When you think of John Mayer, what comes to mind? It’s probably his smooth, smoky voice and simple, poetic lyrics; however, last year, Mayer discovered the joy that comes with baking a good holiday-themed cake.

So, this holiday season, as many of Mayer’s dedicated Twitter followers already know, he will be holding a cake-baking competition. The second annual Interfaith Holiday Baking Competition began officially on Dec. 5 and will end Dec. 29.

The contest originated last year in Mayer’s blog when he wrote about    baking holiday cakes with his loved ones. Mayer admits that the commercialized version of holiday spirit has never quite moved him, but his brother suggested that baking might bring him out of his scrooge-like slump.

He decided to give it a try and has reported that he’s never felt holiday cheer as genuine as the time spent baking with his friends and family. He encouraged readers to   submit photos of their own creations.

“There are no rules as to what I’m looking for,” Mayer wrote. “It just has to be baked and make an impression on me.”

Entries must include photos of original creations (no cake pictures from the internet), and they should be e-mailed only once to interfaithcakes at me.com.
Entries should contain a maximum of three photos. In the interest of conserving server space, photo files must be smaller than 400 kilobytes.

Mayer requests that only contest entries be       e-mailed to this address. “If you have a message to get to me, it’s going to cost you baking something! .” The contest will be judged by Mayer himself, and the first prize winner(s) will receive four tickets, including a meet and greet, to any of Mayer’s upcoming shows in the United States tour and a Martin OMJM Signature Series acoustic guitar. The runner-up will win a Fender JM Stratocaster.

In the spirit of          motivation, Mayer will also be posting some of his own creations via his Twitter page at twitter.com slash johncmayer. He hopes to bring people together for the holidays with this festive competition and encourages   everyone to “Start your ovens, turn up the music and have a great holiday season!”