Halloween 2010: Part Two

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2010 part one

When the wife leaves me with the kids for a weekend, stuff like this happens:

My cupcake menagerie

Vanilla with white-chocolate cream-cheese frosting. Pomegranate accents and fondant tombstone. Inspired by Horrid Twine.

Goth cross half-and-half
Chocolate w/chocolate cream-cheese frosting and fondant zombie
Chocolate with Vanilla cream-cheese frosting and fondant hand
Chocolate with chocolate cream-cheese frosting and fondant bonepile
Vanilla with white chocolate cream-cheese frosting. Fondant accents.
Megan's Purple-frosted parental nightmare
Tigger Jack-o-Lantern

Yes, I was a sucker and bought the fancy cupcake liners.

Pictures of costumes next week!

Cake Nine

I'm becoming the family cake celebrity. Even my mom wanted to see pictures of my son's birthday cake this year (Hi Ma!).

This year's challenge was: Lego Atlantis

Fair enough, Lego has NO shortage of photo stock of their products. Even moreso, now that they've expanded to online and animated media. I acquired an underwater backdrop, complete with temple-ruins (he's really into Greco-Roman Architecture), some submersibles, and a pic of "Manta Warrior" - his favorite character from the series.

I threw these components into a Photoshop file and used Lego's website header - their font and design was just too good to try and reproduce by hand. Also, taking a tip from CakeWrecks, I decided to bake all the required text into the picture, rather than risk them writing something horrible in purple icing.

But, I wanted just one more element. I had done some marketing research with/on my son using the Lego Atlantis website. He'd picked out his favorite sets - one of which was a Seabed Scavenger - complete with giant claw, sawblade, and Manta Warrior. How difficult would it be to integrate this into the cake? Oh, about 30 minutes of assembly time...

So the night before, I rushed out to the local toy store, got the Scavenger, put it together, and hid it away - to be used as a cake-topper for the party. The sawblade would actually be embedded into the cake, as if they were mining for precious undersea resources, with the Manta Warrior standing guard.

Another successful party. The kids had a great time, and C. had no issues licking the frosting right off the sawblade.

The next thing my son wants: A Lady Gaga Jack-o-Lantern.

37

Twenty-two years ago, I met a girl. She had this sparkling personality - the kind that takes command of an entire room. Like myself, she was blessed with the gift of a keen sense of humor. Believe me when I tell you she has not a single enemy on the entire planet. She later became my sister-in-law.

Two nights ago, my thirty-seven year old sister-in-law suffered a debilitating stroke. She has compromised right-side mobility - showing improvements in alertness after 24 hours.

I'm writing this because I know how brilliantly intuitive you all are, and how bad of a liar I am - eventually, you would sense something is going on...I thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers - you would not be my friend otherwise.

As with everything else, I am keeping a positive outlook. It's naturally difficult trying to be funny in this situation, but I think my family is looking to me for an easy laugh and a strong shoulder during this crisis. Right now, I'm rather disjointed - making a chicken parmesan, 11 strips of bacon, and a pan of brownies for dinner - I really didn't know which direction I was going tonight. At least, everything tastes good...

We love you, C. You can beat this.