The fat lady has sung; the Cake Poll is closed!

Like, whoa. At 12pm PST, when our Cake Poll closed, we had received a grand total of 138 entrants, a combination of responses via comments and via email. Not only were we thrilled that people were so excited about the sweet prize, but we were super-psyched to see so much cake love and enthusiasm, and to see the role that cake plays in so many different people's lives. Moreover, it was a fascinating experience, and we have learned a bunch of new things, including:

What many of us refer to as Red Velvet Cake is known and loved in some parts of the world as Waldorf Red Cake (or sometimes, Red Waldorf). Why so? Turns out there's a story behind it--allegedly, in the 1960's when dining at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in New York City, a diner was most impressed with the signature red cake and asked for the recipe; several weeks later, she received the recipe in the mail, along with an invoice for between $150 and $350, depending on the source. Royally pissed, she created a chain letter by which to spread the recipe, so that nobody would ever again be billed for it. Urban legend or true tale? That's not for us to say, although we did enjoy the story.
While you might enjoy a dry martini, no dry cakes, please: resoundingly, dry cake was the most likely reason for you to consider it a "bad" cake.
While you love frosting, you're no junkies: Most entrants preferred 3/4 cake to 1/4 frosting, or 2/3 cake to 1/3 frosting as their ideal cake-to-frosting ratio. Some of you said you don't like frosting, but we don't believe you.

In an effort to make a random and fair choice, we inputted our list to random.org, where we then let technology determine the victor. And so who was it?

The Oscar goes to--er, we mean, the winner is...Becky of East Granby, CT!

We were happy to get to know Becky a bit more through her responses (which we have listed below):

Where did you grow up? Where do you live now?

I grew up in Trumbull, Connecticut (southwestern CT) and I now live in East Granby, Connecticut (north central CT).

What were some of the special cakes from your childhood?

Special cakes from my childhood include Boston Cream Pie (which my paternal grandmother made once or twice from scratch, but usually she'd just buy one from a bakery), a lamb-shaped cake my mom made for Easter when I was little (sweetened shredded coconut was the lamb's "wool"), and cupcakes that my maternal grandmother made with NO recipe and NO measuring utensils -- just throwing in a little bit of this and that. Those cupcakes always came out perfectly light and sweet. But generally, ANY cake was special when I was a kid; I just love cake!!!

Presently, how often do you eat cake or cupcakes?

I eat cake/cupcakes maybe once a week. I'd keep cake lying around even more frequently if I wasn't afraid of weighing 400 pounds!

If you were stranded on a desert island and had to live on one type of cake or cupcake for the rest of your life...what type would it be?

My desert island cake would be a dense, moist chocolate cake. I have a recipe for a bittersweet chocolate cake that would probably be a good desert island cake.

On cupcakes, what is your ideal ratio of cake to frosting?

I like cupcake frosting to be a sweet treat just for the top of the cupcake. So maybe only 1/4 frosting.

How do you feel about cakes or cupcakes from mixes?

These days, I refuse to bake from a mix. I have been known to say "baking from a mix is not 'baking' at all." Recently I went to the King Arthur Flour baker's store in Vermont, and saw all the wonderful mixes they offer, and I'm planning to try some soon -- so I may change my mind about mixes! If somebody else bakes from a mix, I have no problem eating the results, but I DO NOT want to hear a mix user moaning about how "hard" or "time-consuming" it is to bake.

What's the best thing about eating cake or cupcakes?

The best thing...oh I don't know. It's just...CAKE. Cake is awesome. And cakey. It's one of the best simple pleasures, as far as I'm concerned.

Is there such a thing as a bad cake? If so, what makes it bad?

I have had bad cake. Bad cake usually means it is too dry and/or doesn't have enough sugar. I only need one hand to count the number of times I have encountered an inedible cake. It doesn't happen often, but it happens.

Congratulations, Becky! We will be contacting you shortly to find out where to ship your prize!

Thank you to each and every one of you who participated.