Kathy, Ken, and Swain's Triple Treat Birthday Cakes

Experiment: 071130

Three minutes' thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time. - Alfred Edward Housman

My wife Kathy and my friends Ken and Swain decided to ask for one big birthday extravaganza this year with an Oreo pie, banana bread, and a lemon cake. I wasn't overly pleased with how the pie and the banana bread turned out, but the lemon cake covered in lemon jelly beans, fruit gems, and fruit slices was fantastic.





(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Wed 9/17/2008.)

DragonCon 2007

Adventure: 070831



DragonCon has been my favorite convention for almost two decades, but this was the first year I've tried to Cosplay a theme with a group. My friend Ken, my Mother, my Step-Dad Larry, and I all dressed up as Imperial Orc Marines from the book "Grunts!" by Mary Gentle.



Kathy took a slightly different approach and based her costume on Elwyn from the video game "Shining Tears".



I will note that it was Kathy who managed to get her picture taken with the MythBusters "Build Team"....



While we were at DragonCon we met up with our friend Aldea who wore a very nice "Fallen Angel" costume on Saturday that I sadly did not really get a good picture of.



After the parade we all marched over to Artist's Row to give my favorite webcomic artist Jennie Breeden of The Devil's Panties another basket. That's twice now. Once more and it becomes an official tradition! Jennie immediately tried out one of the odder candy choices in the basket called a "Harry Potter Fizzing Whizbee". I tried one myself and that face she is making is actually a pretty mild reaction....



(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Wed 9/17/2008.)

Tormenting Miki with B5 & Jello

Experiment: 070806

Imagine my delight and joy at your return. Now imagine that expressed as cash. Being a negative number you now owe me $37.50 - Richard "Miki" Evans

Here's an example of why this webpage is called "Sam's Evil Adventure & Experiment Log". Kathy stumbled on a website showing a prank involving placing a stapler into a Jello mold and leaving it on a co-worker's desk. My thought when she showed it to me was "I bet he just tossed the stapler...." So when we decided to do "evil things" to Miki I knew I would need to find something he would be willing to scrape Jello off of to have. That's a copy of "Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales" in the Jello. Yes, he did scrape it off. No, I wasn't kind enough to leave it at that. The disk in the Jello actually only had a copy of the "sock-puppet" version JMS did for the DVD extras. Yes, I did relent and give him a real copy.




(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Wed 9/17/2008.)

Greg's Red Velvet Chocolate-Seashell Birthday Cake

Experiment: 070504

The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well. - Joe Ancis

I had liked the chocolates that Kathy had used to top my cake so much that Greg's cake was built around a box of seashell shaped chocolates we found. I'm still vaguely displeased with how my red velvet cakes turn out. They never seem to be as rich as my other recipes.





(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)

Sam's Killer Quintuple Chocolate Birthday Cake

Experiment: 070427

Of course it has civilian applications. You might wanna kill your friends, someday.... - Jim Zelenka

For my birthday Kathy decided to turn the tables and make a cake for me. I think I may have hovered a bit.... Or at least that's what I think the threats and screaming was about.... In any case she did a fantastic job. My request was for "Chocolate cake, frosted with chocolate icing, topped with chocolate, and with a side of chocolate." That's one of those huge novelty Hershey Kisses behind the candles, and those are Bailey's filled chocolates on the edges. Extra yummy!





(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)

Carrie's Chocolate-Strawberry Birthday Cake

Experiment: 070309

We are not gentle tolerant people. We like drastically effective solutions. - Steve VanDevender

I still feel vaguely guilty about this one. I'd had a rough week and was not coming up with any really great ideas. I have to say though that for a basic cake it came out pretty well.





Also under the header of things to feel vaguely guilty about we have this entry. I present to you the "Sam's Wood - Mark II". I wasn't the only one who had a bad week, so after we were all sugared up we retired to the back yard fire-pit to play with napalm made by melting a huge Styrofoam fake fireplace that Kathy had made for her and Ken's Pirate Birthday party in gasoline and then we rode this contraption down the hill. In the dark. While wearing the helmet to give ourselves the illusion of safety. My favorite quote of the evening was "It's very important to wear protection while riding Sam's Wood!"


(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)

Liz's Birthday Turtle Cake

Experiment: 070202

Why trouble your friends and make them morally liable for your strange doings? - Roger Zelazny

For this cake I overcame my inherent distrust of anything like fondant and we used a batch of home-made modeling chocolate for the shell. The result was surprisingly tasty, easy to work with, and reminded me of a Tootsie Roll. Once I had the basic shape put together I handed it over to Kathy for the sculpting and design work.





(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)

Hank's Birthday MeatCake

Experiment: 070104

Human evolution is directly related to the consumption of meat. When we started eating flesh, we started getting clever. - Ted Nugent

Yes, you read that correctly. This is a four layer meat loaf cake that has been frosted with mashed potatoes and decorated with white cheddar cheese. I made up a double batch of Diabetic Gourmet Magazine's excellent Just Plain Meat Loaf recipe which I then baked in four cake pans. For the mashed potatoes I used instant flakes but altered the box's prep instructions by replacing the water with chicken stock and the margarine with real butter. The potatoes took a long time to whip to the right texture, but ended up being the easiest to use "frosting" I have ever worked with. For the decorations I used a can of Cheez-It White Cheddar Pasteurized Cheese Snack, but I don't think I will use it again because after sitting in the fridge over-night it turned an odd shade of off-white.

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)