the cake-off

Is it possible to have too much cake in one week? I don't even really like cake all that much and my answer is still no. But if there were a "cake-off" occurring and your kitchen had two cakes on the counter waiting to be devoured, which one would you choose? The wedding cake that you slaved several hours over, made detailed flowers for and poured your sweat and tears into? Or the pound cake that you easily mixed up, flavored half-orange and half-chocolate, poured into a bundt pan and spent less than an hour worrying about?

Here's the winner of my cake-off.

The orange-chocolate pound cake wins it...by a pound. I don't know what it is about pound cakes, but I always thoroughly enjoy a big slice of it - especially when it contains my favorite flavor combination. Neither flavor was overpowering, but this is a nice dense cake that looks really cool when you slice it up. Check it out.

Who's with me on Team Pound Cake?

In case you despise orange and chocolate (should you really be reading my blog?), I will now introduce you to our other contender. It was a labor of love. And there were many minutes of frustration. But the end result is a cake that I am proud of and was happy to take home. Because of the height of my cakes, I ended up with a two-tier version instead of three, but don't worry - it didn't go to waste. This is a cake that I would have been happy to serve at my own wedding.

Of course it's decorated in orange. Did you really expect anything else? I made the calla lilies  out of gum paste and they were my favorite part of the process. Here's a closer look.

After a careful paranoid chef-in-the-making escort home on the floor of my backseat, Greg and I cut a few slices and inhaled all of the cake we weren't able to eat at our wedding. Here's one piece that survived.

The cake-off has taught me that I can make a quality wedding-esque style cake if I really want to tackle the challenge. The cake itself was delicious. The tediousness of spreading the icing on perfectly was enough to make this cake lose my support in the cake-off. It nearly made me lose my mind. Pound cake, anyone?