Update: We have a winner! Thank you to everyone who voted. Click here to see who won!
The judges have spoken, selecting Nicole Sevcik as this year’s World Champion – and now it’s your turn! Our People’s Champion will take home a treasure trove of amazing prizes donated by our sponsors including a handmade People’s Choice belt made by The Lulu Bean, not to mention the pride that comes with being the popular favorite. As you look through this year’s finalists (these entries received the highest number of comments in the Flickr gallery) please keep in mind the official rules. My advice is to pay special attention to originality – the rules specifically bar the repetition of a design from previous years. (Note: Multiple Flickr comments by the same users and/or comments after the deadline were deleted/disregarded in the final count.) This system will allow you to cast only one vote per IP address.
So here they are with the original names and descriptions as written by their creators. Take a look, and cast your vote at the bottom of this post. Please note that the poll will close this week, 8/30 in the early afternoon. So get out there and campaign for your favorite entry! (Click the photos to see them larger.) Wondering why there are so many finalists? Here’s the scoop.
Apex Predator Cupcake Cake (top left) – “My Name … is Randy Orton … (well no not really me but you get it…) These Cupcakes are like an RKO to your taste buds ! Spicy Chocolate Cupcakes filled with Salted Caramel and topped with Chocolate Ganache and assembled as a “cake” to hold a hand drawn chocolate Picture of the Viper himself. These Cupcakes remind me of Randy Orton, Spicy, Sexy, Caramely (now it’s a word) and a little dangerous !
The voices in my head told me that these cupcakes are legendary !”
Screw Fear, Drink Beer Cake (top right) – “This chocolate beer cake with chocolate buttercream filling topped with a sugar cookie decorated with royal icing and black food colouring is inspired by none other than beer-loving Stone Cold Steve Austin himself. And Austin 3:16 says this cake just whooped your butt!”
The Other Face of CM Punk (bottom left) – “CM Punk is my favourite wrestler (I know, I’m so individual) so I wanted to make something to do with him. There are two things that identify a wrestler; their face, and their ring gear. I’m rubbish at making faces out of cake, so a bum it had to be! I wasn’t being a perv, promise. This is a lemony lemon cake, with lemony buttercream filled with lemon curd. Lemons are sour. So is CM Punk. All of the decoration is fondant.”
SummerSlam Cake (bottom right) – No description provided.
The Rocky Road Warriors Sugarrrrr Rrrruuussshhh!!!! – “I baked 2 chocolate cake mixes, let them cool completely, then crumbled them up in a giant bowl. To the cake, I added chopped nuts, mini marshmallows, and a big jar of marshmallow fluff. Since I’m terrified of the idea of carving a cake, I just greased my hands and sculpted the mixture like play-doh. I popped the cake in the freezer for a bit, before I started on the frosting and while I worked on the chocolate-covered sugar cone spikes. Then I piled up rocky road ice cream & sprinkles in middle of the shoulder pads.”
CM Punk Cakes – “We’re big fans of CM Punk in our house, so I wanted to do a little homage to him for the competition. I used vanilla cake mix for the cake itself, and chocolate for the cupcakes. I was able to make the arm shapes by making a sheet cake and cutting out the shape I wanted. After frosting the whole thing together I used fondant (that I hand colored) to make the gauze and flesh. I hand painted Punk’s tattoos on using icing coloring, which was probably the most time consuming part of all of it. I also hand painted the “CM Punk” cupcakes. After we were done, we ate the WHOLE thing. I had such a blast making the cake, and I can’t wait to do it again next year!”
Jake the Cake Roberts – “Jake’s burlap bag is a homemade chocolate fondant covered, 3 layered dark chocolate cake filled with a fluffy whiskey caramel buttercream, Slithering out is the man himself atop the body of Damien, combined by using the knowledge of the darkside…”
Luna Vachon Daughter of Darkness Moon Pie Cake – “A dark chocolate devils food cake filled with marshmallow buttercream, topped with homemade marshmallow fondant, hand painted with food coloring, and chocolate moon pies around the cake! Crank up your Nasty Savage record and take a big mouthful of this badass cake!”
Cake Pop Battle Royal – “These cake pop superstars are made from crumbled vanilla sponge and cream cheese frosting combined, shaped into superstars and coated in creamy white chocolate. Plain chocolate chips were added to achieve different skin tones, finally fondant decorations were created to give the superstars their individual style. This 18 person Battle Royal features current and future legends…let’s get ready to rumble!!!”
“Oh what a whoop!” Legion of Doom Whoopie Pies (left) – “These whoopie pies were inspired by the iconic shoulder pads of Hawk and Animal. They are chocolate chip whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting inside and on top, coloured red to match the brightly coloured shoulder pads. Plain chocolate chips were added to the top to complete the classic road warrior spiked look. A doomsday device for the mouth!!”
Beer me Austin! (top right) – “Based on Steve Austin’s love of beer, this is a chocolate beer cake covered in blue fondant (it contains almost a can!) The pint glass on top is made of vanilla sponge and beer coloured fondant covered in cling wrap to make it look like glass, with a real beer can pouring into it (contents in the cake!) It’s a real stunner!!!”
Mysterio’s Mask (bottom right) – “A chocolate cake with a high flying chilli kick! This delicious chilli chocolate sponge is covered with light vanilla cream cheese frosting, finished off with fondant detail for Rey Mysterio’s luchador look. Its 619 time!”
The Ultimate (Warrior) Cupcake – “This is a vanilla sponge cake made in a giant cupcake mould. The rainbow colours reflect the bright ring attire of the Ultimate Warrior. It is topped with vanilla frosting (because you can’t beat a classic!) and has fondant warrior masks to decorate along with various Warrior cut outs. Wearing face paint and arm bands while eating is optional!”
The Undercaker – “Celebrating the Phenom in 100% edible, dessert form! The fondant-sculpted Deadman makes his trademark entrance upon a fondant-covered vanilla cake “stage” with buttercream icing. Surrounded by an eerie home-spun cotton candy fog, plumes of “fire” (pulled isomalt sugar) shoot out in front of the gumpaste Titantron and fondant/gumpaste RAW backdrop. Titantron Undertaker silhouette is hand-painted with food coloring. Gumpaste guardrails keep out the riff raff, while the gumpaste/fondant WWE logo sits perched atop the cake. After eating the Undercaker, you will Rest. In. Peace.”
The Jericake – “You’ve seen sweet after sweet for weeks, months now. And you’ve seen some of the best of the best out there in the wide world of wrestling desserts, but you have NeeeeeeVER. EVER. EEEEEVEEER seen a cake like This. With it’s decadent flavors and a design that speaks for itself, the Jericake canNot be ignored!
The bottom layer is a chocolate cake with a luscious strawberry swirl. Those above it are chocolate espresso vodka covered in dark chocolate espresso vodka shell then all three iced with mocha cream cheese frosting, then enrobed by black fondant hand-beaded with black and white Nonpareil sprinkles and edible silver glitter stars that shine in the light of several LED spotlights.
I used the strong flavors of the coffee to amp you up, then the sting of the vodka to knock you Back Down. Do you think you could handle the outrageous rich smoothness in this sexy beast of a cake?
Topping this whole sensation is a fondant figure of the most handsome man you’ve ever seen, basking in his delicious glory. If you know anything at all, you’ve already voted, and if you don’t, you’re doing it now. Don’t even pretend you don’t wish you could get your hands on the most perfect cake you’ve ever seen. One look at this and you’ll see I’m the Best In The World at What I Bake.”
Vote for your favorite now! A winner will be announced at the end of this week!
Update: The plug-in I use for this poll allows me to see who is clearing their cookies and submitting multiple votes from the same IP address. It also allows me to clear those votes from the final count. Contestants: if you & your supporters have been doing this, you will notice that your final score will be lowered tomorrow. C’mon you guys, no cheating.
[poll id=”3″]
cm punk cakes should win
Great cake
Love the Jericake! Please accept my vote.
I want it for my Bday.
Great job
I really thought the original rules said only 5 were going to be picked for fam favorite to vote on. Now there’s 15? A great friend of mine made a cake in this contest and there’s a bunch of other fantastic ones too! But the more people say the contest is rigged, the more I want to believe in that. Why change the rules half way through? Is there a cake that you wanted to get into the contest that wasn’t being voted on? I was super excited to see the winner (my friend or not) but now I think this is a shit show. I’m out.
Jake the Cake for the win!!!!
Undercaker should win
Undercaker, come on! It’s good AND it makes me giggle.
The Undercaker is Awesome!!!!!!! This cake is unique ….REST IN PEACE!!!!
Luv the summer slam cake!!
I vote Jericake 🙂
the jericake is definitely the most creative. the punk homage has been done…
how does apex preditor have 70 votes this afternoon and drp to 68 tonight? i don’t get it.
Diane- As I explain in this post, and posted on Twitter & Facebook today, the plug-in that is tallying votes removes any duplicate votes (votes coming from the same IP address, or from a machine where the cookie was installed & then cleared). Some of the entries dipped significantly, so if that one only lost 2 votes that’s great for that contestant! It just means they had more valid votes to start with.
Cunit- Unfortunately, there was not a clear set of five finalists. After clearing out duplicate votes, several entries were tied with the same amount of votes, so I had to expand the number of finalists to be fair to the top-ranking entries. Please see a more detailed explanation here: https://bakeanddestroy.com/2012/08/is-sugarslam-rigged/
CM Punk Cakes are definitely the best!
Love summerslam cake
Awesome
That is the lamest excuse that I have ever heard. Very convenient . I HOPE MY VOTE COUNTED!!!!
CM Punk cakes- the best!
Johnny- If you only voted once, as outlined in the rules, then it’s still in there. What exactly would I have to gain from taking valid votes away from contestants? Why is everyone so cunty this year?
WOW!!!! I certainly did not expect a response with an expletive. Such unprofessional conduct from you. If this is how you run your business then I guess you will be out of business SOON!!
I can’t believe the response either. As for the votes I have noticed they do not make sense. When you come upon the web page it only allows you to submit a vote once. I don’t understand how it is possible for anyone to be able to vote more than once using the same IP address. It appears you have a favorite within the contest. (maybe a friend or family member). You would very simply have all the prizes to gain at the end of the contest.
Quick question – up above it says that voting will end on the afternoon of 8/30, but your twitter feed implies its ending at midnight tonight. Which is the correct time?
Thanks.
Why does the 1st place cake always go up a vote in proportion to the votes cast for other cakes…?
SOS – I think the percentages are wonky – at one point a cake with 0 votes said 18%. I’m basing the winner on the number of votes, not the percentages which clearly makes no sense.
EC -Please ask the three current champions if I have kept their prizes, you’re being ridiculous. It’s easy to get around the system – just clear your cookies – lots of people have already done it, and their invalid votes were deleted.
My favorite in the contest didn’t even make it to the final 15 so grow up. I hand-picked these prizes and sponsors because they are people I know and products I already own. The suggestion that I would rig this contest in order to keep someone else’s prizes is absolutely outrageous.
Johnny- First of all, this isn’t a business – it’s a food blog that hosts a free contest every year. If you don’t want me to respond to your comments than quit making false accusations about a contest I work very hard on.
Rich -On my Twitter feed I indicated that there were 2.5 hours left in a day that was full of people being terrible to me over something that is supposed to be fun. (As in, the day ends at midnight.) Voting closes at noon CST today, 8/30. Thanks!
Are you blocking people from voting within the same submet? I have dozens of people at work who can’t vote. I know they all have different IP addresses, but the addresses are similar.
Cass- I’m not sure why that might be happening. The poll only locks out people from an IP address that has already been used (although lots of people are finding ways around that) or from a machine with the cookie already installed (which people are also finding ways around).
the yellow stuff in the undercaker looks just like the rotting stubs under my enormous caps
I don’t understand what all of you have to gain from being such dicks to a girl who’s voluntarily running what is supposed to be a fun baking competition that she allows anybody to enter. I can’t imagine the time and effort she has to put into this and you people are giving her attitude because your or your friends cake isn’t winning? Grow up and stop being such sore losers ..
Aaaanyways, I’d just like to say that I had a blast making my first sugarslam entry even though mine was rubbish compared to loads of the others. I hope these idiots don’t stop you wanting to continue the competition next year 🙂
I’m with Sarah. People need to lay off. She’s doing something cool for us here and all she’s getting is crap for it. Just back off and let it go. We’ve all been trying hard here, alright? And I did have that same issue with having a bunch of people who work at a call center trying to vote for me. They were unable to, but at least some of them did when they got home. That and multiple people that live in the same house, but that’s fine. The rules are the rules. I just feel awful I had so many fake votes before. I didn’t know anyone was doing that and when the numbers went down I was pretty surprised. I’m sorry about that! Whatever happens, happens at this point.
Everyone did a damn good job competing, and everyone who worked on the contest, Natalie, the judges and all the generous sponsors have been fantastic. She says it isn’t rigged, that nothing’s going on that’s fishy and she’s right that she has nothing to gain from it if there is, so I believe her and I think everyone should just calm down about it. Because of all the crap being thrown, there may not be a competition next year and that’s just SAD. I already have ideas for it too. This is supposed to be fun! I hope no one ruins it for the rest of us. Good luck to everyone else still in the race!
Some of these fillings… fjhadiofhiawergvfae. So hungry right now.
CM PUNK CAKES! Give them my vote!
Jericake is the true BEST IN THE WORLD. VOTE IT!
I give a lot of respect for all the cakes in the people’s choice category. I am in the running but I’m not saying which one but I thought I would have a chance but alas I think I am wrong. I just wanted to say Thanks to the amazing woman running this. It gave us a challenge on Saturday nights instead of just baking random flavor ideas. I hope it doesn’t make you not do this next year. On a better note I invite everyone who will not win to come join us for a “hey we didn’t win but this was awesome” party after today’s vote tally. Where we can all make our entries again and party for having a great time. Hey Natalie you and Phillip are invited and your crew!!!! Info will follow if anyone is interested. Wooooooo hooooooo for Sugar Slam!
Why are do many people being asshats about this?! There’s no money involved, except the hard earned money put forward to make this happen. If you win you don’t get a million dollars and lap dance from CM Punk. So why are people acting like this is life oo death situation? This is supposed to be fun and frankly, to some of us who did enter and didn’t make to the final 15, cheating the polls wasn’t even something that we considered. I was more than happy with positive comments left by people I don’t even know.
cm punk cake…give them my vote
This is really a work of are…..(Love it)….
Way to go kiddo!
Love to tast these cupcakes……….Save me a taste..
Punk cakes gets my vote!!!
I don’t understand the need for people to kick off over what’s intended to be a fun competition…surely they have something better to do than rant and moan? I’m lucky enough to be in the final but don’t stand a chance of winning and guess what…I don’t care! I had fun entering and lots of lovely comments from people. All this moaning is getting you nowhere and upsetting innocent people…enough already!
Christina – I’m so there! What a lovely idea, and totally in the sugarslam vein.
I had a load of fun making my entries, and lot’s of fun checking on the flicker votes too.
Unfortunately I don’t have an arse load of friends and a huge family to call on for votes. Only 8 people I know voted for me which means all of the rest of my votes came from people that genuinely seemed to like my cake and had no interest in me – that’s damn awesome!
This is a great contest, a lot of fun, and I really really hope that it happens again.
Thanks for giving up so much time and effort to organise this Natalie, I for one really appreciate it.
To the people being massive douches about votes – stop being greedy and realise that this is a not for profit contest run by someone who can do what the hell she likes. She has quite clearly tried to be as fair in the voting process as possible.
If you can’t handle that, go cry in your own dessert.
People should participate in contests like these for the love of the contest. Not everyone can be a winner, that’s how contests work. Sounds to me like most of the people complaining are probably the same people who voted more than once. As to “dozens” of people in an office not getting to vote, I think that’s part of the problem with People’s Choice. Its not Natalie’s fault, but shouldn’t the people who decide a winner be the people who actually be people who follow Bake and Destroy? I thought it was kind of a downer seeing comments during the first round stating things like “I don’t like wrestling, but..” I mean, it’s a wrestling bake-off. People’s Choice should be decided by people who care about the substance of the contest, not who has the most internet friends or works in in the biggest office ot who can figure out how to rig the system. I think its pretty ballsy for some of you to try and take the piss out of a fun contest because you were having a hard time rigging it in your favor. Ruiners.