My Summer Caking

This summer I spent much of my evenings and weekends looking for the St Louis 250 Birthday Cakes.  I traveled long and far to collect photographs of these crazy cakes.  It became this quest which required a list, google maps, instagram, and gas.  Good thing I drive a Prius. 

 

What started as just taking a few photographs of the cakes close to my house became an obsession which drove some of my friends on facebook crazy.  In the process I re-discovered my city, found parks I never knew existed, and drove to the ends of the St Louis metropolitan area and then some.  I found 252 cakes and even made a silly little video.  I enjoyed myself and regret nothing.

The Venice Café Cake is my favorite.

The Daniel Boone House Cake is one of the prettiest designs.

 

 

 

The Aerie's Winery Cake has the best view.

 

 

The Malcolm Martin Cake is the most surprising location with its geyser and pristine park.

 

One of my favorite details is the Elephant on the Eads Bridge Cake.

 

 

And my favorite photograph at the St Charles Heritage Site is the one with my dear friend, Kim, who inspired me to start cake hunting.

 

 

My summer was full of cakes, and in the end finding them made me happy and I regret nothing.

Cake Obsessed

Okay, I am admitting that I have been a little obsessed with collecting cake photos.  I am at 75 cakes, with 175 more to go.  Facebook friends are probably over the cakes, but we all have things we over post on line.  This too will pass my friends.



St Louis 250 Year Birthday Cake at the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing on the Mississippi River

Sometimes the cakes are easy to find and you just have to hop out and snap a shot.  Sometimes the cakes are not so easy.  Today I was looking for a cake at the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing (http://www.visitmo.com/mary-meachum-freedom-crossing-and-rest-area.aspx).  This site is part of the Riverfront Trail for bicycle and pedestrian traffic, not cars.  I kept hoping the cake would be close to the parking area.  On course not, I had to walk about 10 minutes to the site in rubber sandals.  My planning on today was not stellar.  Natalie waited in the car for the 25 minutes it took me to get there and back. 

When I finally got back to the car I was hot, sweaty, and annoyed by the walk.  I grumbled about not having on the right shoes, forgetting my hat, and the trek to the cake.  Natalie started laughing at me and said, "What were you expecting a cakewalk?" 

That is my wife, riding along on one of my madcap obsessions poking fun at me the whole way. 



Natalie at the Fort Belle Fontaine St Louis 250 Year Birthday Cake, Missouri River Behind her

The Gayest Cake!

Captured this cake at The LGBT Center in St Louis.  May not be the prettiest or cleverest cake, but that it is there at all makes it my favorite so far.  Much Love

Cakeway to the West

I love public art!  The randomness of coming upon a piece of art in a surprising location always delights me.  Sometimes the piece is not inspiring, but I appreciate the intent.  Back in my yarn bombing days, I hoped my little knitted things delighted those who saw poles wrapped with bits color. I know when I find public installations, I am like, "Yay, ART!"

Lyons Park, the first cake I found

Back in the 90s (remember those days?) everyone was inspired by the cows on parade.  Cities everywhere jumped on that bandwagon with their version of "whatever" on parade.  St. Louis even did a similar thing with people on parade, it was kind of lame to be honest.  With this year being the quarter-millennial anniversary of my home town, St. Louis city planners decided to revise this idea with four foot fiberglass birthday cakes.  The goal is to have 250 cakes placed in the St Louis metro area.

Chatillon Demenil Mansion Wedding Cake

I have seen several of these cakes popping up all over town.  I gave them some thought, but not much.  Last week I was having lunch with a friend and she mentioned the cakes and how she wanted to see them.  I felt I would help her by taking some photos of the cakes in my neighborhood.  I am up to 13 cakes, if I were to continue I would have 237 more to go.  I am doubtful that I will be that committed to cake hunting, but you never know.

Cherokee Street Cake, Beautifully Decorated Cake

I actually met other cake hunters today, so I am not the only one looking for these installations.  I actually, talked to a mother and daughter today who were up to 80 cakes.  I told them I really loved the crazy cake at Venice Café in Benton Park.  This cake has a slice out of it and you can see it is made of BRAINS!  So cool.  They looked at me like I was weird and moved quickly away to their car.  Takes all kinds, I guess.

St Louis Silly Hall Cake (see this one 5 days a week)

I found a website with information about the cakes (http://www.stl250.org/cake.aspx).  The site is very helpful and advertises an app.  The app looks like a fun way to keep track of the cakes you have found.  Looks is the key word, in practice the app sucked and did not work.  It does help finding the cakes, but the game function doesn't.   I tied 4 times to capture a cake and it never worked, GRRR...  Once I stopped fooling with the app, I enjoyed just taking photos of the cakes and posting the photos on my social medias (facebook, twitter, instagram).  I even used hashtags for the first time, #stl250. 

Venice Café Cake, My Favorite

As you can imagine some cakes are better executed than others.  I am posting a few of my favorites.  The Venice Café cake is my favorite so far.  Venice Café is known for their crazy decorations, on first sighting the cake looked rather bland, but once I walked around it, I knew it was the perfect cake for them.  It was awesomely oozing blood.  Anyway, love them or hate them, looking for cakes is a fun way to spend a day.