Oh, the Places We Went

GRADUATION:  Though CJ and Annabelle are still several years away from graduation, they had a hand in a local graduation ceremony today via helping with a cake for the occasion.

I love making artsy cookies, but I pretty much dread making custom cakes because of the potential for disaster factor. 

https://youtu.be/ZVvdLeRHQoQ

That said, we did throw together a Dr. Seuss themed cake for a very small, very alternative school this afternoon. A couple of weeks ago we found out the theme was Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go." The last published book of Dr. Seuss, the story of charting one's own course and overcoming obstacles has become a de rigueur gift for high school graduates.

Making a cake like this is a multi-stepped process. The first step is deciding what you want to do. That takes a lot of thought and, of course, we Googled "Oh, the Places You'll Go cakes." That was both good and bad, as it showed us some excellent examples, but mostly showed us horrible, horrible cakes we would never want to make. And that paralyzes you with fear. ... 

Eventually, you have to get over that and make the da&* cake.  I decided to do 'flat' characters (like they were on the page), use a few of the most apropos quotes, and center on the fun animal characters in the book. However, in it, the animals are mostly scary. Scary animals on a graduation cake are probably a bad idea, so we made happy versions of them. :) Of course, the fun, Seussian trees were also included. Getting the pastel-y colors right was important, and we decided on reproducing the conical shape on the cover of the book for our cake topper.

We made the Seuss characters and quotes out of gumpaste this past weekend, and baked the cake rounds on Sunday. The cakes (mocha chocolate and banana bread) were filled (chocolate malt and brown sugar cinnamon, respectively) and crumb coated last night, and then this morning they got coated in smoothed buttercream (to resemble fondant) and packed up for the scary trek to the school. 

Between steep hillsides and horrible HORRIBLE Seattle roads, it was a hold-your-breath trek, but the cakes made it intact. We decorated them on site (stacking, adding the characters and the trim pieces), and when we walked away just moments before the graduation ceremony, it looked fabulous. Hopefully, people enjoyed it. 

CENTER STOP:  Midday, we headed to Seattle Center to pick up our sneak preview tickets for Jurassic World on Thursday night. While there, the kids enjoyed the awesome new play structure, and then cooled off in the fountain. 

Can you spot CJ and Annabelle?

Tonight, we watched "Jurassic Park: The Lost World" to help get tuned up for Thursday.

The Web site for the latest JP movie is totally worth checking out. It looks like the site for any real world zoo or park. Go here: http://www.jurassicworld.com/

CARPOOL FOR AMERICA:  When we were making our way home this afternoon, CJ started asking questions about carpool lanes. That soon turned to him talking about a World War II propaganda poster telling Americans that driving alone is like riding with Hitler. Yes, really. 

This poster, by American artist Weimer Purcell, was published in 1943 by the Government Printing Office for the Office of Price Administration. 

When we got home, we hopped on the Internet to learn a little bit more about it. 

A page on the National Archives site talks about the Hitler/car-sharing poster, as well as other posters that exhorted Americans to salvage, ration, and/or use resources more wisely. The page includes a quote from Donald Nelson, Chairman of the War Production Board. Describing the military view of the American wartime industry, Nelson said, "Astronomical quantities of everything and to hell with civilian needs."

We thought this one, called "Waste Helps the Enemy," was rather cleverly done.  

The artist is Vanderlann, and the poster was produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company.