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!

Author's Log 10242011

It's been one week since we left home on our five week voyage, and so far, morale remains high.

We experienced some troublesome maintenance issues our first two nights, first with malfunctioning sound dampeners next to the station's galley, and then with a poisoned air filter that left us with a nasty case of Betelguisian lung rot.

Or maybe that was an allergic reaction to the port's complimentary flip-flops.

Anyway, once we moved on to our next station the living quarters were up to optimal levels, and we were able to get some much needed rest.

Our first mission was to the Atlantans, a friendly people who presented us with bizarre tributes:

This one contained a yellow gelatinous substance marked "E. Spengler." We gave it a wide berth.

However, the local fare was undeniably delicious:

By Feast Catering

The natives themselves proved most agreeable under the placating effects of the baked goods, and fortunately our mission passed without incident.

From there we moved on to the region of Concord, home of excessively large shopping malls and confusing ground traffic. Here the tributes seemed to take an insidious turn:

Though thankfully the natives remained peaceful, no doubt due in large part to the addictive qualities of their peculiar edible totem:

By Emily & the BPA Club

In the region of Richmond, we discovered a new local custom:

 

Some of the natives dressed to match their edible gifts:

Right down to the fingernails!

It was unsettling, to be sure, but we put on a brave face and were careful to make no sudden movements.

Others there presented us with ghoulish visages, perhaps as some kind of colloquial good luck charm?

Certainly their tribute totem was terrifying enough to ward off any evil spirits:

By A Cake to Remember & Sugarbuzz Cakes

We did our best to show the proper respect, but despite our efforts the First Mate and I kept laughing. I blame the addictive nature of these insidious treats, but more "research" is needed.

In Baltimore we were given our most bizarre tribute yet:

By Charm City Cakes

An edible effigy of yours truly!

The individual tributes also flatly defied description:

Why is the deer so tiny?

Just...Why?

Here, at least, they were able to vent their cannibalistic hostilities on my effigy...

...and we were able to escape unscathed during the melee.

The First Mate and I are continuing on to our next stop today, and we can only hope that it, too, will prove to be a piece of cake.

Yates out.

You can see all of the photos from our various shows on the Cake Wrecks Facebook page.