Not only have I had to wade through 8,000+ messages trying to sell me a larger penis, a Rolex, or magic weight loss pills since the beginning of the year, but this gem popped up in my inbox this morning:

“I CAN is way more important than IQ – so get that little pill.”

Way to remind me of the sheer mass of stupidity surrounding me in the world first thing in the morning, spam!

This was another commissioned cake for a birthday. Some confusion ensued on when the pickup date was, but everything worked out in the end, and they said it was very tasty. It was a white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting – not too exciting, but it had to feed a crowd of varied palates.

(At some point I will set up a place in my apartment with some decent lighting to take cake photos.)

I saw a recipe on the cakecentral.com forums that was highly touted by many people, and it went like this:

1 package dream whip
1 small package instant pudding
1.5 cups milk

So heck, I gave it a shot. And… it tasted like Cool Whip and pudding mixed together. Nothing more, nothing less. That slightly fake, chemical taste, with a lot of air and sugar. I poured the lot down the sink.

What the hell? People think this is a wonderful taste sensation? Come on! Haven’t these people tried ganache, or Italian buttercream, or anything classic and made with care?

Oh… yeah. They haven’t. They’ve had 50 years of Cool Whip Pies and Twinkies.

I’d have to say this is one of my favorite new (to me) recipes. I found it on Food Network’s site, and you can too. I left out the ketchup and halved the Worcestershire sauce, just because the last time I thought those flavors were a little overpowering. I also ditched the cilantro because I don’t like it. (I’m one of those weird-palate people who think it tastes like soap.) Oh, I also hit it for a little bit with the stick blender at the end of cooking so it thickens up. Next time, I will probably take the bacon out after it gets crispy and put it back in at the end, as is noted in some of the comments on the Food Network site. Oh, and they’re not kidding about 8-10 servings – this makes a lot of soup.

I made up my first batch of fondant tonight. I tried out the new Americolor gel colors I got from Cakewalk Chicago, as well (“dark pink” – I don’t think I used quite enough to make it very dark, or they mean “dark” as in “not almost white”).

I made Rhonda’s Ultimate MMF (marshmallow fondant) – recipe found on CakeCentral.com. It’s a great site, but sloooooow. I imagine their bandwidth bills are through the roof. I used my Kitchenaid 6-qt mixer (much love for the stand mixer) with the dough hook, and it kneaded it up like a champ. The only thing I forgot to do in the recipe was to grease the mixing bowl before I poured the marshmallow goo in. At the end of the process, I found out why this part is important.

This isn’t posted anywhere on the web so I thought I’d toss it up on here:

If you live in Villa Park, IL and want to recycle your christmas tree, just leave it out on the curb anytime during the first 2 weeks of January (bare – not in a bag). Waste Management will pick it up and take it to be recycled.