Tour Treats
I really dropped the ball on keeping you guys updated on all our adventures on the book tour. Sorry about that! So, just to catch you up: nobody died, and we're really happy about that.
Now, on to the part you all want to see: THE CAKES!
I've posted the first five show cakes already, so let's pick up in Philadelphia, where Stacey of Truly Custom Cakery made us this beauty:
I can't get over those tiny little wrecks ringing the top tier. (And we got to keep them! Woot!)
Plus, John and I have never looked so tasty:
We also got to keep this topper. It's in my office now. :)
In Hartford, Hope of A Little Imagination Cakes made sure our little carrot jockey got into the spirit of the season:
Each of the tombstones had a famous wreck homage on it. Fun!
In Boston, Jeanne of The Well Dressed Cake made a jaw-dropping homage to all our "Missed Marks" wedding wrecks. You know, the what-they-wanted versus what-they-got ones? So, here's one side of her cake:
Ooooh. Aaaaah.
And here's the other side of her cake:
BWAHAHAA!!
Notice how there are gorgeous gumpaste flowers on the good side, and silk flowers just jammed into the icing on the wrecked side. [snicker] And I know I'm not supposed to pick favorites, but this chocolate cake with cookes & cream filling was one the best tasting cakes I've ever had, ever. I literally took a slice over the border into Canada just so I could have it for breakfast the next day.
(Oh, and have I mentioned that John and I both gained like five pounds on the tour? Apparently sitting in a car all day and eating cake almost every night is bad for you. Or something.)
Moving on, in Ottawa Jenny of Geek Sweets managed to make the most adorable poop cupcakes I have ever seen:
The little flies! Ack!
She also made these great tour logo cupcakes:
In Toronto we had a tag-team of bakers. Melissa of Wild Cakes made the Jockey:
And Michelle of Tierful Designs made the...uh...carrot?
Let's stick with carrot.
The Jockey cake got progressively more disturbing as it was cut and served throughout the night, culminating in this hilariously morbid tableau:
So wrong. And so funny.
In Pittsburgh, Tamara of Faithfully Cakes made us not one, not two, but FOUR separate cakes! Here's the main showpiece:
Note the real lightbulbs stuck into the topper - an homage to the lightbulb wreck in the book. All the figures are wreck homages, too!
Tamara also recreated the "alien ribcage" menorah:
The "goosed" turkey cake:
PLUS a cupcake cake (ptooie!) for the Pittsburgh Steelers:
Go, Go, Super Bowel!
In Chicago, Gena of I Heart Cakes gave us the world:
Not only that, the globe (which was all cake) was motorized!
Our flying carrot jockey actually flew in circles!
Here's a quick cellphone video of it in action:
(Yes, I'm the one giggling like a crazy person.)
Linet Navarro of Linet's Cakes made us a couple of real turkeys in Oklahoma City:
For some reason John insisted we take the turkey's head home with us, which was on a convenient plastic pike. It made for a rather startling discovery in our box of tour goodies once we got home again. (Not to mention a great photo prop.)
We got even more seasonally appropriate goodies in Dallas:
We were there on Veteran's Day - can you tell? :)
And once again, we had a full spread of cakey goodness:
Gretchen of Savor the Moment bakery made us *three* amazing cakes, PLUS banana caramel cupcakes, PLUS pumpkin pie cake pops. Here's her third cake:
Gretchen told me it was physically painful to write "Wreck them halls" - and that was the full extent of the wrecking she could bring herself to do. Ha!
In Houston, John got his very own self-portrait courtesy of It's A Piece of Cake:
{evil grin}
In Austin, Blue Note Bakery brought in these fun "cake bars:"
I've never seen anything like these, but I like 'em! The little slices are MUCH better than cupcake cakes (pthooie!) and even cleaner besides - a true finger-food cake! (They also had rainbow swirled batter. Preeetty.)
For our final show in our hometown of Orlando, Cut the Cake rocked the house with this awesome book & jockey combo:
Check out the book's spine! In fact, I think their cover looks better than the real thing:
That's not an edible photo; it was completely recreated by hand! And note the lack of any "prefessional" spelling errors.
Well, there you have it: all the treats John and I had the honor of stuffing our faces with for the entire book tour! Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the shows and made us laugh and cry and squeal with delight with your fabulous geeky t-shirts and costumes and gifts. It was a surreal, humbling, and breath-takingly fun experience, and I owe you all one big time. Thanks.
Check back tomorrow to see Sweets from *all* of our fabulous tour bakers, and have a wreck-less weekend, everyone!
