BVC’s own Phyllis Irene Radford (she lets me call her Phyl cause she’s cool like that) circulated the URL for what is, in the opinion of that blogger, at least the World’s Greatest Cupcake (made by Mike’s Amazing Cakes).

It sure is a beauty.  Remembering my own attempt at steampunk cakery a few months ago, this could have put me into a cataclysmic ego tailspin, because let’s face it: I will never have that level of skill.  Mostly I’m okay with that, because I’m not sure the baker/decorator could write a whole novel.  Anyway, I was completely ground into dust, ego-wise, by yesterday’s “Sunday Sweets” blog at Cakewrecks which were (entirely coincidentally) all steampunk (and which also included the cupcake above).

Now here’s the thing: I am awed by the technical achievement of the World’s Greatest Cupcake (or TWGC), but it doesn’t inspire me with the same level of I-Am-Unworthy envy that many of the cakes on the Cakewrecks entry do, for the simple reason that most of them look like…cakes.  TWGC looks like something DaVinci or Verne might have fashioned (I have no idea if Verne had any manual dexterity at all, but it looks like the sort of thing he’d have loved).  It has levels of skill and artistry I can only admire, awestruck.

I just don’t want to eat it.  It’s not about “how could I despoil this beauty.”  I am awed by, for example, the white bustle-cake with the spill of red down the back, but half the fun would be in cutting it open to see the cake within.  And there’s nothing about TWGC that signals “EAT ME” to me.

That first cake with the tipsy hat layer on the top and the hot-air balloon, on the other hand?  If it tastes half as gorgeous as it looks, I am so there.