Engadget's birthday cake winners!
By Ryan Block 
posted Mar 16th 2006 2:04PM
posted Mar 16th 2006 2:04PM
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
Dam it, i'm hungry now!!
Wow, I can't even believe now I was going to attempt a cake, those are all absolutly amazing people!
So many great entries. My personal favorite is the Enzo crash -- that was hilarious!
Fishes,
narco.
Wow! these people are crazy! Awesome job!
dang the silver/green alienware should have won :)
Combine two great things: Technology and Cake.
BRILLIANT!
amazing stuff! everyones a winner!
wow. just wow.
that's some serious talent these people are sporting.
Congrats to the winners! Man, there were some awesome cakes!
Awesome job everyone, and happy birthday engadget.
if i can i will give the winner something extra.. its an awesome job ;)
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.
Yah; the aibo cake was awesome; looked very hard to make; great blue/silverish color
Those first couple of cakes definetly earned thier prizes, but the Enzo crash scene if friggin hysterical!
Personally, I agree with the winner, but Sean G's "Stefan Eriksson's Enzo crash" deserves something for it's specialized geek appeal. :)
WOW!
Some amazing jobs, but, "Chyun G - Alienware PC" looks the tastiest :P
Congrats all!!
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.
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
Great job guys & gals!!! These are awesome. I love the Enzo and the first Alienware...very nice w/the 3 layers.
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!
Crap, now I'm hungry again. That Alienware PC cake by Chyun G looks really delicious. :P
Thw Swiss Roll is so cool! Looks very stylish as well.
Congrat's to the winner and to all those who entered! Great job. Wow, my cake would have sucked!
LS
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/
Is the treo just frosting? or is it an actual cake?
Wow, these are amazing!!
WTF! A working Treo cake! Then he takes a bite out of the cake button! LOL That's too good!
The winners are deserving, but I'm partial to the roll cake -- simple yet very clever. Props to Robert H!
damn, i was just going to bake an ugly ass cake and stick my treo into it
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!
Great stuff guys and ladies!
The treo ALWAYS win.... if you hear the podcast you will see how treo fanatic are the engadgeters....hhaahh
Would be nice if all the links worked. ie Ryan and Denise B - Alienware PC
I think a lot of people have entirely too much time on their hands....or lots of..."help"...
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
INCREDIBLE!!!! Who cares about booting WinXP on a Macbook Pro? THIS is some impressive work!!!
The Enzo crash is priceless.
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 :)
That's AMAZING. Seriously, so many talented people out there!
I would have picked the Enzo crash.
I laughed so hard that I started crying.
These all rock. Wow that's creative!
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.
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.
I wonder how many wives/girlfriends were like: you don't cook, what the heck are you doing?
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
My girlfriend helped make our cake :( but we did not win
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.
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
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.
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 thats 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!
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)
LOL - the Enzo crash!!!! :-D :-D :-D
The Engadget roll cake finished pict looks nice too.
The winner was definatly cool and deserved to win. However I was very impressed by the Alien Ware computer that Ryan and Denise B did. Did anyone look at the back pane on this? At first I thought they had pulled one off of a case and just put it in place... but it is frosting. Very very detailed and very hard to be that precise in frosting.
Also, regarding all these mentions about the car crash. I don't know the refrence. Can someone explain or point me in the right direction? Regards, skonofvulcan at hotmail dot com.
The Enzo wreck has been covered here and on Joystiq, but Wrecked Exotics has the best information:
http://www.wreckedexotics.com/special/enzo/
Here you go Maurice. Stefan was the guy behind the Gizmondo; this is his story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/16/national/main1409832.shtml
Wow ... and double wow. So many great entries but Kirk is a deserving winner. Nice job one and all ... and Happy Birthday Engadget. Keep up the fantastic work.
Everywhere I turn, someone says ... "Engadget did a great job of covering this or that." You're leaving an impression in technology circles.
That enzo cake is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Excellent work!
These cakes are amazing.
wow, you guys are all very talented! Great work! I could use a slice of cake now, lol.
Extra points to those curves and shapes, I've tried shaping a cake, it didn't turn out to well.
ooooo ooooooooooo! I want an iCake. I can listen to my music and nevergo hungry.
If you want other photo cakes please visit this site:
http://www.ricettextorte.com/foto.htm
for apple cakes
http://www.ricettextorte.com/album/apple/apple_logo.html
Italian cakes
http://www.ricettextorte.com/pagine/english%20cakes.html
Most Awesome Waste of Time I Have EVER SEEN!
I am WOWED and IMPRESSED I cannot believe the AWESOME response to this contest! so much imagination and creativity here! :) UNBELIEVABLE and absolutely the BEST I have ever seen! thanks for sharing the pics, videos and responses, TRUE ENTERTAINMENT! LOVE THEM ALL!
Theodoros Plakadopoulos has signed up already. Yall might know him better as TPlay. He played basketball for 2 years over at UTEP.