I Made a Wedding Cake

My sister asked me to make the cake for her wedding (which was the 22nd). The 10th was Doc’s birthday, and I used that as an opportunity to test out all the cake baking/making/decorating techniques that I had read about online. His cake turned out moist, good tasting, and good looking; so I decided to go ahead and use the same cake and frosting recipes on my sister’s cake.

This is the finished cake that I made for my sister. She picked out the LEGO toppers for the cake, which I think was a very nice touch.

I wrote last week about the techniques of making crumb coats and freezing the cakes while still warm. I utilized all of these new techniques on the wedding cake, since they worked so well last time. Freezing the cakes truly does make them moister! I froze the sections of the cake that I was going to use, and ate the sections that I cut away without freezing them, and largely preferred the cakes which had been frozen. That being said, I also froze the cakes because that way I could make them ahead of time and decorate them at my leisure. Continue reading “I Made a Wedding Cake”

Whatever are “Runes”?

Jump to an article in my Norse Backstory series:
1) Where did trolls come from?
2) Whatever are “Runes”?
3) Who were the valkyries?

Runes are a family of linguistically-related lettering systems, which were used by Germanic peoples. There are several rune “alphabets,” changing over time and geography. The particular set of runes that I want to talk to you about, however, is the Elder Futhark.  Similar to how the “alphabet” is so called for its first two letters: “alpha,” “beta,”; the futhark is so-named for its first six letters: “F,” “U,” “Th,” “A,” “R,” “K.” The futhark runic systems were the ones primarily used in the Scandinavian areas. Runes were used for writing things down, but also for magic. Each rune has a magic of its own.

Lokasonarnir: the Hound and the Wyrm. A runestone about the hound crying out, and the wyrm answering those cries. On either side of the runic inscription are bindrunes.

It is said that the runes were either first invented or discovered by Odin of the Aesir. In prehistoric times, Odin set out on a quest to learn as much about the universe as he could. He gave one of his eyes to the Jotun known as Mimir the Wise, in exchange for Continue reading “Whatever are “Runes”?”

Where did trolls come from?

This series is an attempt to provide some backstory for my 2013 24-Hour Comic.

Jump to an article in my Norse Backstory series:
1) Where did trolls come from?
2) Whatever are “Runes”?
3) Who were the valkyries?

Where did trolls come from?
Where did trolls come from?

That is a very good question, and I am very glad you asked it!

One day, while Thor and Loki were hiking through the wilderness, they came upon the remains of a fire. In the center of the char, was a cooked heart. Loki, who was very hungry, picked the heart out of the ashes.

“Hey, check it out! It’s still good!” He exclaimed, looking it over and brushing it off.

“Aw, gross, man. Don’t eat that.” Thor pleaded weakly, knowing that Loki will eat everything in sight if given the opportunity, and therefore any of his protests about how gross something is are usually futile. Continue reading “Where did trolls come from?”