Kreative Blogger Award | Big Hungry Gnomes on May 6, 2012 at 3:01 pm

    […] she nominated me for the Kreativ Blog Award. She was a fellow competitor in Movita Beaucoup’s Bake My Cake competition, where her beautiful triple chocolate cake came a very commendable second in one of the […]



  11. movita beaucoup on December 1, 2015 at 7:36 am

    Comments on this post are now closed as it was published in April 2012. Happy baking!