Posted August 12th, 2010 | Permalink
Basically, my creative year is divided into two parts: costume time (August through October) and birthday cake time (late April through the second week of May – though it seems longer than that). Both of my kids have birthdays in the same week in the springtime. Birthday Week. Sometimes Birthday WeekS. Even though for years we were able to celebrate them together, with one party, they’ve each always had their own cake, custom made by Mom. The kids choose the theme of their cake early, toward the middle of April. Because they’re cakes – perishable food – I only have a few days to make each one. And because the birthdays are seven days apart, I basically spend seven days making cakes.
This year, my son told me I could make whatever I wanted. That was new.
He is currently an avid Yankees fan. I say “currently” because we are CERTAIN he will outgrow it and come back from the Dark Side soon. We visited Yankee Stadium – the new one – last summer and he was instantly hooked (even though he’s been to Fenway many times and it’s SO much cooler). Being his mother who loves him NO MATTER WHAT (…team he routes for) I decided quickly and easily that a Yankee Stadium cake would be just the ticket.
I did a search online for “stadium cakes” and found some pretty amazing cakes.
And some pretty lame ones. I figured I could manage something that would be better than lame.
I started with a sketch. I always start with a sketch.
Then, I baked two 13×9 inch chocolate sheet cakes (gluten free for Jake). My husband helped me “build” the structure of the stadium from these. We had to do a bit of cut and paste to get the second level of the stadium, and the entry wall wanted desperately to fall down. We ran a couple of toothpicks through it and rested the whole thing on a book at one end, so it would be at an angle taking advantage of gravity to hold the tall wall in place. Then, I frosted it with what I call “primer”; white frosting that can be rather messy (chocolate cake bits in it, etc) and waited for it to dry. About an hour until it felt sturdy enough to continue.
Now that the architecture was done, the transformation began. I frosted the entire thing with a medium gray (cement color) decorator icing and smoothed it. Then I tackled the infield. I chopped up two sugar cookies (gluten free in this case) in my food processor until they were fine, like sand. Wall-ah. Dirt. With this I created the baselines, pitcher’s mound and batter’s box.
The grass was green frosting through a #233 frosting tip. The players were just tiny flowers made with a #96 tip, with a silver deco ball plopped in the middle. As you can see, Big Papi is just about to bring a runner home. The fans are rainbow sprinkles, and I think that’s about proportionate to the real fans in the real stadium! It looks like a couple have fallen out of their seats (probably from rage at being whipped by the Sox) onto the field.
The final touches were the entry-way Yankees logo and the scoreboard. Who’s winning? Well, Mom had to have her fun, right?
I made these of fondant, colored deep navy and rolled out with a rolling pin to about 1/8″ thick. I decorated them while they lay flat, let them dry, then trimmed to their final size and lifted them into place with a squoosh of icing as glue. The words “Yankee Stadium”, “Happy Birthday Jake”, “13″, and the outlines of the famous arches on the sides came last.
At 2am I was happy with the final product and set it in hiding until the next day. Jake and his friends enjoyed the cake without pause.
Applause maybe, but not pause.
Posted July 25th, 2010 | Permalink
As all of my friends and family know, I don’t have a phone. I mean, I don’t have a cell phone. We have a land-line at home, but that’s it. My husband doesn’t have a phone either. Are we phone snobs? Absolutely.
I had one about 6 years ago, when I had a different job and commuted 45 minutes each way to and from work every day. I talked on the phone all the way to work and back; sun, rain, snow, sleet or hail. I found out that I need to concentrate while driving. Who knew? I felt it gave me the liberty to be late to work, because I could always call and say, “I’m running 15 minutes late”, or “I’m just going to stop at so-and-so on my way in,” as if when my staff knew where I was, it meant I wasn’t late. People called me ALL THE TIME, no matter what I was doing or where I was, and I always felt compelled to answer the phone. I felt like I was “on call” all the time. If I didn’t answer, or had my phone turned off, or left it at home, they would ask, “Why didn’t you answer when I called? Is something wrong?” No, nothing’s wrong. I just don’t want to talk to anyone right now.
So, when I started my new job, only a few miles from home, I gave it up. And happily. That was six years ago. I’ve never looked back.
But of course, I didn’t escape the phone syndrome altogether. I still have to listen to everyone else’s conversations wherever I go: the grocery store, while I’m walking the dog around the block, the playground, the beach, even the movies sometimes. It amazes me. I guess it shouldn’t amaze me anymore, but it does. You really can’t decide between skim and 1% without making a phone call? Can you really enjoy the surf and the sounds of the beach if you have another teenager yapping in your ear (”Oh, I know it, it was, like, are you kidding me? Right?”) ? I get so annoyed having to listen to other people’s private conversations. And the worst? The worst to me is when someone is in a line, at a store, and they talk the entire time they are being cashed out. No eye contact with the store employee. No acknowledgement that they are even there, helping them, waiting on them, being kind to them. Because I’ve been on the other side of the counter, and I know that it’s RUDE.
So today, I was SO thrilled when this happened…
I was in a local spot, grabbing some lunch, in line to pay. I was second in line behind a young woman in beachwear and flip-flops who was chatting animatedly on the phone in the attitude of her early twenties: “oh my GOD, I know, right? She SAID that?” She put her things on the counter and continued her conversation without pause, opening her wallet as she chatted. But nothing happened. The cashier didn’t move. She just stood there with one hand resting on the counter, the other hanging at her side, looking at the chatty customer. About 15 seconds or so, I’d say. The customer was still chatting away, not noticing the pause. I was just thinking to myself, “Get off the phone!” when the cashier said this to the customer…
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have take her first (pointing at me), until you finish your phone conversation.” As she said this, she lightly gestured to this sign, taped flat to the counter.
There was a brief, “Oh, okay…OH, oh, I see…” as the customer struggled to peel her attention away from her conversation to understand what the cashier was saying, and as it sunk in. She immediately said into the phone, “Okay-I-have-to-go,” and abruptly flipped her phone closed. (I would have hated to be the person on the other end of that conversation – is that really what it’s come to? Cuz, you know, hanging up on people is kinda rude.) She then moved her attention to the cashier, who began to ring in her things. I’m sure she felt a twinge of embarrassement, but it was light at best as she said to the cashier, “You know, that’s actually pretty cool,” referring to the sign on the counter.
“Well, yes, see, we feel that we’re going to be talking to you, and we should have your undivided attention. It’s really only polite that if we’re going to give you ours, you should give us yours…” explained the cashier, who by the way, was a young woman, about the same age as her customer. I couldn’t help thinking that she had some serious Moxie – to enforce that policy as strongly and politely as she did.
The exchange continued for a few more moments as the transaction was completed, and the customer walked away to a table where I later noticed she had sat down and pulled out her phone again as she ate.
When I approached the cashier, all I could say was, “That was awesome.” She smiled a big grin at me. It was obvious, that she LOVED that policy. She’s passionate about it. While I don’t think it was “fun” to enforce, she believed in it full tilt.
I almost danced to my car. Man, that made my day.
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Posted June 20th, 2010 | Permalink
A HUGE thank you to all who purchased tickets for the Costume Raffle to benefit our Girl Scout troop. With your help, I was able to raise $148 to add to our trip fund. To put that into perspective, that will pay for almost all of the gas for our rental cars, or all of our tickets for the Ghosts Among Us and Cry Witch programs at Colonial Williamsburg.
And now for the winner. I had my daughter draw the prize, with witnesses, of course. And the winner is: LINDA REINHOLDTSEN.
Linda will recieve one custom costume of her choice, handmade by me, in time for Halloween! Thank you Linda!
We are packing our bags now and heading for the train on Monday evening (yes, this Monday!). We can’t wait. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it when we return.
Thank you again!
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