(Image courtesy: Wired)

Update -- 10:40 a.m. April 2, 2009: Two new cakes from WhatTheyPlay and GeekSugar added to the bottom of the post. We're now up to nine confirmed cake sightings! How many more can there be? Probably not many, but keep your eyes peeled. Also, be sure to check out Jeremy Parish's thoughts on what the heck to do with a cake like this.

A note to all PR companies engaged in the never-ending battle for press attention: The bar has just been raised.

I'm no stranger to the ridiculous swag that comes with a big gaming launch (just check out my awesome Professor Layton hat for proof) but what Nintendo is doing for the launch of the Nintendo DSi takes the cake ... LITERALLY (sorry, I had to do it)

It seems that some of the DSi review units that specialist press outlets are receiving today came hand-delivered along with larger than life, tiered, DSi-shaped chocolate/banana/marzipan-flavored cakes, made by Half Moon Bay's Elegant Cheesecakes and Denville, NJ's Pink Cake Box. As if that weren't enough, each outlet's cake is made unique with a photoshopped picture of the receipient journalist and a special, personalized message written across the bottom tier of the cake. Plus there were balloons! Yaya balloons

Call it jealousy, call it intrigue, call it hunger, but for some reason I've spent a large part of my afternoon tracking down evidence of as many of these cakes as I could find so I could chronicle which outlets and journalists were lucky enough to recieve this sugary surprise. Here's the ones I've found so far. Be sure to click the pictures for documentary news articles/blog posts from the receipients themselves, many of which include larger pictures and videos of those delicious-looking cakes.

Find a DSi cake that I missed? Let me know and I'll update the post. Otherwise, get your drool-bib ready because here we go.

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Kotaku

UGO

Journalist: Russ Frushtick
Message: "Link Frushtick, the new hero of Hyrule"

1UP

AOL/GameDaily

GoNintendo

Wired

WhatTheyPlay