Atlanta and The Call of Cakethulhu

I've been meaning (as usual) to post about life, but life has managed to keep me from doing so.

The trip to Atlanta was a hoot. We went with some good friends to Buckhead for a few days, and watched some baseball, went to a New Kids on the Block concert (hell yes we did!), were almost drowned at said concert, and then the next day gave our hangovers the finger and went to Six Flags to ride roller coasters all day. The guys opted for more baseball instead of the concert - can't imagine why.
Drowndeded rats over there --->
The monsoon at the NKOTB show was faily amazing. We were all standing in line to get into the venue, minding our own beeswax, when the skies just opened up and pissed down rain for the next, oh, five hours or so. We took refuge under a radio station tent for a while, but then just said the hell with it and went on out, fording the 2-feet deep rivers of water that blocked our entrance to the amphitheater. We sat politely during performances by the Jabbawokeez (who? exactly.) and some kid who wasn't a Jonas brother, but sort of looked like one (full disclosure: I was horrified to discover I actually knew one of his songs enough to sort of sing along to the chorus).

But then the real show started, and let me tell you, it was like Magic Summer Tour all over again, except this time my skin was considerably clearer (and I have more or less given up on that dream of losing my virginity to Jordan Knight on a yacht). Apparently this version was something called the Full Service tour, with some new songs (yawn) to go along with it, but they quickly abandonded that to get back to what we were all there for: Step By Step and Popsicle. Poor Joey. He'll always be 14 to us, singing the ultimate teen bubblegum song. That will be on his tombstone: "Did some other things, but mostly sang Jackson-Five-style on "Popsicle."
K & N were both there to see Joey, and I was really hoping for some hair-pulling and spitting over him, but alas, they are both "grown ups" and simply commented that he was still cute. Bor-ring.
Good times, good times. Remind me to tell you about my t-shirt, because it's a post in itself, girl.

Quick thoughts on Six Flags - perhaps it's because I had just gone to Disney, but SF is ... lacking. And the fact that the bored-looking ride operators all have that "high school dropout who just doesn't give a shit" air about them doesn't help matters. Please, yawning pimply-faced attendant, quit barking into your Blackberry long enough to make sure my harness is locked into position before you push that red button and shoot me into the stratosphere.

It's no Cedar Point, but they do have some decent coasters there - to ride: Superman, Batman: The Ride, and Goliath. To Skip: Mindbender and The Ninja (unless you like to get your teeth shaken out on what was surely the prototype for all steel coasters back in the day). <- Over there is a picture of Harkey feeling up the ninja statue. We're classy like that.

Also, Six Flags is fantastic for people-watching. Let's be nice and just say there is a marked difference in clientele a $100 ticket (Disney) and a $30 ticket (SF) attracts.

Which brings us to today and Cakethuthu.

My hetero lifemate, LAO'D-G (she's a Klingon), is having a baby. And I am co-hosting a shower for her with our high school buddy. This shower is to be on Saturday. The other hostess said, "You like to make those cake, so you do that." No problem. I was going to whip up one with the bear pan, and be done with it. But then that seemed boring, and let's be honest, it has never *quite* worked. So when LAO'D-G mentioned that her nursery theme was ocean creatures, I jumped on it. Of course! I'll make an adorable anthropomorphic octopus like the one in the bedding set!

How does one go about such a thing? I don't know about normal people, but I tend to go the "make it all up and see what happens" route. So here is a little preview of how it's going...
I'll scan the "inspiration sketch" I drew later, so you can see where it started and where it ended.

Basically, it's a 2- layer german chocolate cake, with blue icing (looks like waves, y'know?) and the octopus emerging gleefully from within to welcome the new bairn. The original idea had him holding pacis and rattles and whatnot in each tentacle, but at this point that's out.
I made him out of, what else, rice krispie treat (dyed the same color as he is, which is a bluegreen):

Then, after lubing up my hands generously with Blue Bonnet, I sculpted his arms and head:

And my awesome awesome husband helped me tint 10 freaking pounds of fondant bluegreen. It's much harder than you'd think to do.

The fondant was measured, cut and rolled out, then individually applied to each tentacle. the tentacles were prepped with buttercream icing as glue for the fondant (I have diabetes by osmosis now, btw).

By the end of the first night, the whole thing was terrifying. It looked like Cthulhu. She may have a Klingon name, but LAO'D-G isn't a Lovecraft fan. More cute, less horror.

For cutening purposes, fondant way dyed purple for the application of the suction cups. The cherry is there to show scale. I cut those damn things out with a straw. the suction cups were then applied (again, icing as glue) to the tentacles.


And what says "Baby shower-topus" more than a cute little face carved out of fondant with an exacto knife?

Which was then applied to the waiting, fondanted head. I don't have a cherry here for scale, but it's a little bit smaller than a canteloupe:

So that's where we are, 2 days and 9 hours or so into the project. the cake will be baked Friday so they are nice and fresh, and the whole thing will be assembled at the shower. Nothing like *hoping* it will all go smoothly. Oh well. Even if it looks awful, the cakes will taste good.

And did I mention I'm working on a sailor hat for him too? I think it will look dapper and jaunty, things expectant mothers look for in confectionry.

*****
Current music: Someone mentioned that not only was I not blogging much, but that I'd abandoned my "what's playing" section. Fine, fine ... it's Poker Face, OK? Are you happy? I can't resist a poppy little beat. And I am a sucker for british pop. A good deal of this cake was assembled while dancing around my kitchen to Robbie Williams and Rock DJ. (That video is awesome, but it may be NSFW? He pulls his butt off. Ya Rly.)

Comments

[Katie Bonk]

WOW! I am so jealous of your creativity and mad cake-making skills! Can't wait to see the final product. Sounds like you had a great time in Atlanta!

[Lovey]

That face! And those suction cups!!! Cuteness indeed.

[Allison]

Nice octopus! Actually that RockDJ video really is quite freaky. I remember seeing it a few years back. It's still one of my favorites! And so was Joey McIntyre. I had the Joey M Ken doll made by mattel. I think I still have it..