World of WarCrafts: Sweet start to the week
by Anne Stickney 
Sep 20th 2010 at 4:00PM
It's Monday, but fear not! The Monday blues cannot withstand the sheer deliciousness of this latest round of Warcraft-inspired cakes. This week was my birthday, so I've got birthday cake on the brain -- and we have a handful of WoW-themed birthday cakes that are making me hungry for frosting. Let's start off the week on a sweet note, shall we?
Join us after the break to hear more about the newest additions to our cake gallery.
Appetizing Azeroth
First up: Check out the stunning map of Azeroth pictured above. The best part? The entire thing is edible, thanks to homemade fondant and creative painting. Vahnya over at <Apples> of Sisters of Elune (US-H) pitched in to help her sister-in-law put together the cake for her little brother's birthday. "The cake was made from white cake mix -- from the box!" Vahnya says. "The fondant was a homemade fondant, made from melted marshmallows and powdered sugar, hand-mixed until it was no longer sticky."
"We painted the 'ocean' part of the cake using food dye mixed with a little water -- which is a lot like painting with watercolors," she continues. "We printed out a picture of the Azeroth map and cut out the continents, which we used as our guides for cutting them out of another piece of rolled fondant dyed to an earth tone color. After all the continents were laid out on the cake, we painted them with a little wash of the food coloring, then went back with a darker brownish-red to paint in the mountains and Maelstrom, and a darker blue for the shore and rivers."
Impressive job -- and even more impressive as Vahnya confessed this was the first time either she or her sister-in-law had worked with fondant! "Her little brother was pretty surprised when he saw it," Vahnya says. "My brother-in-law quizzed him and we are convinced (somewhat sadly) that he knows the geography of Azeroth better than our own planet!"
Our next delicious number is this Horde-themed cake submitted by Charlotte. I love the details on the symbol; the little silver dragées (yes, they do have a name!) outlining the symbol are a nice touch, and the feathers at the bottom look too real to be frosting! This isn't the last of her friend's cake decorating exploits. "My friend's next goal is a blood elf!" Charlotte says. Be sure to send in the next work of edible art too, Charlotte!
Hunting down birthday treats
Far be it from me to show any bias towards Horde while talking about cake. Next up, we have an Alliance-themed cake, just to balance things out. Speaking of balance, this cake is a spectacle of balanced layers and unusual shapes, complete with hand-painted art on all sides!
Emrldsky of Kul Tiras (US-A) decided to put together her own birthday cake, a tribute to her night elf hunter. "My main is a night elf hunter, and I wanted my birthday cake to reflect that," Emrldsky explains. "I also wanted a structure that was a bit different than what people normally see. Overall, this cake probably took 14 hours to complete, including the time it took to put the structure together."
"Only one tier is fake (second from the bottom); the rest is all cake," she adds. "Each tier is covered in fondant, and most of the tiers were painted freehand with gel food colors diluted with vodka -- the alcohol evaporates leaving a non-sticky painted surface behind." Emrldsky has a few more pictures of her hunter-themed birthday cake over on Flickr, as well as some other beautiful non-WoW cakes she's put together.
An edible battlecry
Svartalfar from the Drakkari server sent in the last cake, which features a replica of the Battlecry mosaic from the five-year WoW anniversary. The cake was put together by Svartalfar's girlfriend. "The cake was a surprise and all her idea," he says. "She took the image of the battlecry mosaic -- which I use as my wallpaper -- and made this cake with the main idea of an ancient book on it. I just loved the cake; all of my friends who play WoW with me were at the party and didn't want to cut the cake ... but in the end, we ate it -- and it was delicious!"
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including arts and crafts, fan art, WoW-themed recipes, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by emailing anne@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. Filed under: World of WarCrafts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
fearinlight Sep 20th 2010 4:06PM
I think this will sum up all comments
"num-num-num"
wutsconflag Sep 20th 2010 4:12PM
That first cake does look rather tasty.
shepherd57 Sep 20th 2010 4:20PM
The ancient book battle cry mosaic is sweet(pun intended).
Burnaphatone Sep 20th 2010 4:23PM
My mom always told me those little silvery ball decorations were hazardous to your health, confirm/deny?
Tanwyn Sep 20th 2010 4:58PM
These look awesome! @Burnaphatone: Those silver ball things are called dragees and apparently contain minute bits of real silver and therefore are inedible. So your mom was right!
Anne Stickney Sep 20th 2010 5:08PM
They are considered by the FDA to be "inedible," which is why if you pick them up at the store you'll see a big "for decorative purposes only" on the bottle. Interestingly, they've also been banned from the state of California -- you can buy them in any other state but Cali.
Dawn Moore Sep 20th 2010 5:15PM
They're called dragée and your mum is right, you should avoid eating the metallic ones because they do have traces of silver or other metals in them. That doesn't mean you'll drop over dead if you do eat them (I know I've eaten some in my day and it never harmed me) it's just something that shouldn't be in your diet if you can help it. Pick them off if you can, but if you happen to eat one it's nothing to freak out about.
And obviously, don't go buy a container of them and eat them like skittles.
kooda Sep 20th 2010 5:16PM
Meh used to eat pots of them when i was younger never was sure what they were just assumed shiny sugar :P still never found out.
Pat Sep 20th 2010 10:06PM
They aren't actually ment to be consumed!?
Back in the day my sisters and I would eat them all the time, usually when the parents weren't around.
I'm loving those cakes though, Not a fan of eating cake but I'd love one of these for my birthday!
Gahad Sep 20th 2010 5:05PM
Best WoW cake ever:
http://caf-pow.livejournal.com/169003.html
I liked it so much I married her :-)
Anne Stickney Sep 20th 2010 5:10PM
You should definitely send that one in to anne@wow.com then, for use in a future article! :D
Fox Van Allen Sep 20th 2010 5:30PM
I would feel so guilty eating a cake that awesome. D:
Shawn Putnam Sep 20th 2010 5:36PM
favorite caption:
"Snaxxramas"
I LOLed.. seriously :)
Tokkar Sep 20th 2010 5:58PM
The cake is a li...wait...um...
Okay, maybe it's not.
Still...I want to see PIE!!!
Pie > cake
Brett Porter Sep 20th 2010 6:47PM
The cake... is... a pie? (Did ya see what I did there? :D)
Aeo Sep 21st 2010 11:49AM
Happy belated Birthday, Madame Stickney, I hope you enjoyed it lots and lots :)