Darwin Day Bake-off: The Finalists!

We asked for your best Darwin-related baked goods, and man, did you respond with some awesome creations! Check out our finalists and then vote for your favorite. As a reminder, the top three will win a Surlyramics necklace and the winner gets a signed Surly Amy print! Polls close Sunday at 11:59pm ET and the winners will be announced Monday morning.

Images and descriptions of all 10 finalists can be found after the jump.

1. Hjalti, who came up with the idea in the first place, went all out with a cake showing Darwin evolving from the sea to the land:

2. Joreth appeals to the internet’s love of memes with the Atheist Nightmare RickRolls:

Atheist Nightmare RickRolls:

First, the name – I was invited to an Internet Meme-themed birthday party, so I made a peanut butter & banana dish. I originally called it Missler Peanut Butter & Comfort Banana Rick Rolls, to honor the Atheists’ Nightmare guy and Ray “Bananaman” Comfort, but I was told that was too long, so I renamed it Atheists’ Nightmare Rickrolls. And since they were rolled in a tortilla, I called them Rickrolls, cuz, y’know, internet meme.

Next, the recipe: Stir together 1/2 cup peanut butter & 1/3 cup plain vanilla yogurt until smooth. Drizzle 1 tablespoon orange juice over bananas & toss gently. Spread approx. 3 tablespoons of peanut butter mixture over 4 8? flour tortillas, leaving 1/2 inch border. Arrange approx. 1/3 cup banana slices in single layer over peanut butter mixture. Combine 2 tablespoons honey-crunch wheat germ & 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over bananas. Roll up tortillas & slice each roll into 6 pieces.

3. Ubi Dubium (and daughters) demonstrate sexual selection in cookie form:

4. The Jen-gineer created a half-dozen cupcakes all in the theme:

They’re all either Ginger Pear Spice with Cream Cheese Buttercream Icing or Chocolate-filled Devil’s Food with Milk Chocolate Frosting, and they are, left to right, back to front:

Cupcake 1: Darwin’s Beard (Don’t you want to take a bite o’ beard?)

Cupcake 2: Making a Sexual (Dessert) Selection

Cupcake 3: The HMIS (Her Majesty’s Iced Ship) Beagle

Cupcake 4: Origin of the Swedish

Cupcake 5: Lucy’s Footsteps
(I know, not Darwin directly, but related to Evolution for sure!)

Cupcake 6: The Descent of (Gummi) Man

5. Thesilverfox06 gives us the HMS (honey maple sugar) Bagel:

6. shinigami-sidhe‘s creation, The Evolution of Refined Sugars and Processed Fats into a Delectable Cardiac Arrest:

For this project, we prove the existence of a pie. The proof is by construction.

A pie crust was created by our very wonderful big sister Catherine because the only not flaky thing in our lives tends to be our pie crust.

We made a filling for the pie by chopping an entire bag of Dove peanut butter and chocolate promises into small bits, and stirring them in with 1/2 cup melted butter, 2 eggs, 1/4 (ish) cup sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. We poured this into the flaky and perfectly accordioned pie shell made by our very wonderful big sister. We baked the shell and the filling at 425 F for 30 minutes.

We then constructed a chocolate glaze by melting 2 oz of the really nice Belgian chocolate we stole from our worthless roommate after he disappeared for a month and forced us to dispose of the disgusting food rotting in the fridge and various places around the house. We melted this chocolate with 2 tablespoons of butter. hovering over the saucepan anxiously stirring because it is easy to scorch chocolate and we have no double boiler. Once it was melted, we removed it from the heat, added powdered sugar and a little hot water until a good consistency was reached and spread it on top of our pie.

Artistry was approximated by adding a frosting made of equal parts peanut butter and butter with enough powdered sugar to reach a congealed state. This frosting was crudely applied to form the letter D and as an edging around the rim of the crust.

7. superchikka created this Pie-trait of Darwin:

It started out as a challenge between me and my wife. If I couldn’t eat all of my week’s lunch apples, I had to bake her an apple pie.

Fortunately for her, and artistic pie lovers here, the Memories of Galapagos Galette was born from my preference for oranges at lunch.

Extra awesome points: it’s 100% vegan! The crust uses shortening, and no eggs or dairy, and the pastry cream beneath the coconut of his beard is made of sugar, soy milk, almond milk, almond liqueur, and custard powder. Details are painted on with melted dairy-free dark chocolate.

Alas, my only regret is that this is not quite accurate. It looks more as if Charles Darwin and James Randi had had a love child that aged rapidly and also loved growing a beard.

8. faith offers Charles Darwin’s Bread Pudding: OrangeGin of the Spices, a call-back to a winning drink recipe from a previous Skepchick contest!

9. Tina invented with the Giant Charliechimpy Cupcake:

Just a giant chocolate cupcake. A little Galapagos islands action, some finches with different beaks (one bearded species), and a crude fondant/chocolate covered HMS Beagle!

10. aclayman’s wife Sarah made this Darwin mosaic cake (though I can’t tell if it’s been printed on the cake or not):