Friday Favourites - Looking at pictures of cake

I fancy myself as a bit of a baker, but when it comes down to it, most of the baking I do is in my head, rather than in the actual kitchen. I have a large collection of something a friend of mine refers to as "food porn" -- stacks and stacks of food magazines and recipe books that I really do enjoy reading. I love reading recipes and thinking about cooking. And let's face it, thinking about cooking, rather than actual cooking, is way easier from a clean-up perspective and has far fewer calories. Especially when what I love reading about most is cake.

I don't quite know why it is that I have such a fascination for reading about cake making, because I'm actually not that much of a fan in real life. I don't have an extreme sweet-tooth, and often the things I dream about baking are more than likely things I probably wouldn't overly enjoy eating. Doesn't stop me.

There are a collection of baking blogs that I particularly like visiting. First is Bakingdom. This blog is awesome, because not only are the cakes delicious-sounding, they look spectacular. Just take a look at this very pretty cake that was designed to celebrate the release of the last Harry Potter movie:

It looks pretty good just like that, but what really blew me away was what it looked like when you cut a slice to eat, revealing all the Hogwarts house colours:

This is just the sort of thing the baking goddess at Bakingdom does all the time and quite frankly, I'm in awe. One of these days, one of these days, I'd love to have a go at making something like this, all the fuss and fiddle and everything.

Another baking blog I really enjoy looking at is i am baker. This baking goddess is also responsible for making some totally gorgeous, amazing, stunning-looking cakes. Look at this one to get you started:

Aren't those colors gorgeous? And I think what gets me most is that it looks deceptively simple. Yes, I think to myself, it's just a nice cake and lots of buttercream icing and a star tip on an icing bag. And a hell of a lot of patience. Maybe it's that last ingredient that I'm missing.

I love this one too:

On the inside, it's a cherry-flavored cake. Genius! And, I will admit, beyond my skill level, I am sure.

Perhaps one of the reasons that holds me back from taking all this dreaming into reality is that I'm afraid of what the outcome might look like in comparison to the beautiful pictures. Or perhaps that might end up on one of my other favourite sites: Cake Wrecks.

It's not exactly a baking blog, but still lots of fun and their "Sunday Sweets" always feature some very beautiful cakes. The Sunday Sweets kind of cakes are cakes that are beyond the dreams of mere mortals such as myself, one must be a professional cake decorator to even begin to think about how to make them happen, but I still like to look.

One of these days I will find the will, time and necessary patience to actually have a go at creating one of the works of edible art that I lust over in my food porn. And when I do, I promise to post pictures, even if they're of the wrecky kind.