Cake!

Yesterday was my son's twelfth birthday, and so I, of course, made him a cake. He wanted a duck pond on it, with ducks. White ducks, like his pets. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I ask them what they want on their cake, and then feel obligated to create what they request? Who do I think I am, anyway?
Well, I gave it my best shot. I bought some gum paste and played around with it, and I don't think I did too bad a job for my first time with the stuff.
Here is the finished product:

Actually, I like some of the shots I took before I wrote on it better. Like these:

This picture makes me feel like I'm sneaking up on the ducks. Hee hee hee!

I see all the flaws, (messy buttercream, bad piping, crumbs in the icing, insane duck eyes...) but my son was delighted with it. He wanted me to send it to Cakewrecks as a Sunday Sweet. I don't think I'll be doing that (Have you seen how beautiful those cakes are?!?!) but it was sweet of him to think it was that good! Ah, to be twelve again.

* One last thing *
 I found out that eating mocha mud cake with thick, gooey buttercream for dinner (Yes, that's right, for dinner.) will provide excellent fuel for a morning jog the next day!

My Wasabi Experience

There is a new restaurant in town; a sushi restaurant! We finally ate there last week and it was so good, I wanted more. So, today we got some take out. It came with such a cute little container of wasabi; how could I resist something so cute? I know it's hot, even though I've never tried it before (in fact that is why I've never tried it before) so I just had a little bit.
Yechky! Nasty stuff! I couldn't get rid of the taste! How does anyone enjoy that?! Okay, lesson learned; I do not like wasabi.
And then, it happened. The stabbing pain behind my right eye, the general feeling of unwell that means not only do I not like wasabi, it will also give me a migraine. Now I extra don't like it!
And then, well, it took me a while to understand this, partly because I was stupified by pain, and partly because I have never personally experienced hives before, but I also discovered that I am allergic to wasabi.

That is a terrible picture, but I'm sure that is what wasabi is thinking.

I really, really, really don't like wasabi.

In case you were worried, I'm fine now. Thanks for your concern.

I got to see it this time! I've barely slept the past few nights because I kept getting up to check on the chrysalis, but it is finally over and I didn't miss it! Check it out:

It was so amazing to watch. Seeing that butterfly flit around my garden and realizing that just hours before it had been packed up tight in that chrysalis was kind of boggling. It set me thinking. I think there is a great lesson in the butterfly, but I'll get to that another day. For now, just be amazed.

"Ordinary white light has within it all the colours of the rainbow when viewed the right way. Likewise, an ordinary day contains a full spectrum of beauty, if only we know how to see it. My mission: just be dazzled."

Coming soon...

I feel like an expectant mother. For the past couple of weeks I have been awaiting the moment, and it will be soon, I can tell.
This is what I'm waiting on:

I think I need some photography lessons; that is not a great picture!

It is a Monarch chrysalis. We brought a cute little half-inch long caterpillar into the house, put him in a jar and fed him all the milkweed he could eat until he formed this lovely chrysalis. I am really hoping that when the moment arrives for him to emerge that I will see it. The last time we did this it happened overnight. When we went to bed it was a chrysalis and in the morning, a butterfly. (It made me feel a bit like Spongebob when he thought the butterfly was a monster that ate his friend Wormy!)
If all goes well, my next post will be of a butterfly.