Come to the the Dark Side, we have cookies! - Anon
This year my friend Ken requested cookies instead of a cake for his birthday. In particular "Dark Side" cookies.... Bwah ha ha ha ha!
(Late addition added on Thu 12/25/2008.)
Friday, November 21, 2008
Ken's Dark Side Birthday Cookies
Experiment 081121
Come to the the Dark Side, we have cookies! - Anon
This year my friend Ken requested cookies instead of a cake for his birthday. In particular "Dark Side" cookies.... Bwah ha ha ha ha!
(Late addition added on Thu 12/25/2008.)
Come to the the Dark Side, we have cookies! - Anon
This year my friend Ken requested cookies instead of a cake for his birthday. In particular "Dark Side" cookies.... Bwah ha ha ha ha!
(Late addition added on Thu 12/25/2008.)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
New Xbox Experience
Allow me a moment of fan-boyish enthusiasm please. The "New Xbox Experience" Xbox 360 console upgrade is awesome! The upgrade itself only took about five minutes for me and the new Netflix Watch Instantly integration is flawless. The video quality on the copies of "Hellboy: Animated: Blood & Iron" and "Last Exile: Vol. 1: Ep. 2: Luft Vanship" that I watched last night was fantastic. Whee! New toy!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Valkyrie screening
Adventure 081118
Kathy and I were lucky enough to be invited to attend an early screening of Tom Cruise's newest movie last night and I found myself surprisingly entertained. I personally am not a Tom Cruise fan, and WWII dramas have not generally appealed to me but I found myself wrapped up in the story and the marvelous performances by Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson. I walked into the theater only knowing that Valkyrie was going to be a dramatic retelling of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's plot to assassinate Hitler at the end of WWII, but even knowing the story would have to end poorly I couldn't help but be enthralled by how well the characters were portrayed as fighting against their destiny. I was particularly pleased by how the inevitably depressing ending was handled, and walked out of the theater buoyed by the characters strength. I strongly suggest going to see this one on the big screen.
Kathy and I were lucky enough to be invited to attend an early screening of Tom Cruise's newest movie last night and I found myself surprisingly entertained. I personally am not a Tom Cruise fan, and WWII dramas have not generally appealed to me but I found myself wrapped up in the story and the marvelous performances by Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson. I walked into the theater only knowing that Valkyrie was going to be a dramatic retelling of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's plot to assassinate Hitler at the end of WWII, but even knowing the story would have to end poorly I couldn't help but be enthralled by how well the characters were portrayed as fighting against their destiny. I was particularly pleased by how the inevitably depressing ending was handled, and walked out of the theater buoyed by the characters strength. I strongly suggest going to see this one on the big screen.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Epic MacBook Pro Cake Failure
Experiment 081115
After a co-worker saw the cakes I brought in from my Wilton class she wanted to hire me to bake a cake for her husband's 50th birthday. I was feeling pretty proud of myself after the class and decided to break my rule about taking money for my cakes. Big mistake. After sitting down to discuss at work, she asked me to try and make a MacBook Pro cake. "A MacBook Pro cake? Sure! That shouldn't be too hard. I can just bake a normal sheet cake with my Dream-Whip White Cake recipe, then I'll level it and put it on a nice cake-board, frost it with Wilton recipe Buttercream icing, and then use this nifty wax-paper trick I learned in my Wilton class to get really smooth frosting." Pride goeth before a fall.... Or in the case of this experiment it "goeth" before waking up to find a bunch of cracks that appeared in the frosting overnight. Kathy and I tried just about everything short of scrapping the icing off and starting over, which unfortunately we really didn't have time to do. With time getting short Kathy and I went ahead and tried applying the silver dust with both a folded piece of cheese-cloth, and by "painting" the dust on with a small brush. In both cases the silver dust highlighted every crack, bubble, and imperfection. I will note that using a piece of cheese-cloth to "dust" large areas did work very well, and I will use that method again if I can get around or don't have to deal with the cracked icing issue. Once the silver had been applied we added the white chocolate Apple symbol, and started adding the ports, DVD slot, and thumbscoop. I then tried to show a better height match by adding clamshells with royal blue decorating gel dots. Finally I called my co-worker and told her that I would be giving her check back with the cake and warned her that "the cake looks like a ten year old's drawing of a MacBook." Here's what I learned:
Additional info: My co-worker Kim met me at my desk first thing Monday morning and insisted that I take her check back. She said she was thrilled with the cake and that it had been the hit of the party. I'm happy she was pleased even if a bit confused....
After a co-worker saw the cakes I brought in from my Wilton class she wanted to hire me to bake a cake for her husband's 50th birthday. I was feeling pretty proud of myself after the class and decided to break my rule about taking money for my cakes. Big mistake. After sitting down to discuss at work, she asked me to try and make a MacBook Pro cake. "A MacBook Pro cake? Sure! That shouldn't be too hard. I can just bake a normal sheet cake with my Dream-Whip White Cake recipe, then I'll level it and put it on a nice cake-board, frost it with Wilton recipe Buttercream icing, and then use this nifty wax-paper trick I learned in my Wilton class to get really smooth frosting." Pride goeth before a fall.... Or in the case of this experiment it "goeth" before waking up to find a bunch of cracks that appeared in the frosting overnight. Kathy and I tried just about everything short of scrapping the icing off and starting over, which unfortunately we really didn't have time to do. With time getting short Kathy and I went ahead and tried applying the silver dust with both a folded piece of cheese-cloth, and by "painting" the dust on with a small brush. In both cases the silver dust highlighted every crack, bubble, and imperfection. I will note that using a piece of cheese-cloth to "dust" large areas did work very well, and I will use that method again if I can get around or don't have to deal with the cracked icing issue. Once the silver had been applied we added the white chocolate Apple symbol, and started adding the ports, DVD slot, and thumbscoop. I then tried to show a better height match by adding clamshells with royal blue decorating gel dots. Finally I called my co-worker and told her that I would be giving her check back with the cake and warned her that "the cake looks like a ten year old's drawing of a MacBook." Here's what I learned:
- "Simple" cakes are harder than cakes where you can hide your mistakes under an extra glob of icing. (Duh. I should know this by now....)
- Silver dust highlights every crack, bubble, and imperfection. I just don't think icing is a good choice for a cake like this and need to spend some time to learn how to use fondant.
- I'm really not ready to charge for my cakes. Not only are my skills not quite up to the right quality for that, but I'm also apparently completely unable to accurately estimate cost and time. I asked for $30 to create this cake. I used about $15 worth of supplies, I spent about 6 hours of my time, and Kathy also spent about 4 hours helping me. So even if the cake had come out perfectly I would have been charging $1.50/hour for our time....
Additional info: My co-worker Kim met me at my desk first thing Monday morning and insisted that I take her check back. She said she was thrilled with the cake and that it had been the hit of the party. I'm happy she was pleased even if a bit confused....
Sunday, November 9, 2008
More geek points from videogamecartoons.com!
More geek points! Greg Houston of videogamecartoons.com included a DragonCon 2007 shot of Kathy, Ken, Larry and Mom in the #10 slot of his "Video Game Halloween Costume Guide 2008" post.
Villains Halloween Party
Adventure 081101
Kathy wanted to have a big Halloween party this year and choose a Villains theme. It turned out gorgeous! My pictures are on Picasa and our friends Hank and Jon have posted their pictures as well.
Kathy wanted to have a big Halloween party this year and choose a Villains theme. It turned out gorgeous! My pictures are on Picasa and our friends Hank and Jon have posted their pictures as well.
Jennie sketch from DragonCon '08
Kathy and I were not able to make it to DragonCon this year but our friend Dea did attend and brought back this awesome sketch from our favorite webcomic artist Jennie Breeden of The Devil's Panties.
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