Hot cakes! Decorations to be inspired by

When I was at school I read every minute I could. At breakfast, this involved the backs of cereal boxes, but mostly, my mum's collection of party recipe books. I didn't just become obsessed with cake itself, but with the myriad possibilities for decorating cake.

A moment of stunned applause then for what my friend Jess made for her first hosting duties at the book club we belong too, earlier this week.

I KNOW! Literally, when I walked into the flat and saw this cake I made a noise only animals could hear. Oh, and her boyfriend, who threatened to ban me from said flat if I ever made a noise like that again.

Jess has handily blogged about how she made the decorations so I don't need to do that (as, to be honest, I haven't a clue) which leaves me free to post some pictures of my very favourite cakes.

Mario Kart cake by Let Them Eat Cake

My computer game-themed 30th next year is probably the worst-kept party secret in the world, mostly because I keep tweeting food ideas I want to nick for it. This stunning cake was made for a WEDDING. How obscenely cool is that?

Sunflowers wedding cake, Maisie Fantaisie

I find it deeply unfair that most enormous cakes are deemed to be wedding cakes. What if you just seriously like cake, and have a lot of friends? Brixton baker Maisie Fantaisie makes some deeply lustable confectionary and this one in particular makes me think happy thoughts both of the sunflowers in Plants VS Zombies, and just outside the French town of Lautrec, where huge fields of them follow the sun and look unnervingly like triffids.

Shark and Beach cupcakes, Martha Stewart

Of the ton (and I mean, ton) of shark or Jaws-based cupcake recipes on the web, these are both the simplest and the most effective. While some other cupcakes AWESOMELY have actual sharks coming up out of them, they involve a) a hell of a lot of effort and b) Twinkies, which I'm fairly sure don't exist in the UK. These on the other hand just require card and some decent icing. Win.

I could go on for hours. I realise that a mere four cakes is only whetting the appetite for fondant and fancy, but dude - I want to hear about your favourite cakes. And if you've done any particularly brilliant ones yourselves, link to the pictures in the comments and we'll round up the best ones in our best in show.