How to Make a Mordor Cake

My new favorite 4th cousin, Julie, inspired me to make a cake for Than for his birthday earlier this month. When she pulled out the bundt pan I was to use, the only thing I could think of was the flaming towers of Mordor, from the Lord of the Rings. Of course, I was reading the book at the time, so that helped my imagery. I went for it and had a blast drizzling hot chocolate lava and piling on menacing rocks of sprinkles. I crunched the sprinkles further to make them look more like rubble.

I burnt the edges of the chocolate chip cake but I thought Sauron would be okay with that.

Even an authentic Shelob the spider wedged into her cave.

I found some great black and red candles at the local cake shop, with a glow stick in the middle of the Great Eye. Not surprisingly, the paper evil eye started burning with all 25 candles lit but we went with it to effect!

It was a great success and tasted amazing, especially with a dangerous dose of vanilla ice cream.

Saw good dogs and bright colors at the LA Marathon on Sunday. It went right by our apartment on Santa Monica Blvd so we were able to roll out of bed and get a look at the first place runners.

Good dog!

Everybody else and their orange peels.

Than and I went to this gnarly old bookstore in Burbank this weekend. And I mean gnarly, dusty, packed to the ceiling with back issues of Life and every kind of Hollywood/movie book you could imagine. We found this awesome edition of the Lord of the Rings series with some crucial cover illustrations.

I want this book to be not out of print.

I love this shot Than got of me working on my latest crochet project. I was incredibly efficient with this afghan and got it done in a week. The zig-zags were addictive! I only used yarn that I had on hand, in true scrappy crochet fashion, and it really made me more open-minded about the colors I chose to put in it. It's so warm, being that I chose natural fibers over the acrylics our grandmothers used, and last week I welcomed its warmth. But this week...the California sun is in full force and it will have to be simply eye-candy on the sofa till I stop sweating.

Mortoise, the tortoise, came out of 2-months of hibernation on Saturday, just in time for Daylight Savings. She knew the heat was coming! I was pleasantly surprised when she joined me on the floor while I was crocheting and waddled her way through my yarn stash.

"A man's got to do what a man's got to do."
Via Digg Images

My neighbor's dog, enjoying the warm weather with a new friend I got in a package from Nebraska. Thanks Anna, for the awesome Valentines present! Wish you were here soaking up the sunshine with us!