Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Final Birthday Cake: Deadpool the Cookie Hero

 My son is a big fan of Deadpool. Deadpool is one of the Marvel superheroes, a character that was completely misrepresented by the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. You don't sew up the mouth of a character who is known for talking too much. Deadpool doesn't take himself or his comic world seriously. He is a quirky, random mercenary hero, and that is probably the appeal for my teenage son.

This was a challenge. I really have trouble interpreting the human form into a cake theme, so I opted to make Deadpool a cookie. I had to keep adding flour to the cookie dough to prevent spread. My early attempts came out looking like blobs when the dough spread instead of baking firm in the oven. These were the best I could do with my time restrictions. I used mini cakes to make thought balloons and opted for a cake that looked like the page of a graphic novel. I guess it would have been smarter to do a half torso cake that looked like Deadpool--I saw a number of those in my search for cake related Deadpool quips--but I wanted him to work more as an action figure. If I did this again I might just buy a Spiderman cake pan and decorate him as Deadpool. Much easier and very appropriate to the character. Buttercream frosting on a velvet cake are still my favorites for cake sculpture.

So now the May birthdays come to a conclusion and I have an eleven year old daughter, a twenty year old daughter, and a seventeen year old son. There was a teen game night on Chase's birthday, so we ended up driving to that and spending the night with other homeschoolers. Chase's friends surprised him by singing Happy Birthday when we were ready to leave. It was a nice evening for him.

Of course, the month isn't over yet, I still have Marina's graduation coming up, and then I should probably begin pulling together Sierra's last quarterly report. Our life seems to be less about endings and more about perpetual motion!

Friday, May 17, 2013

Home Spun comic strip #809

Home Spun comic strip #809 


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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

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Amazon.com
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The Alicorn Cake

 Marina was considering a Pegasus. I was thinking about doing a unicorn, something along the lines of the Unicorn Tapestries. We ended up meeting each other halfway, so her birthday cake was the Alicorn, a winged unicorn.

This time I made up the cookie recipe and pressed the cookies out rather than roll them. Cookies were used to make the wings, horn, flowers and garland. I'm happy with how the horn turned out, but I wish I had more time to figure out the tail. I suppose the chocolate buttercream pony tail worked, it just looks too short and it probably should have been white, but I had already mixed in the chocolate. I also would have liked to shape the front legs better. The velvet cake recipe still gives the best texture for carving out cake designs. If you are wondering, I'm writing these notes for myself. This is how I figure out what cakes I use from year to year.
Marina turned twenty. I have a twenty year old daughter. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that. Click on the picture and take a good look at that sweater she's wearing. She spent a year knitting it (she kept getting interrupted) and it is beautiful. She finally has the time to catch up and finish some other projects. She had a busy spring semester. Putting wings on her cake was very appropriate. She is about to test her own. The summer will include a trip to England to study for two weeks at Cambridge. Those will be the last three credits she needs for her associate's degree and then she will be going away to art school at a university about two hours away. Big changes for all of us. I am nervous and happy for her.

And I still can't believe she's twenty.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Home Spun comic strip #808

Home Spun comic strip #808

This and the next strip are based on actual events from several years ago. As Marina describes it, a tree really did try to eat Sierra.

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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

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Monday, May 13, 2013

Home Spun comic strip #807

Home Spun comic strip #807

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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Carnival at Corn and Oil

Carnival of Homeschooling The latest Carnival of Homeschooling: "First Teacher" Appreciation edition is now up at Corn and Oil. Please take a moment out of your busy day to read through some of this week's submissions!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

May Starts with a Dragon Cake

I baked two cakes this week. My father's at the beginning of the week, and my daughter's at the end of the week. My father's was a fairly simple round cake, but Sierra wanted a dragon cake, and being me, I needed to do something more interesting than the last dragon cake I made. So I thought about a better way to make wings. I thought about a hoarde for it to curl around. And as I cut out cookie dough to accommodate my grand schemes, I thought about making cookie talons and teeth as well. As I bent over the counter making tiny triangle claws, I suddenly realized where Marina gets her obsessive attention to detail. At least we can work our compulsions to our advantage!


Now I get about a week to recover (and buy more supplies) before the next cake.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Home Spun comic strip #806

Home Spun comic spun #806 

Comics are likely to be sporadic through May. I'll do my best, but I make no promises. This is our family's big birthday month, after all!
 
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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Home Spun comic strip #805

Home Spun comic strip #805

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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

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Monday, April 29, 2013

Home Spun comic strip #804

Home Spun comic strip #804

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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

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