Ele-fun

TAKES THE CAKE: Recently, a friend asked if we'd make some cake and/or cookies for her baby shower. We said, 'Sure!"

We spent a couple of hours on the Internet looking for inspiration, and pitched a couple of ideas to the friend. One of the things I noted was that, for whatever reason, elephants are a popular pick for baby shower decor. I'm not sure what elephants have to do with people's pregnancies.  Maybe it's because they're pregnant for two years, and that's what it feels like to human mothers?

Regardless, said friend loved the elephant idea, and so that's what we went with. One of the first steps in the cake process was drawing up a design. We decided on a two-tiered cake: A 10-inch round on the bottom, and a 6-inch round on top.

I told my friend the favorite cake we bake is a banana one with peanut butter icing. She thought that sounded great, so we went for that for the base cake.

One thing I did differently this time, is between the three layers, instead of just peanut butter filling, I incorporated a layer of actual salty cocktail peanuts. I got the inspiration from a book I got for Christimas, "All About Cake." Its author, Christina Tosi, has a very successful bakery that is known for its cakes, which is ironic, because the author said she never really liked cake, and so she spent some time coming up with new twists to make it something worth eating. One of the things she almost always does is introduce an element of crunch to the cake equation.

Inspired by that thought, we added a layer of salty, crunchy, chopped up peanuts to our peanut butter filling on the banana cake. I'm guessing it was yummy, because my friend said people at the shower kept asking her who made the cake.

Decorating is always the most fun part. The bottom tier of this project was bordered with giant silver gumballs and adorned with cute little fondant elephants.

The top tier received a fondant border, and then blue candies were used as polka dots.  Both tiers were covered in a 'crusting' buttercream, that is smoothed with a special tool and towel to make rather resemble the smoothness of fondant.

Annabelle did most all of the decorating!

Another first for us on this cake: We made and used modeling 'chocolate.'

Truth be told, it's not really chocolate at all, it's candy melts. They are melted, mixed with some corn syrup and tinted. Then the material sets up into a Play-Doh like consistency. It can be molded and then it sets up hard and retains its shape (unlike fondant, which can't really be used for sculpting because it slumps).

We put our little edible elephant atop a blue fondant blanket. We used the mesh of a kitchen strainer to give the blanket some texture.

Each tier was iced with a crusting buttercream that can be smoothed out with a special paper towel and tool to resemble fondant.

We also decided to make a couple dozen elephant cookies. We used our favorite vanilla-orange sturdy cookie recipe, and make marshmallow fondant for decorating them. 

Little decorating details included black nonpareils for eyes, hearts for ears, and even little white tusks. 

So, funny story about the cookies. We actually 'got' to make them twice. ...

You see, the first time we made them, right after we finished them (on plastic trays with covers), we had to leave the house for a couple of hours. Our dog Laika has developed the unfortunate habit of foraging when we leave the house, and I was worried about her getting them. Fortunately, I had a 'brilliant' idea! We could put the trays in the (cold, off) oven for safe keeping. Perfect!

Fast forward five hours, when it's time for me to stick some cake pans in the oven. Naturally, the first step was preheating the oven. ...

Can you guess what's coming next?

Within three to five minutes, a 'funny' smell is wafting through the kitchen. You know, that unmistakable burnt plastic smell. ...

I ripped open the oven and a toxic cloud of blue smoke billowed out. And the inside of the oven was quite a sight to behold. 

So now you know what 'twice-baked' elephant cookies look like. 

The trays pretty much liquefied. 

It was a gawdawful mess! And the worst part of it was that I REALLY needed to bake the cake to make our deadline. But I wasn't about to stick cake batter into an oven that smelled like a disaster at the plastic factory. So, I cranked the oven up to 500, and every 5 minutes, I'd open it up and use a waving towel to help move the air out the back door.

This process went on for about a half hour. Once most all of the plastic was,  in effect, burned off, I then contemplated how to remove the odor in the oven.

I decided to try a lasagna pan full of vinegar, for starters. I let that bake for about a half hour, and then put a saucepan with vanilla water in it in the oven.

Fortunately, those things seemed to work, and I then felt OK about baking the cake.

Believe it or not, my reaction to seeing the melted mess was uproarious laughter! It was so terrible and yet so funny at the same time. 

Fortunately, the cookies weren't some of my hand-painted, intricately detailed ones. 

And I learned an important lesson. I certainly won't make that mistake twice!

Monday Funday

WILD LIFE: Monday morning, we left the MPA campus and headed north on Interstate 5 toward downtown Seattle, destination Benaroya Hall.  There, we were going to see one in a series of talks National Geographic presentations. Our session was with Filmmaker Filipe DeAndrade, a biologist who works to preserve vital animal habitats. CJ can tell you more about what we heard.

Monday, at Benaroya Hall, National Geographic photographer Filipe DeAndrade gave an educational presentation to a number of school groups. He mostly talked about his experience filming and photographing the wildlife of Costa Rica. He works together with multiple foundations and organizations that help conserve the natural habitats they live in. He's most well known for hosting the National Geographic show "Untamed," which features many of the animals he works with daily.

During his presentation, he provided the crowd with many slow-motion videos of animals native to what he called his "backyard" in Costa Rica. These include hummingbirds, sharks, dolphins, monkeys, and a whole host of others. Costa Rica contains almost 6% of all the world's species!

DeAndrade seemed very comfortable and casual during the presentation, which worked very well with the somewhat younger children in the crowd. He made many jokes about the animals at times, and even recruited one audience member (whom he dubbed "Jason") to make various animal sounds. All in all, it was a very fun and engaging presentation. Filipe can be followed on Instagram, where his handle is @Filipe_deandrade.

After the formal presentation, Deandrade opened the floor to questions from the crowd. CJ was first in line. He asked about sea turtles, noting that Deandrade said 5 of the world's 7 species of sea turtles are found in Costa Rica. CJ asked where the other two types of sea turtles live. 

Deandrade responded that the other two can be found in other tropical places, such as parts of Oceania. 

Yesterday afternoon, we watched all of season two of NatGeo's "Untamed" series that Deandrade hosts. Below is just one example. We'd encourage you to check them all out. The episodes are only about five minutes apiece, and are oh-so-interesting and beautifully filmed.


ICE, ICE BABY: It was super chilly walking the six or so blocks to and fro the National Geographic presentation Monday morning. Even so, I couldn't help but stop and ponder some of the sites in downtown Seattle.

For instance, the skyscraper view from our parking spot was impressive.

Also, on our way back to the car, I was admiring they Plymouth church and telling the family I've always wanted to go inside it. It has dozens of interesting little windows. I've always what they look like on the inside.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Underneath the church is a much less interesting parking garage, and a small plaza with a couple of shops.

Surveying the scene, I spied a plaque on an exposed aggregate wall. Lo and behold, we were standing on the spot where an old ice arena stood. In fact, it was the spot where the Seattle Metropolitans won the 1917 Stanley Cup! Who knew?!

We're on the list for season tickets to the soon-to-be Seattle NHL team. It will be interesting to see what comes of that.

TOTE-ALLY: Monday afternoon we headed to the Burien library for a "crafternoon." The project of the day was crafting a tote bag out of an old t-shirt. Sounded like fun to us, so off we went.

CJ can tell you more about it. ...

I recently learned that it is possible to create tote bags using t-shirts in a simple, ten-minute craft project. I engaged in a t-shirt tote project at the Burien Public Library, following these steps:

First, I cut the sleeves off of the shirt, followed by the neckline. After turning the shirt inside-out, I can use an object (such as a book) to determine how deep I want the bag to be by drawing a line where I want the bottom of the bag to be. Then, I cut slits (about 3/4 to 1 inch apart) from the bottom of the shirt to where I want the bottom of the bag to be. This is followed by tying the right-strands from the slits to the left-strands of the slits to the right, continued all the way to the opposite side of the shirt. After doing this correctly, I pulled the strands to be tight, turned the shirt inside-out again, and voila! A tote bag!

A slightly more wordy version of these instructions, with pictures, can be found here.

Saturday Doings

TACO TIME: This was the fourth Saturday of the month, so that meant we piloted a carload of food to the University District for our monthly service at Teen Feed.

The always-popular taco bar was on the menu. We arrived about an hour before service started, and got right to prepping, which meant cleaning counters, heating meat, lining out the toppings. Those included lettuce, tomatoes, onions, olives, sour cream, cotija and cheddar cheeses, and six kinds of hot sauce. There was also Mexican style rice, and both black and pinto beans.  We also had a dessert bar and drink station.

We were four of 14 who were helping that evening. Christian, CJ and Annabelle all worked in the dish room. I did my typical darting from station to station to keep pots and bowls full.

The past couple of months, we've only had about 25 to 30 diners or so. This Saturday, at least 45 people showed up, and man, were they hungry!

We went through 24(!) pounds of meat (20 of which we prepped and brought), about a gallon sour cream, piles of cheese, at least three gallons of beans, all the desserts ... and the dish room crew reports returned plates were coming in clean, so it's not like the food wound up being wasted at all.

After all of the other volunteers had left, the man who is our 'point person' at the shelter made a point to come into the dish room and tell us how much everyone appreciates our Teen Feed team. He said the guests were absolutely raving about how good the food was, and he added that he, personally, loves what we serve, as well (he and other Teen Feed workers eat with the guests). He said that people are so happy with the variety/choices that we always offer, and he is impressed at how hard we work to keep the food hot and fresh, saying, "You guys keep it coming in waves."  He shared with us that most other groups bring stuff that was hot at one point, but they don't really use the kitchen to cook or heat things back up, so often it's not really a hot meal for the guests. At that, I told him we take food safety seriously, and figured regardless of how things taste, 'first do no harm,' was a guiding principle, so we're mindful of safe serving temps, for sure, and he said he was VERY appreciative of that, as well.

All in all, a super busy night at Teen Feed. The volunteers worked hard and it paid off, as dozens of homeless youth had a huge, hot meal on a cold winter night. 

 PLAYING AROUND: Saturday midday, Christian took the kids to Seattle Center for a free  presentation at Seattle Children's Theatre, "Ghosted."
                               Ghosted graphic from Seattle Children's Theatre

Following is CJ's recap about the production. ... 

In the past few years, mental health (especially among youth) has become a hot topic. Recently (as of the time of this writing), the Seattle Children's Theatre introduced a play, Ghosted, which revolves around four high-schoolers, all of whom struggle with a mental condition. The teenagers are Andre (who suffers from depression), Kayla (who struggles with stress), Syd (who suffers from anxiety), and Liam (who, like Andre, struggles with depression).

The play begins with Syd and Kayla meeting in a counselors' office in their high school. They recognize each other from their 5th grade swim team, and re-form a bond. However, Liam, a juvenile delinquent with anger management issues, appears, having been sent due to his occasionally destructive behavior. Slightly later, Kayla and Syd meet in the hall, and Kayla mentions that she's concerned about her "friend's" well being. Andre, said "friend" (in actuality her boyfriend), hears the conversation, and he gets suspicious.

Eventually, Syd takes Andre to an art room, hoping that the art room will help him unwind. All four of the students end up in the room, have an intense argument (save for Syd), and Syd ends up having an anxiety attack. All four of them are able to establish relationships with each other, and the play ends shortly thereafter.

After the end of the play, certain terms were shown to the audience (examples: Resilience, depression, anxiety, stress). If I recall correctly, one of the cast members stated that anxiety, in small amounts, can be helpful, since somebody may need to accomplish something related to the anxiety. If said anxiety or stress takes control of one's life, then there is a problem. Noticeably, while Andre and Liam both had depression, they expressed it in markedly different ways. For example, a symptom of Liam's depression was destructive outbursts and tantrums.

The last thing we saw before we left was a message on a sign instructing people in the audience who needed help to text HELLO or HEAL to a certain number (I don't remember which, unfortunately).

In reading SCT's web site, the production has toured through several area schools. In a press release about the show, SCT shares this information:

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 20% of youth ages 13-18 live with a mental health condition.  Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the United States, affecting nearly one third of adolescents and adults. One in five youth ages 13-18 live with a mental health condition. Several key indicators point to a rising tide of anxiety and depression among young people.
Kaiser Permanente and Seattle Children’s Theatre have partnered to create Ghosted, for grades 9-12 to raise awareness about anxiety and depression and build resiliency. Students witness the journey of four young people and observe the ways they relate to and help each other. This can have a lasting impact on their lives. The program supports the Health Education Standards and Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks for Washington State Public Schools in areas of mental, emotional and social health.
Key concepts:

• Discussing what you are going through with others is an important first step to getting help
• Stigma causes people to feel ashamed about things that they cannot control
• Depression and Anxiety are common and not anyone’s fault

ART STOP: After the play but before Teen Feed, on Saturday afternoon, Annabelle and I buzzed over to the Rainier Community Center for a little art project.

A Facebook notice let me know that from 1 to 4 p.m., there was an event where people could submit designs for consideration to go on t-shirts celebrating the city's Detective Cookie Chess Park.

We've had occasion to meet Detective Cookie before, and she is quite the personality. She grew up in the projects in Chicago, was a Soul Train dancer, is a snazzy dresser, served as security at the first Obama inauguration, and is a longtime Seattle Police Department officer. She also has headed up a chess club to try to engage youth in some of the "tougher" neighborhoods in Seattle. A couple of years ago, the city named a park in her honor, and apparently t-shirts are going to be part of the celebration.

I remembered Annabelle had done a cute chess-related design for another chess club a couple of years ago (see below).

I figured she could whip out a quick design on Saturday afternoon, and plus, the notice said there'd be free pizza! :)

When we got there it was an interesting scene. There were about a dozen people of all ages (young kids to older adults) sitting at tables with crayons and a template, drawing shirt design ideas. There were a few chess boards out and a couple of kids playing chess, and there was a DJ sitting in the corner of the room, with music blaring and lights flashing. Interesting. ... and not something you'd usually associate with chess matches. Interesting!


Anyway, Annabelle used the provided crayons and pencils to make a drawing. It was a little bit of a challenge because the slightly younger boy sitting across from her was shaking the table while he was erasing his art over and over.

At one point, I looked over to see what he was up to and why all the erasing ... well, it was because he erased his drawing and was copying Annabelle's design exactly, to the best of his ability. Hmm. Well, that's one approach. ... 

Annabelle's design was based on the cool sculptures that are installed in the park. They were done by South Seattle artist Peter Reiquam. At night, they are illuminated in purple, Detective Cookie's favorite color.

All in all, we were probably there about a half hour, and (gasp) there was no free pizza to be seen. Annabelle had to settle for Top Ramen when we got home.

Oh well, first world problems. :)