Cakegrrl.com challenges local bakers to a sweet video competition! This year’s Cake War at the 10th Annual Sacramento Chef Challenge is “Battle Cupcakes,” and organizer's are looking for three amateur contestants to duke it out against three cupcake pros! Amateur baker’s from the greater Sacramento area are invited to join the battle by creating a three to five minute video that shows “why you and your cupcakes are the best!” The challenge is presented by Cakegrrl.com, a local blog that explores and promotes restaurants, activities and fundraisers from across the Sacramento Valley. Kristy DeVaney, the sugarplum behind Cakegrrl.com is excited to see what her fellow bakers have to offer.

Who gives a shout out to the Central Valley? Well, someone from the Central Valley. This week, Cake played twice for eager Central Valley crowds. The local band performed for happy Cakesters at Freeborn Hall on the UC Davis campus on both Thursday and Friday nights. Friday night, the Memorial Union hall was at capacity, 1,775 people deep. On Thursday, nearly 1,300 people came out to sway and nod with Cake. An hour before the show on Thursday night, fans were already lined up outside, ready to vie for a good spot in the community center hall. Thursday night drew a devoted crowd with one (especially) veteran fan who declared she’s been to over 20 Cake spectaculars over the years. The alt

Cake. Simple, home-baked, yet such a delicacy. The five member band will start the academic year off right for UC Davis students. The local favorite will perform at University of California, Davis’ Freeborn Hall this Thursday and Friday, October 6 and 7. While the band's tunes are so rollicking and varying that they are essentially without genre, Cake is known for a number of hits including, "The Distance" and "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle." "Never There" and "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" also function effectively as cult classics for the current twenty-something generation. (Even if some have now reached their thirties.) The band's newest album, "Showroom of Compassion," was released in Januar

You’ve probably seen cake pops on food blogs or at bridal showers or even at Starbucks. The bite-sized treat is becoming a popular alternative to cupcakes. South Sacramento resident Wendy Bell has made an online business out of her made-from-scratch cake pops called It’s a Peace of Cake! After seeing a cake pop recipe online, she decided to make her own version using her five basic cake recipes: lemon, chocolate, vanilla, red velvet and coconut. Bell crumbles the cake and combines it with frosting, rolling it into a ball and then dips it in a chocolate shell and finishes it off with her signature chocolate swirl. Each cake pop has a different combination of cake and type of chocolate.

These aren't the kind of shows you necessarily have to be "in the know" to know about. Most of Cake's hometown shows here in Sacramento over the past couple of years have been centered around their occasional surprise shows at the relatively tiny Blue Lamp, with announcements for the gigs usually coming the day before or day of - or not at all. You may now consider yourself "in the know." Cake will perform a pair of concerts on Thursday, October 6 and Friday, October 7 at Freeborn Hall on the University of California Davis campus. Tickets are $37 in advance and $42 the day of the show. Tickets are currently in pre-sale, and will be on sale to the general public on Friday, July 22 beginn

The economy is finally showing signs of dragging itself out of the quicksand.  This slow but steady comeback has sparked some pleasant surprises throughout downtown over the last few months. Like a chain reaction, specialty businesses are popping up in some rather unexpected places, encouraging more to follow suit, as rents are becoming more affordable and creative spaces more available. Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts, 1201 F St., is a valuable oxygen source to the span of 12th from D through H streets. For the last six months, that area had stretches of blocks with no tenants as “for lease” signs littered the windows. Now, change has come. I pass by that location every night on my wa

The long awaited “Showroom of Compassion,” the sixth studio album of original material for Cake and their first since 2004, is a recorded confirmation of what many fans have already come to know as true about the eponymous Sacramento band: Cake is allowed to continue producing their vintage deep friend country funk sound ad nauseum – and they’re allowed to do so because no one else out there sounds like Cake. Few have even tried, none have succeeded. However, in unleashing “Showroom” upon the world, Cake has officially hit the bottom of that well, and if they keep dipping into it, they’re going to come up with nothing but a handful of dust and three bucks worth of quarters that some kid

Yes, that really did happen here. The complaints and rumblings about music in Sacramento have been mounting for years: a perceived disconnect between the local music scene and the community, the glaring lack of consistent all-ages music venues in the downtown area and a debilitating middle child syndrome caused by big name touring acts that often pass the Capitol City over for gigs in the Bay Area. In the face of the retrospective on local music provided by Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s newest walking tour, it becomes hard to find anything to complain about. Entitled “Locally Grown, Internationally Known: The history of the Sacramento Music Scene,” this hour-long tour offers not onl

Members of Cake are regular fixtures around Sacramento, their hometown; just last week, members have been spotted on the sidewalk outside Old Ironsides and on the Appetite Enhancement Ride on Thanksgiving Day. But to see the whole band play live is a rare treat.  But the band has not been idle. The members are recording what will be their sixth, as-yet-untitled studio album - their first in six years when it appears next year - and Monday night they included their hometown fans in the process, running through a handful of the new songs in a surprise appearance live at The Blue Lamp, at Alhambra and N Streets in the Grid. Several dozen people were turned away at the door when the house re

The Brodys bring more than musical instruments to their Concerts in the Park shows: They also bring props. They like to up the entertainment value of their shows by bringing a little something extra. One year, they brought a fake 30-foot shark to go with a beach theme. Another year they brought in a Brodys cover band who played the band's instruments while the group listened from the beer garden. Once, they brought the entire Cal Aggie Marching Band to play a song with them. "Every year we raise the bar for ourselves; we can't just go back to showing up and playing," said The Brodys' lead singer Tony Brusca. "People coming out will get good music and chuckles, too." This year they will

Time and time again I am totally shocked when I hear of a well known band being from the Sacramento area. Are you like me? I mean, Sac-town isn’t that massive, so how come we didn’t hear about them before they became a household name? I’ve constructed a small list, with names of various artists who will probably surprise you… Also - to make your life just a little easier, each link is a song by that artist. - The Deftones - http://search.playlist.com/tracks/deftones%20change I'm sure everyone has heard their song called “change." They have got this really hard, yet umm… well, almost brainwashing sound. This band is huge as far as underground music fans go, though they have alternated ba