The Pink Ribbon Cake

My Simple, Elegant Pink Ribbon Cake



My Sister's Birthday Cake



Ribbons are extremely simple to make. First crumb coat the cake and then use a petal tip (small part of tip towards yourself) to create vertical ribbons.



Got this idea from a dessert blog I follow called Diamonds for Dessert. They gave a great recipe for a Strawberry Buttercream Icing (unfortunately my sister dislikes strawberries, but it sounded delicious).



To create Happy Birthday sign...fold coloured paper and cut 13 triangles at the seam (should look like diamonds when unfolded). Write each letter of Happy Birthday with a black fine tip marker on each flag. Tape or glue the tips so that the seams are folded around the string. Tie the string to two skewers. They don't have to be perfect because they should look as though they were handmade.

Have one's cake and eat it too!

Some old cakes here that I never put up. Will have more soon with two orders already for March and the beginning of next month. Let me know if anyone needs a cake :)




Valentine's Day



Be Mine



Halloween Cupcakes with Homemade Chocolate Pieces



Turned out AMAZING :)



Got the Boxes from Michael's



Cousin's Hockey Cake



Unfortunately this was the only picture I got. The detail was amazing and the added craft decorations were the work of my little sister.

Book: The Hunger Games

Book: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Year: 2008
Publisher: Scholastic

From past posts it is obvious that I tend to read books that aren’t necessarily on the bestseller lists. Kind of against book-trending norms, I have realized that I usually stay away from the “book of the moment” (with the exception of Harry Potter – which I honestly tried for years to not cave into, but I lost the battle in the end).

This was a similar situation with the recent book trending everywhere I looked: The Hunger Games. I had heard about it and seen it in the bookstore, but never thought much of it. I assumed it was another Twilight, which I managed to avoid over the last few years. After a professor mentioned reading The Hunger Games over the holidays and seeing the trailer online, I gave into the craze and I LOVED IT.

The first book in the series was original and unique. Set in the future state of North America, the nation of Panem consists of the Capitol and twelve distinct districts. After facing a revolt 74 years prior, the Capitol set up a form of entertainment to keep the districts oppressed. Each district would put forth one male and female between the ages of 12-18 to compete against other districts each year. With 24 tributes, they are forced to fight to the death against each other until one emerges as the victor. This is of course broadcasted across the nation on live television.

After her sister’s name was pulled to compete for District 12, the main character, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She sacrifices herself by knowing she will likely meet a certain death. The male tribute from their district is Peeta. The two tributes are both sixteen and have only had run-ins with each other briefly. They are quickly shipped to the Capitol to start the process of the competition. There are opening ceremonies, interviews, training, and skills competitions before they even enter the arena.



Without giving too much of the plot away, the two tributes from District 12 are forced to act like a pair instead of competitors. This shakes Katniss because she knows they might both end up dead or worse, they might end up having to kill each other. When they enter the arena to battle, all the rules for Katniss are thrown out. It becomes just as difficult for the tributes mentally as it is physically. Though most of them have lived in hardship and through starvation, it is difficult for the tributes to anticipate their reaction to killing another human being.

Though I have read many dystopian societies, the element of the Games has really set this book apart and is relevant to society today. If you haven’t experienced The Hunger Games, I would recommend it. Or if you are not much of a reader, the movie hits theatres on March 23rd and it stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson.

And the reading continues...

Some more books I finished in the last few days...

The Sun Also Rises (1926) by Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway takes the reader on a vacation to Spain to watch the gruesome sport of bullfighting. Set in the Roaring Twenties, the characters live careless and frivolous lives.

Mockingjay (2010) by Suzanne Collins

The third and final chapter of The Hunger Game Series. Review on these books to come.

Some books that I am working on...

As I Lay Dying (1930) by William Faulkner

Interpreter of Maladies (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri

What have I not been reading?

A little bit of everything for everyone.

Some books I have been reading…

Sorry I have been away for so long.
Where have I been?
Studying English Literature and Creative Writing.

Been reading a lot with no time to blog.
However when I do have some time I will have a lot of material to review.

Novels:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Yes I know who hasn’t read it! I already had but it is a classic and a requirement for class)

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
(A feminist novel about a country of only women invaded by three men)

Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
(Really more of a long story filled with poems and pictures. The sequel to Alice in Wonderland)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
(Love! Story of Katniss Everdeen fighting in the Hunger Games. An event in the country of Panem where two teens from each of the 12 districts fight to the death until one survives to become the victor. The event enforces the oppression that the rulers have over their citizens)

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
(Love Again! The sequel to The Hunger Games. Katniss actions during the Games result in unrest across the country. She finds herself inadvertently leading the rebellion against the Capitol)

Short Stories:
A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(Sherlock Holmes Case where a woman gets the best of Holmes)

The Adventure of the Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(The solving of a bank robbery by discovering the purpose of a fake league)

The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(A family tradition is realized and solved)

The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(Favourite! Holmes gets the better of a murderous stepfather)

The Dead by James Joyce
(A snapshot of Irish society at the beginning of the 20th century)

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
(Interesting! A modern take on the Bluebeard fairytale)

The Courtship of Mr. Lyon by Angela Carter
(A modern Beauty and the Beast fairytale. Sticks to the traditional storyline)

The Tiger’s Bride by Angela Carter
(Also based on Beauty and the Beast but she flips it with Beauty becoming a beast. Kinda like the movie Shrek)

Woman of Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros
(A collection of short stories seen through the eyes of different narrators in the Chicano culture)

Plays:
Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill
(Poignant! A modern play believed to be based on the author’s own personal life. The dad and older son are alcoholics, the younger son is sick with consumption, and the mother is a dope fiend)

Book: On Growing Up Tough

Book: On Growing Up Tough
Author: Taylor Caldwell
Year: 1971
Publisher: A Fawcett Crest Book


When writing a novel there is always room for the author’s own opinion especially when the book consists of reflections of their own childhood. But when opinion goes to the point of judgemental and arrogant, it can be a huge turn off for the reader.

You don’t come across a lot of successful writers who are ultra-conservative in their personal beliefs. Many play the role of neutral or lean on the curve of open-mindedness. Taylor Caldwell has little concern for your opinion and she expects you to adhere to her own.

What I believed to be a memoir of the author’s early years turned out to be an opinionated series of hodgepodge chapters pieced together to form incoherent thoughts. After a little research, I realized that the chapters were a series of articles published by Caldwell in the magazine American Opinion. It was lovely that the reader is completely unaware of this before diving into this 160-page novel. What was assumed to be a quick read became a nightly burden to finish.

The front cover is deceiving and definitely follows the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” And don’t because this book has a young woman holding her baby next to her assumed to be husband. In the background is a wooded area and cloth tent. So maybe we will be diving into a pioneering adventure. Well yes you do, but only for a chapter (and probably the most interesting of all the chapters).

She begins her book in England at a young age. She grew up with strict, middle-class parents who taught her tough love from the start. Her life even as a four-year-old is filled with chores and duties. She attends school and begins to receive an English education. Without much explanation, the family uproots to America.

Though the first few chapters seem to follow the pattern of a typical memoir of her early life, I am suspicious right from the start. The first chapter is titled Mrs. Buttons and speaks of her aunt who snips the buttons off coats she is donating to poor. She explains this as a typical liberal way to donate. Meaning that her aunt has never met the poor and assumes that they could surely afford to buy their own buttons.

Now Mrs. Buttons seems like an awful woman who donates on the notion that it is the right thing to do, but doesn’t actually want to deal with these unfortunate people. But please Ms. Caldwell can you explain to me how this has anything to do with liberal views? Your argument is weak and you describe that this was one of the incidents in your childhood that turned you into a dedicated conservative? It just doesn’t make much sense to me.

As a child she comes across as a little deviant. In one example, she fakes a heart condition and a serious fever to go home early from school in a chapter titled The Child-Lovers. Caldwell basically refers to child-lovers as people who don’t follow the traditional views of child raising, education, and discipline and who see children as innocent angels who need to be coddled. She wrote this book in 1971 and died in 1985. In the 1970s teachers were still disciplining children with the strap. One could only imagine how she would feel about teaching methods in the 21st century.

Caldwell believed that all children were as devious as she was and that they still are today. She writes:

“Children have not changed. And they are still wickedly clever. They fervently agree with new doctrine that they are innocent flowers, pure and uncorrupted and piteous, the prey of heartless adults…Discipline is now unknown…The schools are in total chaos (Caldwell, 62).”

She also has strong opinions on children working at a young age. She believes at the age of ten they should be doing work for money for their neighbours. By puberty, they should know that they are no longer children and as young adults they should be working after school to take up all their free time.

She makes the point that this is how she raised her own children. Can this even be called a childhood? Responsibilities are one thing. A part-time job in high school seems acceptable. But a person works their entire adult life and one could develop resentment towards such a parent of this nature. Not to mention, with a world full of creeps, who wants to ship their ten-year-old over to their suspicious neighbour's to do housework.

She also speaks on the roles of men and women and how it is currently ruining American life. These are excerpts from her chapter titled Women’s Lib. She writes:

I told my daughters: Marry men who will not permit you to work after marriage. Marry strong men who will take care of you and cherish you, and not tell you their business, and will refuse your help. I had told them from the very beginning that unless woman is powerfully (and by birth) motivated to the arts and the sciences and the professions, and is deeply gifted and cannot be denied, she should refrain from going out into the market places with mediocre abilities…She must then keep to her resolution: Never again to earn money outside her house. Never again to be a ` partner, shoulder to shoulder with her man.` Never again to be independent.

I have accomplished the one success of my life: I have brought up daughters who have manly and cherishing husbands, who have never wanted to earn money outside their pleasant homes, who have concentrated on the sole and natural business of women. To be good wives and prudent mothers, soothers of the masculine brow, good cooks, pleasant companions, and truly feminine. I wish I`d had a mother just like me (111).

… It`s up to you, in behalf of future generations, to lull them back and to again become superior. Who wants Equality with men? No woman in her right mind. Remember this: The strongest sign of decay of a nation is the feminization of men and the masculinization of women (116).

… The decay and ruin of a nation always has lain in the hands of its women (117).

Does this not seem bizarre to you? At the very least hypocritical coming from a woman who spent much of her life working. I am not referring to her work as a writer either. She also talks about when she worked hard in the factories just to make rent and to put food on the table. Even though writing might not be as strenuous as nine to five jobs, it still consumes a lot of personal time to write books. Time she is suggesting that should be dedicated to her husband’s dinner preparations.

Some of her other chapters include attacking women’s rights, mocking healthcare ethics, and criticizing any government programs. It is not about whether or not Caldwell should have an opinion on these topics, but as the examples show she takes these opinions too far and they are extremely narrow-minded. The reader begins to loose respect for her jaded views of the world and her critical judgments.

Book: A Piece of Cake

Book: A Piece of Cake: A Memoir
Author: Cupcake Brown
Year: 2006
Publisher: Three Rivers Press

I love discovering a new book. Sometimes it is just as interesting as the story itself. Often it is just by accident. My favourite book about the Holocaust was discovered at a bookstore closing for only 50 cents. My favourite trilogy was advertised in a magazine I was reading on the way home from Cedar Point. I also find a lot of good reads in the bargain section at Chapters. Why pay more when you can get it for a great deal?

Sometimes I wonder if I hadn’t walked into that closing sale…
Or if I hadn’t been bored and read that magazine…
Or if I didn’t shop in the bargain section…
Would I have ever discovered any of these books?

I can’t help but think probably not. And this particular book is no different. I was working as student assistant in my university’s athletic building. Mostly I just manned the door, demanding student cards for entry, but this particular day was different.

We were cleaning up after a high school robotics function and I discovered this book under the bleachers. I wasn't hard to miss. Its bright pink, sprinkle cover screamed up at me, A Piece of Cake: A Memoir by Cupcake Brown. I was hesitant. I mean a book about cakes?

I threw it to the side and continued with my cleaning. On break I read the back cover. The words sprang alive. Hustling. Prostitution. Drug Dealing. Gangbanging. Unlike its flashy cover, the novel seemed to be dark and grim. Not a feel good book.

At the bottom, had a picture of a middle-aged lawyer named Cupcake Brown and this was actually her memoir.

I was intrigued. How do you go from gangbanging to being a San Francisco lawyer? I stashed it in my book bag. The robotics competition was long over and there was little chance that the person who had left it would be returning for it.

The novel starts off with a bang. Cupcake finds her mother dead, her father turns out not to be her biological one, and the biological father wants nothing but insurance money so he throws her into foster care along with her brother. The insanity of foster life drives her into a new world of sex, drugs and violence. There is no one left who cares about her so why should she care how she self-destructs?

The story is quite graphic. She gives details into her gang world that she eventually leaves behind. There is also her hard drug use and alcohol. She experiments with cocaine and LSD. She will trade nearly anything for drugs including sex.

The author’s brief bio on the back cover gives the ending away. It is clear that if she becomes a prominent lawyer that she finds a road to recovery. And she does but it isn’t without a lot of struggle and it doesn’t happen overnight. Coming clean to her boss about her drug use is just the beginning. She actually never sees herself as drug addict (many users don't) and she truly believes that she would be able to stop at any time. She doesn’t realize how little she knows about addiction.

She finds counselling in woman named Venita or just V as Cupcake usually refers to her. V is a recovered addict and doesn’t take any of Cupcakes nonsense or excuses. As a former addict, she knows how much bull a recovering addict can come up with and it is because of her firm guidelines that Cupcake begins to see success in her own life.

As the story winds to a close, I can’t believe what great book I found. I pass it along to all my fellow reading friends so they too can be inspired by the story of Cupcake Brown.

This was until I told a co-worker to read it. She just had to burst my bubble and put that seed of doubt in my mind.

She too loved to read and when I suggested the book, she just happened to be reading it. What are the chances? She said it was okay, but said she just wasn’t convinced by it. How could she not love it? And then she reminded me of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces and how his story brought millions of people together to believe that people could overcome their horrible past when in reality he made most of it up.

And then I couldn’t think of Cupcake’s story in the same light. As someone who isn’t an addict, it would be difficult for me to remember the amount of details she recalls in her story. I could give a good account of it, but it definitely wouldn’t be exact. How did I think someone who was so strung out on drugs at the time would be able to recall all the events she had experienced in her past life? Was this just another case where the person wrote it as "they" remembered it?

I am still unsure of my feelings towards the book. A good read: yes. A true memoir: questionable.