Tuesday, February 14, 2023

On Repeat

TIMES TWO: Last time I popped on here was to share some good news and a cake we'd recently finished. 

From the history repeating itself file, here we go again.

Annabelle was recently accepted by UW Bothell, one of the three places she applied to continue her college. We'll have to visit the campus, as we've never been there. A couple of weeks ago, she was also accepted by UW Tacoma. She's just waiting to hear from one more school, which lets people know the first couple of weeks of March, I do believe. 

CAKE WRECKS: A few weeks back a friend asked if we did cakes by request. I told him we're not in the cake business, but had been known to make cakes for friends if they then, in turn, make a donation to Birthday Dreams, the non-profit we often back cakes for. He agreed to that, so I asked him what kind of cake he wanted. He responded that he wanted it to feature a Dumpster fire, a mushroom cloud and the "Everything is Fine" dog meme by artist KC Green.

(You can read a story about it on NRP here: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/16/1149232763/this-is-fine-meme-anniversary-gunshow-web-comic )

"Well that sounds like fun," we thought. 

The first order of business was making some flames from fondant mixed with some tylose to make it set up stiff.
Annabelle crafted this cute dog and his chair from modeling chocolate.
We built a Dumpster fire by making the 'body' from a big Rice Krispies treat, covered that in buttercream and then blue fondant. Annabelle put a cute face on it, and we topped it with flames.
Then we added a border/lip and some 'coal' (chocolate 'rocks').
Next up, it was time to build a mushroom cloud. We used a column we had, put a tiny cake board on that and then a Hostess Snoball atop that. Then we added mini marshmallows and draped the whole thing in fondant.

The last thing Annabelle made was the banner, per the friend's request.
He was pretty pleased with the cake. He donated $250 to Birthday Dreams and gave Annabelle a healthy tip, as well.