Monday, April 29, 2013

The Eve Cake

Eve Vawter is my best friend.  I've known her for quite some time now.  It first started out with just some light socializing on a website but it all changed when I proposed to make her a cake.

No doubt you are all familiar with her profile picture.  What can I say?  It's a gorgeous photograph of a beautiful woman.


My BFF

I'm not a professional baker or chocolatier, I just got caught up in all the cake shows on Food Network.  I hadn't ever used fondant before and only had a meager amount of decorating supplies in the kitchen.  I carried on.

I needed to make this monochrome and simplistic - in a Patrick Nagel sort of way.  After some filtering in Photoshop, this is what I got to work with:

8-bit Eve

The really tricky part was to make cut-out patterns for the fondant pieces.  I had a box-cutter and some free FedEx cardboard boxes.  So, I taped a printout to a box then started STABBING MY BEST FRIEND IN THE FACE with this utility knife.

This really hurt, but after all the cutting was complete, I had a full set of Eve face cardboard cutouts.

The next step was to make the fondant (yes, from scratch) and color it appropriately.  Cut the fondant shapes out and arrange them on a sheet cake.


SHE IS CAAAAKE
So, when I told her I was going to "make her a cake", I really meant it.

Notes of interest:  Her left nostril is a single chocolate sprinkle.  Also, my son wanted to help with the decoration, so that's why some of the black rosettes are a little off-line. 

As for the edges, I opted for Chanel pink.  With black spikes.



I still remember her reaction when I first showed this to her.
And her reaction when I told her I ate it.  And shared some with my kids.


We have been best friends ever since.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Those Kids Are My Kids

Just spouting off like crazy today.

Yesterday, I read a horrific article (even by my standards) about a(nother) Indian girl being raped.  Instead of the details, I'm going to post this picture of two incredibly adorable Indian children.



My partner-in-crime is spending her minutes raising awareness about rape culture.  I'll echo her sentiments in advising you to talk to your children or any young-people you have contact with - talk to them about rape and how it's wrong and what to do if you suspect rape and to show sympathy to rape-survivors.

I know, very serious, very dark, deep stuff.

Thank you for reading.

Killing Takashi

Those of you who are still following this, "hi" again.

I'm taking this blog under my RL identity (there are a lot of settings to change).  I'll probably cull-out some of the less-interesting Second Life posts - since I just don't visit there anymore.

So, less SL, more RL.

"Why not just make an entirely new blog?"  Because lazy.  Plus, there are posts in this blog that I just don't ever want to lose.

So, names will change to expunge the guilty.

Welcome to my life.

Cold French Fries

I was eating leftovers with my aunt for lunch one day.  She saw me eating cold french fries.  She really, REALLY didn't want me eating cold french fries, so she took them and heated them up.

We had the usual discussion of "how can you DO that to yourself" and "it's OK, I eat everything", but this reminded me of a similar situation with my mom.  Years earlier, we had soup and dumplings from our favorite take-out Chinese restaurant.  The next day, I was still in the mood for those same dumplings.  My mom asked me if she should heat them up and, being the ravenous creature that I am, replied "no - I'll have them cold".

To which she called me a "heathen" and threw my dumplings in the microwave for two agonizing minutes.

I understand the parental instinct to want to provide the best for your kids and relatives.  While the majority may think that cold french fries suck regardless, I'm of the opinion that trying to reheat day-old french fries is an act of futility.  I think the french fried potato is food's version of a zombie - you may be able to resurrect it, but it's just a lumbering, brainless shadow of its former self.

But thank you, Aunt Sue, for heating up the fries and mom for heating up the dumplings.  They were still delicious.

Man, I'm hungry - I wonder what's in the fridge?