Engadget's birthday cake winners!

You guys are the best. Seriously, we mean it. Last week we put up a contest offering up an Alienware Area-51 3550 for the best Engadget birthday cake you could bake for our 2nd birthday. What we got back was about 150 cakes, some of which were so astounding we didn't even know how to react. We had a long weekend judging all these cakes, but we've got our winners, as well as a bunch of runners up we had to commend with an Engadget t-shirt. Big thanks to everyone who entered, and don't worry, we've got more Engadget birthday cake galleries on their way.

Click on to view the winners' gallery!

Grand Prize Winner!
Alienware Area-51 3550, courtesy of Intel and Alienware

Kirk Sutherland - working Treo 650 cake

Dude completely freaking blew us away with his functional 1:6 scale Treo 650 cake. Kirk, you're a freaking madman, and this is easily the best birthday present anyone's ever given us. We thought the competition was a lock until you came along and, well, took the cake. We tip our hats to you sir.

Watch the video of the cake in action!

Second place!
Squeezebox Wireless

David & Barbara G - Aibo

This was easily the most technically astounding cake we saw. The difficult shapes and attention to detail paid to Aibo is absolutely incredible. Hope it tastes as good as it looks!

Runners up (in no particular order)

Chyun G - Alienware PC

If we had a third place prize, it would have easily gone to Chyun for her Alienware PC. This cake is astoundingly well made, and we're really sorry we couldn't take a taste.

Paul G  - Sony Ericsson W600i Walkman phone

Jake & Katie - Robocakien

Nick & Jess - Atari 2600

Scott N - Mac mini cake

Dan and Holly - Sony Betamax

Ryan and Denise B - Alienware PC

Robert H - Engadget roll cake

Anthony and Candice - Alienware PC

Sean G -Stefan Eriksson's Enzo crash

Brandon C - Fake iPod video (the video that debunks is amazing!)

Colin B - CSquid Labs cake made with a 45 Watt CO2 CNC laser cutting system

Kurosh - Alienware PC

Arash M - HTC Wizard

kram12667 - Nikon D70

[Mee @ Mar 16th 2006 2:17PM]

Dam it, i'm hungry now!!

[Joe @ Mar 16th 2006 2:20PM]

Wow, I can't even believe now I was going to attempt a cake, those are all absolutly amazing people!

[narco @ Mar 16th 2006 2:20PM]

So many great entries. My personal favorite is the Enzo crash -- that was hilarious!

Fishes,
narco.

[Jos?ndrade @ Mar 16th 2006 2:21PM]

Wow! these people are crazy! Awesome job!

[anthony koepnick @ Mar 16th 2006 2:23PM]

dang the silver/green alienware should have won :)

[hotsh0t5 @ Mar 16th 2006 2:24PM]

Combine two great things: Technology and Cake.
BRILLIANT!

[ming @ Mar 16th 2006 2:25PM]

amazing stuff! everyones a winner!

[bertram @ Mar 16th 2006 2:26PM]

wow. just wow.

that's some serious talent these people are sporting.

[JavaMoose @ Mar 16th 2006 2:32PM]

Congrats to the winners! Man, there were some awesome cakes!

[jaemz @ Mar 16th 2006 2:35PM]

Awesome job everyone, and happy birthday engadget.

[zeem35 @ Mar 16th 2006 2:36PM]

if i can i will give the winner something extra.. its an awesome job ;)

[Ody @ Mar 16th 2006 2:40PM]

Too bad the readers couldnt help decide but that would defeat the point of the contest. All those cake looks great I especially like to give props to David & Barbara G for their Aibo cake. That is AMAZING. They should get something just for the trouble.

[benhem_12 @ Mar 18th 2008 7:34PM]

Yah; the aibo cake was awesome; looked very hard to make; great blue/silverish color

[sean @ Mar 16th 2006 2:46PM]

Those first couple of cakes definetly earned thier prizes, but the Enzo crash scene if friggin hysterical!

[Doug @ Mar 16th 2006 2:46PM]

Personally, I agree with the winner, but Sean G's "Stefan Eriksson's Enzo crash" deserves something for it's specialized geek appeal. :)

[Red_Munk @ Mar 16th 2006 2:47PM]

WOW!
Some amazing jobs, but, "Chyun G - Alienware PC" looks the tastiest :P

Congrats all!!

[Nick @ Mar 16th 2006 2:49PM]

I really dig the Engadget roll cake. The link doesn't work though. It takes you to the Betamax pics. I'd like to see how the heck they did that.

[Dan @ Mar 16th 2006 2:53PM]

Woah! How the heck did somebody get a cake to actually work with a screen and buttons. Whoever you are, come and tell us how you did it. And how much did the screen and everyhting cost. Your a nutcase. LOL

[Eric @ Mar 16th 2006 2:57PM]

Great job guys & gals!!! These are awesome. I love the Enzo and the first Alienware...very nice w/the 3 layers.

[n8 @ Mar 16th 2006 2:58PM]

I'm glad I didn't waste my time entering. The working Treo 650 is brilliant. The Aibo is gorgeous. The Enzo/Gizmondo crash made me laugh. Chyun's alienware is incredible. All are very good. Congrats!

[Jared Schwager @ Mar 16th 2006 3:07PM]

Crap, now I'm hungry again. That Alienware PC cake by Chyun G looks really delicious. :P

[Joe @ Mar 16th 2006 3:14PM]

Thw Swiss Roll is so cool! Looks very stylish as well.

[Luis @ Mar 16th 2006 3:23PM]

Congrat's to the winner and to all those who entered! Great job. Wow, my cake would have sucked!

LS

[Joe @ Mar 16th 2006 3:24PM]

In case you guys didnt see it, the guy that made the Treo cake put up a site on how he did it: http://treocake.omnipod.ca/

[Jason @ Mar 16th 2006 3:27PM]

Is the treo just frosting? or is it an actual cake?

[Mark @ Mar 16th 2006 3:37PM]

Wow, these are amazing!!

[oshean @ Mar 16th 2006 3:38PM]

WTF! A working Treo cake! Then he takes a bite out of the cake button! LOL That's too good!

[Johnny @ Mar 16th 2006 3:41PM]

The winners are deserving, but I'm partial to the roll cake -- simple yet very clever. Props to Robert H!

[damn @ Mar 16th 2006 3:45PM]

damn, i was just going to bake an ugly ass cake and stick my treo into it

[cammy @ Mar 16th 2006 3:48PM]

lmao! brilliant cakes,i spat my juice out when i seen the enzo crash! that was sheer brilliance! well done everyone who was featured above!

[Marc @ Mar 16th 2006 4:02PM]

Great stuff guys and ladies!

[Bifgut @ Mar 16th 2006 4:03PM]

The treo ALWAYS win.... if you hear the podcast you will see how treo fanatic are the engadgeters....hhaahh

[Adam @ Mar 16th 2006 4:15PM]

Would be nice if all the links worked. ie Ryan and Denise B - Alienware PC

[Ian Gordon @ Mar 16th 2006 4:16PM]

I think a lot of people have entirely too much time on their hands....or lots of..."help"...

[VBAjedi @ Mar 16th 2006 4:37PM]

I hearby petition that that FREAKING funny tribute to geek justice - the Enzo crash - be given some special recognition. What better way to celebrate 2 years of cutting humor Engadget-style than to savor a bite of that (ahem) "sweet" morsel? :^D

[Whiplash @ Mar 16th 2006 5:34PM]

INCREDIBLE!!!! Who cares about booting WinXP on a Macbook Pro? THIS is some impressive work!!!

The Enzo crash is priceless.

[apeguero @ Mar 16th 2006 6:06PM]

I don't care what anybody else says but I think that the Gizmondo Enzo car crash cake should, well, take the cake :) That was just hillarious :)

[Ian @ Mar 16th 2006 6:14PM]

That's AMAZING. Seriously, so many talented people out there!

[Clay @ Mar 16th 2006 8:00PM]

I would have picked the Enzo crash.

I laughed so hard that I started crying.

[Jason @ Mar 16th 2006 8:22PM]

These all rock. Wow that's creative!

[Paul @ Mar 16th 2006 8:29PM]

My W600i was in the runners up list, awesome!

Great job to everyone who made a cake! I love the Aibo one, I thought that one would take first place for sure. But the amount of time (and money for supplies) that must have gone into the Treo is incredible. Great 1st and 2nd place picks.

[polobunny @ Mar 16th 2006 8:40PM]

Lol can't beleive I was thinking of submitting a fully working DI-624 router in a big E cake. :/
These cooks put me to shame with their Alienware PCs with view on the mobo, lights, the Aibo and working Treo.

[Evan @ Mar 16th 2006 9:48PM]

I wonder how many wives/girlfriends were like: you don't cook, what the heck are you doing?

[chuck @ Mar 16th 2006 10:07PM]

every time the contest is won by the one with the labtop inside of whatever.lol.anyways these cakes are crazy i wonder if anyone had a bakery do theres

[Russell Holman @ Mar 16th 2006 10:22PM]

My girlfriend helped make our cake :( but we did not win

[Tucker @ Mar 16th 2006 11:25PM]

I have to say, like so many others, that the Enzo crash was absolutely priceless. The mini bottle of jack completely makes it - I mean, amazing work overall, but there's just something about the JD bottle that gives it that extra push. Amazing, everyone, really awesome. I would have hated to have to judge this.

One final note - I really, really hope some of you are either in, or are getting into, professional baking. There's some obvious talent, and if you're not doing gigs for yourselves, you should be. Major props, nerds and artists. Hats off, well done.

[Sean G @ Mar 17th 2006 12:00AM]

Hey, thanks all for the enzo votes o' confidence. Definitely had a light bulb moment last friday. Here is a collection of mediocre shots of making the cake taken on my rather craptastic S710 cameraphone:
http://www.evangelizethis.com/indexpage1.htm

[Sean G @ Mar 17th 2006 12:12AM]

And here is an angle just for you Tucker:
http://www.evangelizethis.com/images/jdclose.jpg

The winners were really amazing folks. You are definitely the Julia Childs to my Chef Boyardee.

[Kirk @ Mar 17th 2006 1:15AM]

Yea Sean, I was thumbing through the entries before the deadline when I came across yours. I totally wasn't expecting it and I completely laughed out loud, it was just so blatant - awesome job. And I knew Aibo and Denise's Alienware - 'wow' - were going to be top contenders.
Just to clarify because a couple people have mentioned it - the Treo cake didn't cost that much! Time, well that�s another matter - but I didn't buy a screen just for the cake :) I just used my monitor from my computer covered in plastic wrap - which is back on my desk now still sticky in spots.
$Total - Roll of tin foil $2, Cardboard free for the taking, cake mix $10, $6 for pre-made icing which I had to re-do with home made stuff because it looked like someone puked on the cake - $6 for icing ingredients, $6 cake drying rack and $5 for the cake decorating bag thingy, the rest I had already. The keyboard was a spare and is back together now - so about $35 in all!

[tcc3 @ Mar 17th 2006 1:48AM]

See, thats what I like about you guys. You hold a contest and then you actually announce winners with pictures and everything.

Not like your sister site that holds faux contests just to toy with us. (Im lookin' at you Joystiq)