Cake Wrecks Salt Lake book signing Part 2: The Party

So, Part 1 of this post left us finishing our amazing dinner at Fresco Italian Cafe in Salt Lake City. Earlier in that post I mentioned that before dinner we went to The King's English Bookshop to drop off our entries for the cupcake contest, and then promised more details later. Here's later (there was the short Foodie Fights interruption).

At each stop on the Cake Wrecks tour Jen, her husband John, and a special guest judge a cupcake contest where contestants replicate their favorite cake wreck in miniature on a cupcake or other small cake. Then they pick three favorites, one each, and the people in the audience vote for their favorite by, well, yelling, clapping, whistling and otherwise making a huge racket. The whole thing was very exciting.

My entry was this replica of the dreaded and horrid Baby Butt Cake. I laughed and laughed when I read Jen's post about these cakes--appropriately named "Rear View Wreckage"--and knew I had to copy the idea for the contest. I'm sure that some bakers, somewhere, think the idea is adorable, but come on, half a baby? The back half? Sometimes diapered, sometimes not? It's more on the creepy side, if nothing else. Who's going to eat that part of the cake? I must humbly admit, though, my baby bum is much closer to a real-life baby bum than the wrecks featured in her post, so, while the idea is awful, my cake is cute ;)

Another shot of the tush. See the tattoo? I added it for extra tackiness. The "CW", of course, stands for "Cake Wrecks." ;)

Tiny baby toes. Now these are cute. :)

My daughter did a wreckplica of a cake Jen wrote about back in 2008 (which may make it a classic). The post was called "When Gangsters Go PC". The gist is Jen imagining the conversation that took place about the cake, presumably sold around the holiday's, and made by a baker who was--or whose boss was--apparently afraid of offending anyone with how the cake was decorated. The post is very funny, and I must say my daughter did a perfect job copying the cake.

This is my sister's entry. It's a representation of all the chocolate-frosting "poo" Jen has seen on the cakes people send her pictures of. There have been actual Poo Dogs, but also Poo-deer masquerading at reindeer, a poo-hive, a poo-palm tree, poo-chains, piles of poo that defy all description...the list just goes on and on. It's amazing what can happen to chocolate frosting in the hands of a wreckerator :)

Here's a picture of the crowd waiting for the slide show presentation and the Q&A with Jen. Can't you just see the anticipation? All the straight backs and eyes glued to the front of the room? Jen and her husband John are every bit as cute and funny in person as they are on their website. It was so fun to hear them banter back and forth, and talk about the cakes they picked for the slide show. Of course, Jen had on her famous yellow boots. :)

And....my Baby Butt Cake wreckplica was one of the three winners! How awesome is that?! This picture is me with Jen Yates (from Cake Wrecks) and my daughter. And so you don't think Jen is super, super tiny (OK, she is a little short), I'm very tall--and I was wearing flip-flops with heels. :)

In addition to the excitement of having my wreckplica picked as one of the winners, I got these super awesome Cake Wrecks pins! I had to do some fast talking to keep my daughter away from them: "No, you can't have one for your backpack, and if you value your life and want to see your next birthday you won't touch 'em." :)

This is me and Jen after she signed my Cake Wrecks book. She's probably not as excited as she looks to take this picture, but I was every ounce excited as I look. We had an awesome time--Thanks Jen and John!

You can go here to read Jen's post about her Salt Lake City tour stop.