Princess Cakes

[DisneyLover27]

Food Network Challenge
Episode CC0502


AIR TIMES:
July 29, 2007 8:00 PM ET/PT
July 30, 2007 3:00 AM ET/PT
August 01, 2007 9:00 PM ET/PT
August 02, 2007 12:00 AM ET/PT
August 04, 2007 6:00 PM ET/PT
August 05, 2007 3:00 PM ET/PT




Princess Cakes
They are the most recognized Disney princesses on the silver screen. In this challenge, five of the country's top cake designers transform Snow White, Belle, Cinderella and Jasmine into 3-foot tall cakes.

COMPETITORS:

Flora Aghababyan
Assistant Pastry Chef, Bellagio Hotel
Las Vegas, Nev.
Assistant: Anna Kandaharian

Norman Davis
Owner, The Sweet Life
Annandale, Va.
Assistant: Zane Beg

Elizabeth Hodes
Owner, Elizabeth Hodes Custom Cakes and Sugar Art
New York, N.Y.
Assistant: Susan Gambelli

Mary Maher
Co-Owner, Cakegirls
Chicago, Ill.
Assistant: Brenda Maher

Kate Sullivan
Owner, Lovin Sullivan Cakes
New York, N.Y.
Assistant: Katie Robinson

Judges:

Katherine Alford
Test Kitchen Director, Food Network
New York, N.Y.

Dara Trujillo
Manager of Disney's Princess Merchandise Franchise
Orlando, Fla.

Kerry Vincent
Wedding Cake Designer/Hall of Fame Sugar Artist
Tulsa, Okla.

[Disney's Divinity]

There's five competitors, but only 4 princesses? I guess 2 people'll be doing the same (which sucks).

I can't wait to see the Snow White and Cinderella ones--they have the most possibilities and recognizable imagery. I would think Belle'd be the hardest to create a cake for because the Beast will be immensely difficult to draw/sculpt (and it wouldn't be right without him).

[UmbrellaFish]

I can't wait to see the Cinderella and Jasmine cakes. Too bad there's no Ariel.

[Disney Duster]

It's very strange that there is no Ariel... Last time I was interested in this, Simba3 told us about the Villain cakes and we found out about all the villains being made later on. So maybe we'll find out Ariel will be made later.

As for Belle and the Beast, I don't see why he's neccesary! Pairing the princesses with their princesses would keep these from being Princess cakes! The villains weren't paired with anyone else! If they want the Beast, let them do Heroes cakes next.

Disney's Divinity, nice av/sig combo. How creative good-looking.

[Dottie]

Cool, I'm looking forward to that, since I am gonna ba able to watch it because I'll fly to the US on August 1st.

But I think it's weird that there is no Ariel cake. But I guess there will be two Cinderella cakes. It's just a feeling.

[Simba3]

I just saw the commercial for this today and it looks like it is going to be really good! First villain cakes and now Princess cakes - I'm loving this. I saw Snow White and Ariel, I will be excited to see all the cakes and how they turn out.

[Disneykid]

I'm definitely looking forward to this. The episode with the villains was very neat, so I don't expect to be disappointed here. It's good to know Ariel's included, afterall, though that leaves poor Aurora once again by the sidelines. The judges were very strict about how accurate the Villain cake colors were to their original film counterparts. If that same level of accuracy is applied here, I'm hoping the Cinderella cake has orange/tan hair and a silver gown. I'll be peeved if she's blonde with a blue gown considering the stink the judges made last time about the Ursula cake being purple instead of gray. Hopefully a Heroes challenge is on the horizon.

[Disney's Divinity]

As for Belle and the Beast, I don't see why he's neccesary! Pairing the princesses with their princesses would keep these from being Princess cakes! The villains weren't paired with anyone else! If they want the Beast, let them do Heroes cakes next.

The only reason I thought he'd have to be with her is because it's "Beauty and the Beast," whereas the others are "Snow White [and the Seven Dwarfs]," "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," and "The Little Mermaid." In the others, the prince is usual just a necessity (and gets very little spotlight). Only Aladdin and Beast have equal, if not greater, personality and/or importance in the story.

[Super Aurora]

As for Belle and the Beast, I don't see why he's neccesary! Pairing the princesses with their princesses would keep these from being Princess cakes! The villains weren't paired with anyone else! If they want the Beast, let them do Heroes cakes next.

The only reason I thought he'd have to be with her is because it's "Beauty and the Beast," whereas the others are "Snow White [and the Seven Dwarfs]," "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," and "The Little Mermaid." In the others, the prince is usual just a necessity (and gets very little spotlight). Only Aladdin and Beast have equal, if not greater, personality and/or importance in the story.

Only problem with your arguement is that In Sleeping Beauty, Prince Phillip had bigger/more of a role than Aurora did in the movie.

But she's not in the competition here so that's out of question.

[Disneykid]

I just finished watching this episode. Overall, the cakes were pretty interesting, but I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed. Each cake had its own problems, whereas the best of the villain cakes (Hook and Cruella) were pretty dang perfect. Here's how I'd rank them:

1. Ariel (I believe this one deserved to win over Snow White, but it's possible that since this guy won so many other competitions, they wanted to give someone else a chance. I thought this overall a great cake, but I didn't care for how Flounder was rendered. I also wasn't too wild about the decorations around her neck and face, but I realize that a necessity since her head was falling off. Still, I like how Ariel was the focus, and her face was pretty on-model. The tail color was accurate, too, and I love the design of the grotto.)

2. Snow White (Her face was absolutely gorgeous. In fact, I'd say her face was the most on-model of all the princesses. I find it curious how the designer was so disappointed in the face when I think it was the best aspect of the cake. Everything else felt off. Her hair was too thin and misshapen, and her hands didn't have much detail to them. Dopey looked okay, but find of wide in the face.)

3. Cinderella (Really, if we just look at this cake for what it is, it's gorgeous. I love how the castle's design was based off of the actual film's and not the theme park's. There was just so much intricate detail in it, as well as the coach and horses. Unfortunately, the detail stopped when we got to Cinderella. First off, I find it hypocritical how the Ursula cake last time was put upon for being too purple when it was supposed to be gray. Well, Disney constantly makes Ursula purple in clipart, so I understood why that designer was thrown off. And yet, the Cinderella designer also based hers off of inaccurate clipart, and the judges don't say a word. Colors aside, though, Cinderella herself was very lacking. Her face had the most minimal detail possible, and it saddened me that more focus was put on the environment than on her. I agree with the judges that the concept of smashing pieces of cake together like play-doh was kind of gross. I can't imagine how that texture must feel like if you bite into it.)

4. Belle (I know this cake wasn't finished, but what was finished was actually pretty decent. I felt really sorry for this designer because speed wasn't her strong point, and I'm exactly the same way. When I do something, I spend lots of time working on the details to make sure everything's right. Unfortunately, she spend so much time with the details in the first half, that she was rushing in the second half. This cake could've topped the Cinderella one had it been completed because this was obviously supposed to be very intricate.)

5. Jasmine (Sorry, but I didn't care for this one that much. The design was good, and the actual sculpting of the pillows and set pieces was excellent. Where this cake faltered was with Jasmine herself. She was horridly disfigured, looking like some sort of Al Hirschfeld parody. If that little twig was unstable, then the whole dang cake would've collapsed on itself if Jasmine had her proper proportions. Abu just looked like a generic monkey and not like himself. I would've switched this cake with Cinderella for the bronze medal, but I'm sure the cake smashing that went into Cinderella's creation was what harmed its chances).

[musicradio77]

I missed that special, I might catch it again at 3:00 AM when I set my DVR for this special on Princess cakes.

[xxhplinkxx]

though that leaves poor Aurora once again by the sidelines

Once again? I think she gets plenty of attention. I'm glad Jasmine is included over her. And I think Ariel was hard to find up until the release of the Platinum Edition. Disney realized her popularity and has put her out a lot more.

[skyler888]

hmm
Does anybody know if theyre are episodes posted on youtube er screenshots or something?

[Simba3]

I only caught bits and piece of the special because I was watching Big Brother, and I knew Food Network would re-air the special. I did get a good look at all the cakes though. For the most part I thought everyone did pretty well. I think this group of cakes was more of a success than the villain cakes, because a couple of those cakes looked pretty bad. I thought all the Princess cakes looked pretty good, but obviously some looked better than others.

1. Snow White - I agree that this cake was the winner, Snow White looked perfect. I thought she looked really great and I thought Dopey made a wonderful addition to the cake as well.

2. Ariel - THe cake looked great and there were a lot of great details, but like one of the judges said, Ariel really should have had more detail on her flipper.

3. Cinderella - She looked pretty good, and the castle was amazing, but there was more focus on the castle than on Cindrella herself.

4. Belle - I thought the concept of Belle's cake was pretty creative, but I didn't really like the way it turned out. She looked pretty good but it was one of my least favorite in the competition.

5. Jasmine - I agree with Disneykid, I thought that Jasmine's cake was by far the worst of the bunch. Again, I thought the concept was creative, but it really just didn't work for me. I wasn't impressed with the final outcome.

[DisneyGirl22]

ive watched it twice, plan to watch it again...im not sure why i need to keep watching but I was sooo disappointed. Jasmine was offensive to me! They kept zooming in on her face and it was like, oh whos that supposed to be? and her body?
and i agree, the cake smashing thing was gross.....especially since the winning cake was to be served at a childrens princess party or something like that. Snow white was good but i didnt like her hair. I was a little confused about why Belle had the platform coming out of her dress for the other characters to sit on. i dont know, it just looked weird to me, even in the concept drawing, just odd. I wasnt really into the cinderella cake at all, cool castle aside, nowadays you see castle cakes everywhere, i wouldve loved to see a larger, more detailed Cinderella....belles dress was great i thought.....ummm who am i missing...oh ariel. i loved her face. i thought her face was pretty cute....flounder was sad lol....but i think for as little time as they are allowed to work on them, not bad....imagine if they had the usual 2-4 days!

[Disney's Divinity]

I, personally, feel the Ariel cake should've won. Not only was Ariel on model, but the decoration was good to look at. As for not having "scales" on her tail, that's just ridiculus. The movie doesn't even give that much depth (only a prcious few posters actually have her that detailed). If Disney can't even do it, why are they beating on a cake competitor about it?

Second, I'd put Cinderella. Though Cinderella herself left a lot to be desired and the mice were out of proportion with the other characters, the detail and overall mood of the cake more than makes up for it.

Third would go to Snow White. Though Snow White's face is wonderfully done, the rest of the cake is uninspiring and much less decorative/detailed than the other cakes.

Fourth goes to Jasmine, only because her cake was finished (the Belle design looked as if it would've been far better). The pillars/pillows looked great, but the princess just looked horrible. She was far beyond anorexic; it looked as if they'd propped up a toy corpse on the top.

The Belle had some serious potential and, if it had been finished, would've probably got third place with me.

I was really angry that the judges placed the Jasmine cake in third place over Cinderella. Sure, Cinderella doesn't look great, but Jasmine looks far worse. So what if it had the "feel" of Aladdin? Look at Cinderella's cake. All that detail and dedication should've definitely been rewarded.

[Disney Duster]

Okay, well, I will speak a little on my opinion:
The cake that looked perfect to me was Belle's. Everything looked close to it's movie counterpart, from what I remember. Belle looked like herself. The only thing is she just had botchy looking drawing on her face. But it's not the lines that matter, it's what the lines convey. I even liked the whole design of the cake.

Ariel probably looked second best, as well as Sebastian, but Flounder was so horrible. Also, Ariel's tail could have been done better. But judging everything, Ariel probably should have been the winner.

Cinderella's cake rocked, except the coach was not the movie coach. The coach was likely taken from a book of Cinderella I own. In fact, the pictures from the book I own are often re-used in other Cinderella books, some of which I also own. But the coach that she did looked like the coach from my books, not the one from the movie. However, she did the castle right (OMG the clock tower!) and she did everything so nicely. Cinderella needed a little help but it's hard to detail a small princess. I'd say second place.

Jasmine was deformed, and I didn't think her face looked enough like her, but only that is what made me not like this cake. The problem is I think this cake was perfect except for it's living figures, Jasmine and Abu. I really liked the design, and the pillows, lamp, and carpet were flawless.

Snow White was so bad! The only thing good was her perfect face! But her body was horrible and Dopey looked completely bad. It differed extremely from her designer's beautiful first illustration. Did anyone notice she used the "How to Draw Disney Princess" book for Snow White's face? I looked at that book and Cinderella's dress is actually silver in it!

Oh, and speaking of, Disneykid, it is possible for Cinderella to be blue on that cake because in the movie she is blue as she gets into the coach when leaving the palace (original and restored versions). The problem is everything else has to be cast in the same shadow, which I don't think was the case. I would have taken silver or blue. Silver would only have to be used for certain locations like the garden or the palace gates. Oh wait, palace gates depends on which movie verison you watch...

[Bewitched]

I can't find any pictures or videos of the show, can someone post them here? I'd love to see those cakes, since i'm not american and can't see the show on tv.

[pap64]

I can't find any pictures or videos of the show, can someone post them here? I'd love to see those cakes, since i'm not american and can't see the show on tv.

I'll post some crappy shots later.

Here's what I thought of the cakes:
Jasmine: I agree with everyone. The design and concept were really good. The pillows looked really soft and the textures were excellent. But Jasmine herself was so UGLY! My mom pointed out that had they designed her with the correct proportions they wouldn't have had the balancing issues and used the toothpicks to keep her balanced. The legs were far too thin and the waistline is non existent.

Cinderella: The cake was beautiful, yes, but it focused far too much on the castle and very little on Cinderella herself. As one of the judges pointed out Cinderella is about Cinderella therefore she should be the main attraction in the cake. Again a job well done on the castle and props, needed more focused on Cinderella.

Ariel: I am surprised that this didn't win first place. Not only was Ariel EXTREMELY well done (despite extra additions and head placement issues) the details were amazing. I loved how they used real life shells to give the grotto texture and feel. Sebastian and Flounder were off model but overall the whole thing was great.

Snow White: The cake was really good and very well modeled but compared to the others its quite basic in terms of colors and details. Colors were a tad too pale, kinda reminds me of those cheap characters you see at knock off theme parks (like the infamous Chinese Disneyland). But they were able to finish it on time so that's a plus.

Belle: I too felt bad for the baker. From the little that was finished I thought it was great. I liked how detailed the dress was turning out. It would've been the best modeled cake in the competition but time was definitely the enemy here.

Overall good show. If only I had seen the villains episode...

[Dottie]

I saw the episode yesterday and I really liked it and the Snow White cake did deserve to win.
It looked amazing, the characters looked on-model and the design was very nice and Disney-like. I especially liked the design of Dopey who ws so cute.

The Ariel cake was very nice to, the decoration was amazing and full if details. The only problem I have with it is that Ariel looked a bit as if she was part of the rock and not like she was sitting on it.

The Cinderella cake was nice, but very disappointing concerning Cinderella. The castle was magnificent and just like in the movie and so were the mice.
But Cinderella herself was ugly and wass off-model.

The Belle cake would have been beautiful if she had had the time to finish, but I already loved what had been done. Belle was ok, and the other sculptures looked on-model and were really nice.

I didn't care much for the Jasmine cake, the design was nice, but Jasmine herself was just weird. It was kinda artistic, but still I somehow just didn't like it.