I couldn't believe it when Norm started piping "hair". I said something like "oh, he's crazy to do that" or something similar and then they showed him talking about his aching hand. Yeah, even I knew that!

I did think the Nemo cake was best of all. Toy Story was all bed and the toys were lost. I did like his idea about blending the fondant for wood grain. I'm doing a cake that will have woodgrain on it in a couple of months and been wondering how I was doing to do it.

I agree about the fondant work too. I thought Flick looked great but at the end, they were doing a closeup and the fondant on the bottom of the head looked torn and creased. Did anyone else see that? It could just be my tv, but it made me feel better about my fondant work.

I saw this the other night- I have to agree with the sentiments that the fondant work overall was not up to the usual FN Challenge standards. (of course I couldn't do better making a Flick, but you know... ) I felt SO bad that Sully didn't make it!

I LOVE the idea of a Top Cake show... who can make that happen? It needs to not be on FN though (if anyone's seen Next Food Network star, you know why).

I just wish, since it is the same people over and over, they'd learn from the past. I'm sick of listening to the decorators complain about how hot it is and how their fondant isn't sticky enough or too sticky. Honestly, come prepared for fondant trouble!

I thought Jorge had it all wrong......he spent hours on that enourmous bed and the characters, which were supposed to be the main part of the design seemed to be an afterthought and (IMHO) looked not-good.....especially compared to the spot-on depiction that Orlando did with Flick. But wasn't he supposed to have Hopper too?

The Nemo cake was awesome....there was something about the clean edges and complementing colors, as well as her perfect characters (and so many of them too) that made me think she really deserved to win. She did 4 or 5 characters - that was incredible.

My stomach lurched for Norm - I like him and felt so bad. You just knew something bad was going to happen when the beginning of the show has him talking about how he has won so many competitions that the judges really expect him to 'bring it', etc.....bummer.

Did anyone else think the whole missing pole thing was a little convenient? Seemed rigged to me - like they wanted to depict her as a ding-bat and have Kerry save the day - blech!

And I totally forgot about the door filled with cake - why didn't he angle that back slightly to reduce the inevitable gravitational pull that would grab that cake right out of the door? And wasn't it only fondant and prayers that were holding it in there?

I think the competitors go wrong when they try to make things move or really, really huge. I mean the bed....how was that integral to the Toy Story theme? Is the ride a huge bed?

That said, I could never do what they do and I have all the respect in the world for them. I would watch 'Top Cake' in a minute but I doubt Bravo will ever do a show like that because who would watch it every week? Us CC'ers would, of course. And people watch the cake challenges ( 4 times a year?) but I don't know that people not in the cake world would tune in every week.....but oh how I wish they would prove me wrong! That would be so cool......

It's possible that people would watch Top Cake... I'm certainly no chef and I have nothing but love for Top Chef. People watch Shear Genius and Workout... a lot of it is for the drama aspect and we can be sure there'll be loads of drama in making cakes every week. Plus, people LOVE Ace of Cakes.

I'm not disagreeing, I'm just trying to build it up for some visionary tv producer who might be reading this.

That door was a giant goat. I don't think there was a lot of thought involved with it.
I liked the Nemo cake, it was very clean and the characters were spot-on. I just wish the colors had more pop like they do in the show (I've seen that show more times than I care to admit- it was my 2 yr old's favorite movie for a good 6 months and we were on Nemo overload around here).

I enjoyed this competition, although it was not one of my favorites. I liked the design of the Bug's Life cake, but I'll have to agree that the Nemo cake was much cleaner.
I really felt sorry for Courtney when Kerry found her support (anybody but her!). It was probably done to achieve some drama. She also had a partner that had only been doing cakes for a few weeks.
Poor Norm!! I know that these are very busy decorators & they may not have time for a practice run, but come on. How in the world did he expect to pipe all that fur without his hand falling off.

Kerry Vincent scares the icing out of me! She reminds me of my 7th grade typing teacher - very scary...had that stern "I'm not pleased" look, pursed lips with an air that said "I'm better than you'll ever be and don't you forget it!" (The woman was that good - and so is Kerry Vincent) lol

I think people would watch Top Cake - I mean with all other reality shows out there that people watch (pet groomers, dancers, singers, hairdressers, ax men, truck drivers, fishermen...no I don't watch all these in case you were wondering - I saw the commercials) how could show about cake competitions not be popular??

For once I would love to see them flip the competition and make the judges compete agains each other in a timed cake contest. They could even bring back some old competitors to judge them for a change!

Ooh ooh ooh! Top Cake - LOVE IT! Can I play? Kerry Vincent would be perfect!

They would have to turn in their decorating bags? Or Turntable? Rolling pin?

Have to deal with consults with Bridezillas, Mommy's of the "Most Beautiful Baby Ever" who is turning 1 and has to have a party for 200 of his closest friends? The charity event with the budget for a cake for 10 yet wants a 5 tiered sculpted masterpiece?

Who's calling Food Network and why aren't they already aware of and catering to those of us here at CC?

I'm with Sweetresults!!! Excellent ideas!!!

Norm did use melted chocolate to 'adhere' the bottom of the cake to the wood-looking surface. I guess it wasnt enough support to hold it in there at the angle that he had it placed at.

I did feel for him, but I think (after watching EVERY single Challenge, Im hooked) that these competitors dont really take into consideration the time schedule, and the fact that you HAVE to make time for problems/mistakes. So if all you have time for is to make the cake, then the cake is too elaborate or too much, or just too too. I know they pride themselves on making the biggest and best cake ever, and with all of the weird things that they do like defying gravity, stacking and carving, etc, to not take into consideration that you are going to have problems with that kind of stuff and its going to take time is just crazy.

Just once I would like to really see someone actually finish their cake. Honestly finish. I know that the time restraint is supposed to make it 'challenging' but I think the judges need to be a little bit more realistic.

Actually for me the Nemo cake was the most clean one..Flick was cute but the neck was not finished real well.. It looked like a mess of fondant. For the time they have they all do incredible work..I think all of them did great!
Edna

Sweet results, you are a person after my own heart! What wonderful ideas for our fantasy "Top Cake" show! I like the idea of "turn in your pastry bag" for booting out the contestants.
I think the best bet we have to bring such a show to reality is to write to Bravo and pitch the idea to them. I've e-mailed them and haven't heard back, but maybe if enough of us write to them, they'll consider it. What do we have to lose? And I think that there will be more people watching it than we think

I wouldn't have a prayer in a competition (of course, not being a fan of fondant would do my in from the get go). I admire not only what these decorators create, but being willing to do it in front of a national audience. That said, I'd still like to see FoodNetwork shake things up a bit and change their format. And even considering how busy they are, if it were me and I had a chance to win $10,000 for 8 hours of work, I'd find the time to at least try out the trickier aspects of my design!

I'm a newbie to cake building and such, but would the door have held up better if Norm had cut and stacked the cake, kinda like bricks all the way up, it appeared it was a sheetcake (hubby was at work, and I was getting our 3 kids to bed, so I missed bits and pieces).

Any vertical cake needs dowels and boards. The door was just sheet cake set on it's end - How could it not have slid?

The blurb for the challenge mentioned 'Cars' and 'Ratatouille'... Man I wanted to see the Rat!!!

One of the Disney villains was this Captain Hook cake. - http://www.mikesamazingcakes.com/whatsnew.asp

I thought the Captain Hook cake was fantastic, and it was no surprise when it won. I enjoyed that particular challenge!

Awe, I missed the Disney Villain challenge! But that Captain Hook cake was awesome!! I want one! Mike makes such cool cakes!

I just KNEW that Orlando would win since he had so much detail in his cake--the spinning Flick with the sugar pulled telescope was awesome!
I liked Courtney's cake, but as was noted, it was one sided--the back side had NOTHING.
My heart broke for Norm with the falling door, the fur PIPING (what was he thinking???) and then Sully fell apart
Jorge spent too much time and detail on the bed and not nearly enough time on the characters (and no, bigger is not always better!)

Just a quick question. Is there anyway to watch cake challenge online i've only ever seen one episode and I've never seen a Duff episode. But I would love to. I just dont have the food network!!!

Cake challenge is on right now - I agree with it not being the best yet. I actually DVRed it and watched it this morning. Thoughts:
- I agree on the Kerry Vincent ordeal, "save the day" seems like a setup - probably to portray judges as being helpful since its usually the contestants helping each other (or her in general in being less Icy).

- the door....oh dear

- nemo cake...lets hand kudos to her team mate too- detail work was in large to her.

- I agree to get new people to compete! Get some of the top people from the Sugar Art Shows (Oklahoma). Shame on Kerry Vincent for not pushing for this if she hasnt done so already.

- I sooo agree on Mike's past Captain Hook cake - He is sooooo my favorite Cake Designer/Decorator well except for Ron Ben Israel.

- how would anyone else have done the fur? Grass tip on that large a scale....oh dear

- Food Network - next time you do a cake show, "Let them work 2 days." Edit the two days down to the usual 1 hour show. I think many of us are thirsty for new ideas, new people and an atmosphere for cleaner work! IMHO