Cake Smackdown on Saturday

By W. Blake Gray Fri., Jul. 8 2011 at 11:48 AM

Categories: Cooking Competitions

Sat Addict

Cake Walk

Where: Omnivore Books, 3885a Cesar Chavez St. (at Church St.)

When: 4-5 p.m. Saturday, July 9

Cost: Free for bakers; $5 for eaters

Think you've got mad cake-baking skills? Test them out Saturday at Omnivore Books' "Cake Walk" competition.

The contest is open to everyone, free to enter, and has no pre-registration required. Just bake a cake and bring it, along with a knife to cut it. And we do mean Bring It! Omnivore will provide plates, napkins, and forks; the lust for cake will provide eaters.

If you're more of an cake lover than a culinary fighter, no problem: Pay $5 at the door and you will be a registered cake voter. You can sample all the cakes -- good luck, when Omnivore held a cookie contest 65 people entered -- and vote for your favorite.

"It's bad for your waistline, but it's a lot of fun," Omnivore owner Celia Sack says. "We usually get about 60 eaters. Everybody tastes as much as they can, and we all talk about what we like best. An hour goes surprisingly fast. Think how fast you eat your dinner."

The baker who receives the most votes wins a cash prize: half the door receipts from the eaters. The runner-up wins a free cookbook.

And everyone gets to eat cake! And hurray for us, we made it all the way through this blog entry without mentioning Marie Antoinette. Oops. Dammit!