Fancy Cakes by Lauren Blog: April 2010

MR. KRABS

When Food Network called me for this round of Challenges I told them I was most excited about Spongebob. Spongebob and Extreme Holiday Cakes were the two shows they offered.

I really wanted to make a cake of Mr. Krabs. I lobbied hard for this. I emailed the producers messages from Mr. Krabs begging them to "Let Lauren make a cake of me... ARGH!"

Then the call came. I got it!

Now I need an idea.

Krabs is an opportunist. He wouldn't celebrate anyone's birthday. He would find a way to make money from the birthday. So, I came up with a "Krabby Birthday Meal..only $9.95"

This idea had more to do with Mr. Krabs' personality and I thought the judge from Nickelodeon would appreciate it. Well, he didn't. In fact, he became aggitated by the McDonalds Happy Meal comparision and called Nickelodeon during the first hour of the competition to see if this was an issue. I think they would have asked me to take the Krabby Meal away if the Challenge producers hadn't have stepped in to save my concept. Drama!!

A requirement of all of our cakes was to include the character and their location in Bikini Bottom.

I represented the Krusty Krab restaurant in two ways. By making the green, wood-planked floor of the Krusty Krab as well as a table, this solved my issue of location. Also, each Krabby Meal box was a small replica of the Krusty Krab, inside and out. My husband's brilliant idea!

Another requirement we all had was to represent Spongebob in our cakes. Hmmmmm..... How to do that without making a full-scale Spongebob cake? The Krabby Birthday Meal action figure!! Easy!

Plankton is Mr. Krabs evil rival, and just as nasty as Krabs. So I made sure to pay tribute to him as well. In typical Plankon form, he is using a mechanical device to steel the Krabby patty.

Mr. Krabs' body was entirely sculpted out of cake....From the top of his open mouth to his bottom. I designed the structure and had my contractor weld the structure out of metal.

The eyes, claws, and legs were made from solid modeling chocolate.

Modeling chocolate is an incredible sugar medium that allows you to make super clean work very fast. Plankton, his mechanical arm, the table, floor and all the little elements were all made from modeling chocolate.

Kristen Davison's "Sandy Cheeks" cake.

This was Kristen's 6th Challenge, but it was her first as the lead of her team. She did a great job. She is known for her small-scale character work. She's fantastic!!! Kristen and her assistant, the grand Richard Ruskell, beat me at my first Challenge, Disney Classics Cakes.

It was great to see them again! She made the glass dome and helmut totally out of poured sugar! Amazing! And her character work was spot-on

The Great Bronwen Weber made the "Patrick Star" cake. I was horrified to go up against Bronwen. No one has done as many Challenges as her. She is well versed in this arena. Her ideas are great and she keeps calm and finishes her work. Not many cake artists are sculptors. She is a great sculptor!

She had to represent several acres of jelly fish fields. She did this in a great way. With the triangle composition she easily created depth. There was so much great detail in this cake. It was amazing to be competing in the same room with her.

Rick Reichart from Cake Lava in Hawaii came in as a close 2nd with his Spongebob cake. Rick is amazing and he has an incredible siginature style that he easily casts on every cake he makes. This cake was colorful and alive. It was so stylish and creative. I honestly thought he was going to win. In so many ways, he did! Great job, Rick!!!

Kerry's Comment and Salute....

At the end of the day at Face the Judges, Kerry stood up and saluted my work. She claims this cake was the best cake she has seen in Challenge.

For the record, I don't agree. But, it was the most moving statement I have ever heard from any cake authority and I was not expecting her to say anything close to this. It brought me to tears and I can only hope that my next Challenge cake will impress her all over again. The preasure is on!

My bakery girls....

Ashleigh Foster. My right hand man. At the time we shot this Challenge, Ashleigh had only worked for me for 2 months. After I hired her and saw her abilities, I asked her to come to Challenge with me. She did an amazing job! I was so proud.

Karie Snider (In the green hoodie). I love Karie. She was part of this Challenge team. The three of us worked constantly for 6 weeks straight tweeking and perfecting this cake. I work side by side with these two artists everyday. I love my cakey girls!!!!