Slaying It

DOUBLE DEMON: Regular readers know we have been making birthday cakes for kids in homeless shelters for years now. We tend to gravitate toward the cakes we think other volunteer bakers won't take on, due to the topic requested. This means we end up doing cakes decorated in themes ranging from Tupac Shakur to an astronaut Godzilla to an artistic cat.

Recently, we saw a request for a Demon Slayer themed cake. We knew that to be a Japanese anime, but nothing else about the franchise. It seemed like that might be a request that went unfulfilled, so we signed up, not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into. Naturally, we turned to the Google. 

According to the Wikipedia article about the series, "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃, Kimetsu no Yaiba, "Blade of Demon Destruction"[4]) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge. It follows teenage Tanjiro Kamado, who strives to become a demon slayer after his family was slaughtered and his younger sister Nezuko turned into a demon."

Well, that sounds rather dark ... But apparently it's popular. As of last year, there were more than 150 million copies of the manga in circulation and the movie "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train," released in October 2020, became the highest-grossing anime film and Japanese film of all time.

The story features several colorful characters, so we didn't really know which direction to go with the cake. We asked Birthday Dreams if they could find out which character was the child's favorite. We were told it is Zenitsu Agatsuma, an honest and kind boy with self doubt but special talents.

Given that, we decided to make a modeling chocolate sculpture of him as our cake topper. And by we, I mean Annabelle.

                                       

ROUND TWO: It seemed like no sooner had we delivered the first Demon Slayer cake than CJ received an email from Birthday Dreams asking if we would take on another one. Um, sure? 

We wanted to go a totally different direction this time, so it was back to the Google. After some poking around, I found myself wondering if cookie cutters for these characters existed. I turned to Amazon and found a set featuring eight of the characters. But the cutters were super tiny - just a couple of inches tall apiece. I thought that might be an OK size to make fondant versions of the characters and have them on the sides of the cake. But then as Annabelle and I talked more about it, we pivoted to the idea of making little cookies to put around the cake. And then that morphed into making cupcakes with the character toppers, and a petite cake with the child's name in the Demon Slayer font/logo style.

One thing we had to do was figure out who each of the characters were, and what they looked like. What would we do without the Internet?

In the end, our vision came together in a most pleasing manner - well, at least to us. We sure hope the birthday child liked it (name changed to protect anonymity).

Below is the character that was featured on our first Demon Slayer cake. This was a smaller, cuter version. Annabelle said the art style is called chibi, actually.

The photo below shows that sometimes in life, you have to paint with a toothpick. This project was one of those times.

Here's a close up of four of the main characters. The one with the scar on his forehead is the main character in the series, Tanjiro Kamado.

Mum's the Word

MOTHER'S DAY: I know it's not ever mom's dream, but for me, there are few places I'd rather be on Mother's Day than the ballpark. And so, that's where we were on that special Sunday, with seats right behind home plate!

CJ was working the game, of course, so at one point I walked to the opposite side of the stadium to get him his favorite concession stand food, a burger from Lil Woody's, and say 'hi' to him while he had his lunch break.

It was an extra special Mother's Day for one mom, the mother of Mariners' rookie pitcher George Kirby. Kirby, 24 and from Rye, New York, made his first ever Major League Baseball start on Mother's Day, and his parents and a whole bunch of friends were sitting right behind home plate. In this crowd shot, if you look in the center, in the shadow, you can see a cameraman with a glowing light on his camera, which was pointed right at the Kirby rooting section.

Here's a brief video about Kirby getting notice of his "call up."

PRIDE TIME: One of the Mother's Day presents I received was a new pair of Doc Martens from Rick and Rachel, down in Vegas. They're part of Martens' pride line of shoes, which you can probably deduce from the stripes on the side, near the heel.

I thought the shoes would look even more pride-full with some rainbow laces.

So, I found some lace replacements on Amazon. They were perfect! The company, ULace, has all sorts of fun lace replacements. (You may have seen U-Lace on Shark Tank back in 2014.)

Annabelle just happened to match the shoes when she installed the lace replacements.

A PROMISE KEPT:  A few days before Mother's Day, I made sure to keep a promise I'd made to a friend, Jan. She was my supervisor when I worked for the Employment Security Department for a few years back around 2000. She was a strong, smart, kind woman who, sadly, succumbed to nasty cancer in December of last year, gone way too soon. 

Jan was a wonderful mother to a son she adopted as a single parent. My son Kennedy even babysat Jan's son one summer way back when. 

When I knew Jan's days were few, I was desperately thinking of a way to do something for her. I knew being a mother meant the world to her, so I thought maybe the best thing I could do is help her son remember he was loved and how great his mom was, so I got the idea to send him a card and a little pick me up once a year. I pitched my idea to Jan, and she loved it. I asked her which day of the year she'd like me to send it, and suggested his birthday, her birthday, his adoption day, or maybe Mother's Day. She *loved* the idea of a Mother's Day remembrance, and so that's what I did this year and will continue to do as long as I'm still kicking.

Pinball Wizards

 

FUN AND GAMES: Last weekend we were so happy to return to one of our favorite events of the year, the Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show.

The show was on hiatus for a couple of years during the height of the pandemic and before the widespread availability of vaccines. But this year it was back and as big as ever. 

I spend way more time walking around and watching than I do playing. I'm always on the lookout for 'new' old pinball games I've never seen. A first for me this year was Teacher's Pet, dating back to 1965.

An apple for the teacher? It would be better if there was no worm, I'm guessing.

Another new-to-me pin is Gottlieb's Royal Guard from 1968. I suppose it caught my eye because of all of the Diamond Jubilee hubbub happening over in England at the time.

I've probably seen this 2001 game before, but this time I stood there thinking that the makers back in 1971 were not very close to predicting what 2001 would look like.  

The busy graphics on Roller Disco were ... something. 

I was surprised to learn this game came out in 1980. I thought roller disco was kind of passe by then.  Maybe the game was stalled in production for awhile. I actually played this game. Not a fan. 

I always enjoy checking out the super groovy Time Fantasy game by Williams. 

These mushrooms are definitely magical. According to the website TV Tropes, "Time Fantasy is reknown for its psychedelic fantasy theme, which has an anthropromorphic snail-like creature meditating contemplatively among a field of mushrooms in a surreal rainbow-colored landscape." 

It was created in just a couple of weeks in 1983, when Williams needed a game quickly, to avoid a production shut down.

Clint Eastwood caught my attention at one point. This Dirty Harry machine is from 1995. The movie came out in 1971. That's a bit of a delay.

The kids played a few Nintendo arcade games, of course.

Annabelle spent a fair amount of time in the expansive rhythm games section. 

Many of them have instructions in Japanese. That didn't slow her down. 

One game was attracting quite an audience. ...

That's right, it says The Simpsons Colonoscopy Party.

You use a joystick to make your way down (or up?) Homer's colon. 

Here's a little video for you. You're welcome.

All in all, it was a super fun day and it was so good to be back to that event.

Leftovers

FOR POSTERITY: Following are some random photos I neglected to include in previous posts.

First up are the cupcakes we made for CJ's birthday. They are Mountain Dew cupcakes with cream cheese Mountain Dew icing and topped by a nacho cheese Dorito. Shudder. 

I'd seen a photo of these years ago and finally remembered to make them for CJ's birthday this year. I pretty much followed the recipe from Rosanna Pansino's website.

The kids report the cupcakes were good. I'll have to take their words for it, as I certainly didn't want to eat one!

Next up is a couple of positive COVID tests. I feel like that's such a symbol of these last two years, I have to put it on the blog for posterity.

And then this random shot. Back when we were planning and prepping for the Back-to-the-Ballpark menu for Teen Feed, we happened to run across this abomination at WinCo. - a huge tub of cotton candy puffs! 

Cotton candy is most certainly a ballpark food, so we had to buy a couple for Teen Feed. They are some sort of coated puff, and certainly smelled just like cotton candy. Annabelle said they did taste like it, too. I'll have to take her word for it, because I didn't want to try it.

Got Back

On May 3, we four plus Kennedy headed to Climate Pledge Arena to see the one, the only Sir Paul McCartney. 

This marked the third time we were fortunate enough to see Sir Paul. The first time was back in, when he performed the first concert ever at then Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) on July 19, 2013. The second time we saw him perform was the former Key Arena, back in April 17, 2016. He told us then he'd be back, and he made good on that promise by playing Climate Pledge, which is the dramatically remodeled Key Arena. (About the only think that's the same is the distinctive roof.)

We had what you would call nosebleed seats. We were in the very last row of the stadium. It actually wasn't bad - it's nice not having anyone behind you, talking, screaming, spilling things on you, kicking your seat, etc. 

The show was everything you could hope for. Paul played everything from The Quarrymen to The Beatles to Wings and some more recent stuff. Here's a link to the setlist for the May 3 concert. 

He even did a video duet with John Lennon at one point.

Sadly, we'll never get to see George or John play live, as they are both long gone, but we do have tickets to see Ringo in September!

After the show we strolled Seattle Center from the northwest corner to the southeast, and stopped to appreciate the scenery along the way. 

Above and below, the kids sit on the whale sculpture near the International Fountain. 

An art installation outside of the Chihuly museum had an eerie glow. 

And, if course, I had to stop for the requisite Space Needle shot. 

I sure am glad we were all over COVID in time to go to the show. When Annabelle finally got it (the last of we four to contract it), the first think I did was look at the calendar and do the math regarding whether or not she's be clear for the McCartney show.

Run A-MUK

SPECIAL REQUEST: Back in April, we had a request from the Mukilteo Historical Society to make some custom cookies for the Mukilteo Lighthouse opening for the 2022 season.

We'd make cookies for MHS before, for one of their board meetings. We used what we learned from that to make even better ones this go round. :)

Naturally, we had to make some lighthouses. They each had to be hand cut, and then they were covered in homemade marshmallow fondant, dyed to match the actual lighthouse colors. We used tools to make impressions in the fondant to match the siding, trim, and roof tiles. A big gold nonpareil was a stand in for the beacon in the lighthouse's tower. 

As with any project, we start on the drawing board. Below is a sketch of the types and quantities of cookies we were shooting for.

There were some seagulls in the mix, because they're a constant feature down at the beach. The real live ones are pretty brazen, hoping for food from visitors.

Speaking of the beach, we had to make some beach cookies, of course. Fortunately, I had some grey  candy rocks 'in stock.' Puget sound was made from marbled fondant.

We even used shards of smashed up Jolly Rancher to emulate beach glass.

Other cookie designs included ones inspired by the Native American-art found at Mukilteo's new ferry terminal. We also had some watercolor painted lighthouses, state of Washington cookies, sailboats, and watercolor-on-fondant ferries.

We spent about four days making six trays of cookies, all while suffering from COVID. (Never fear, I researched, and there's not a single case of COVID spread via food to date.)  We were pretty tired while working, but the biggest challenge was not being able to go to the store for anything. We had to make do with supplies on hand.