This past Friday, the University CAP Center held a Pixar-themed “Cake Wars” in the ELC’s Terrace Room. There, students could sign up individually or in teams to recreate people or scenes from their favorite animated films. Teams were provided with a variety of decorating materials, from different types of candy to food coloring for their icing, giving the students plenty of tools to create their masterpieces. 

And they all were masterpieces because art is subjective and even the most messed-up cake can still be a masterpiece.

Most teams ended up paying homage to one of three movies: “Finding Nemo” (2003), “Cars” (2006), and “Up” (2009). The panel of professional bakers from the University’s Dining Staff that made up the judging panel saw way too many Lighting McQueens, clownfish and houses with balloons, but some teams got a little more unique when taking inspiration. One team managed to recreate the bird skeleton from Muntz’s airship from “Up” using toothpicks and marshmallows. Another team chose a more morbid route with their cake, making the dentist’s toilet with a fish inside from “Finding Nemo”. 

On the topic of morbid movie ideas, plenty of teams took their inspiration from the creepier parts of popular Pixar movies. There was a demon-baby version of Jack-Jack from “The Incredibles” (2004) that looked more demon than baby, and a small horde of Sid’s monster-toy mash-ups from “Toy Story” (1995). A team managed to recreate the “Ratatouille” (2007) scene where Emile and Remy got electrocuted on the roof, while another made a picture-perfect recreation of a sustenance shake from “WALL-E” (2008). That one only got unsettling when you read the ingredients list plastered on the side: “Organic Material.”

There were a few teams that didn’t quite get the memo about the competition’s theme, creating cakes belonging to movies from different studios. These included a fantastic “Shrek” cake, Cinderella’s glass slipper that for obvious reasons wasn’t see-through, and an attempt at Toothless from “How To Train Your Dragon” (2010) that looked closer to a cat. There was also a Hogwarts Crest that adorably said “’Ray Bucknell!” in place of the normal motto, but also had the house colors mixed up. Samantha Ravens ’23 from the Hogwarts team said to us, “None of us have ever actually read “Harry Potter”. We just got the idea from someone in Jenny’s accounting class, how were we supposed to know the colors were wrong?” Many teams took advantage of the fact that they could use their phones for reference during the decorating time, but it’s clear not all of them did.