Blogaround

1. Why anti-vaxxers get in more car crashes (February 16) This is fascinating- a study of 11 million people in Canada found that people who were unvaccinated (for covid) were 72% more likely to get in car crashes than people who were vaccinated. I would definitely like to know more about the reasons why. We can speculate but I don't think we really have good evidence on what the reasons are.

2. 2,400-year-old flush toilet discovered in China could be one of the oldest ever (February 21)

3. Free lumberjack cake tutorial from Sugar Geek Show (2018, via)

4. A Christian school canceled a concert after learning one of the singers is gay (February 14) "And notice how PCC doesn’t explain what 'endorsement' they would have been offering by allowing a gay man to sing traditional and popular songs on campus. How much of a bubble do students live in that even choral music must be heard through a prism of sexuality?"

5. This whole thread:

The Christian woman wears turtlenecks, fingertip length shorts,
And shame
Hers
And his, too
Despite this attire
Clashing with the supposed freedom in Christ
This yoke is too heavy
It weighs her shoulders down
Revealing a bra strap
“Slut”

— Hannah 🫠 (@HannahBo_Bannah) February 22, 2023

6. Southern Baptists Expel Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church for Ordaining a Female Pastor (February 22) Wow, isn't the SBC worried about going to hell? Yikes.

7. Freely, freely you have received (February 21) "And but so, that’s what I think 'revival' refers to, a moment in which we encounter the possibility that we are both fully known and fully loved by God. ... But the key thing, I think, is that this moment is not itself the story, only the introduction to the story. The story involves what happens next."

8. Ken Ham Finds Threats to Young-Earth Creationist within Young-Earth Creationism (February 2) Yep, that's kind of Ken Ham's whole thing- someone disagrees with Ken Ham on some little detail, and therefore that person is a false teacher and they are bad bad bad.

Blogaround

1. China’s Left-Behind Kids Repeat Their Parents’ Tragic Choices (posted January 18) "In some regions, family separations have become a fact of life, with parents and children no longer considering it unusual to live apart for most of the year."

2. Larry King, broadcasting giant for half-century, dies at 87 (posted January 23) 

3. The lynch mob (posted January 19) Slacktivist's post, with links to 2 good articles about the January 6 insurrection.

4. COVID-19 ended blowing out birthday candles. Please: Let's put spitting on cakes in the past. (posted January 22) Okay yeah this writer is probably right.

5. The 11 days of drama at sea that changed cruising forever (posted December 29) This is a good summary of what happened with cruise ships during the pandemic.

6. And the big news in Shanghai is we have discovered 12ish locally-transmitted covid cases over the past week or so, which is a big deal because that number has been 0 since the 7 cases in November. (The 12 are all connected.) I am still going to work like normal (because I don't live or work near there) but there are some rules that are back to being strict again. Like we had to show the green QR codes to enter the mall last weekend- and only 1 entrance was open. The security guards at the office building where I work are being more strict about telling everyone to wear their masks. And food delivery workers aren't allowed to enter the building anymore. So, just some little things that don't really make a huge difference in my life. I have heard that some parts of the city are in lockdown / people who had contact with the infected people are all in quarantine now.

I expect they will have this under control and it'll all blow over in about 2 weeks and we'll be fine- which is what happened in November.

The "Groom's Cake" Tradition is So Sexist

Enterprise cake. (Star Trek.) Image source.

From the moment I heard about the "groom's cake" tradition, I hated it.

Basically here's how the tradition goes: At the wedding, there's a second wedding cake, called a "groom's cake." They are often decorated according to the groom's interests and hobbies- go ahead and look on Google Images for some examples. Common themes include sports teams, video games, and Batman.

Yeah, not cool.

Because if the second cake is a "groom's cake", then what's the regular wedding cake? The bride's cake? This plays right into the cultural expectation that women have tons and tons of detailed opinions about EXACTLY how their wedding should be, and women are good at planning weddings, and men don't really care and don't have a responsibility to be involved. As if the wedding belongs to the bride, and the groom just kind of goes along with it.

I hate that stereotype. A wedding is for a couple. The wedding belongs to both the bride and groom, and the wedding cake belongs to both the bride and groom. (Note: I'm specifically talking about a wedding between opposite-sex partners, but don't forget that same-sex weddings exist too! And non-binary people exist!) Hendrix and I have talked about the cake design we want, and agreed on it. It's not "my" cake, it's our cake.

But here's the thing I hate the most about the "groom's cake" tradition: The "groom's cake" gets to be AWESOME. Like, seriously, look at those images on google. Cakes shaped like all sorts of colorful, fun, nerdy things. I love that! But if you call it a "groom's cake," you're saying I'm not allowed to have a cake like that, because I'm a woman.

If the regular wedding cake is the "bride's cake," that means that, if you're a woman, you're only allowed to have a cake that looks like what society expects a wedding cake to look like. White, layers, frosting piped like lace or flowers. You'll probably have people criticizing you if you have a cake that doesn't look wedding-y enough, or even claiming that it's just not allowed to have your wedding cake be Batman-themed, with no white, layered cake anywhere to be found at your wedding. I can easily imagine parents or relatives being like "well that's a nice idea, but not for a wedding cake."

As a nerd girl, this "groom's cake" nonsense is particularly hurtful to me, because I've had to spend so much effort purposely avoiding "feminine" interests, out of concern that people will see me as some kind of girly stereotype, and won't think I'm a nerd. The "groom's cake" tradition says that only grooms are interested in nerdy things; that brides certainly aren't nerdy enough to want a Star Trek cake instead of a white cake. This is not okay.

If you're a bride, your cake needs to look like what people think a wedding cake should look like. If you're a groom, your cake can be AWESOME. The whole "groom's cake" tradition says that women have to fit some feminine stereotype, and men get to be real people with unique interests. That's so sexist. We are NOT doing that.

The Empire Cake Strikes Back

Click image to view a larger version.

Hi everyone! I made this cake, obviously depicting the scene in Star Wars episode V: The Empire Strikes Back where Vader says to Luke, "I am your father."

Basically this:

Image source.

Happy Birthday Jesus! We ate your cake.

Merry Christmas everyone! Take a look at the beautiful cake I made. It's a birthday cake for Jesus, clearly.

It's the world:

God

Loves

The

World

A few more angles:

Merry Christmas everyone!

Blogaround

Image source.

1. How to Bake Scientifically Accurate Cake Planets (posted March 27) I have a new goal for my life.

2. Artist Makes A Vehicle That Prints Propaganda Phrases On The Ground As It Moves (posted March 31) This is so cool- a bike that uses water to write Chinese characters on the ground.

3. The Pokeymans Project. Badly-drawn pokemon. This is hilarious!!!

4. Christians don’t abandon 10,000 children (unless we’re standing up for our beliefs?) (posted April 3) Lord have mercy.

5. Oldest Case of Cancer Discovered in Ancient Skeleton (posted March 18)

Angels and Shepherds Cake

Merry Christmas everyone! I made some cupcake angels and shepherds...

Mix up 1 cake's worth of batter, and make 1 round, 8 cupcakes, and 7 mini cupcakes.

Planning out the design.

And here it is when it's all finished:

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

Luke 2:14

“在 至 高 之 处 荣 耀 归 与 神 ！ 在 地 上 平 安 归 与 他 所 喜 悦 的 人。” 

路加福音 2:14

Merry Christmas! 圣诞快乐！

Cake: The Final Frontier

I may have made a Star Trek: The Next Generation cake.

Start with 2 rounds and 6 mini cupcakes.

Cut up one of the round ones to make the Enterprise.

Riker

Worf

Picard

Data

Dr. Crusher

Troi

Boldly going where no cake has gone before.

Use Sprinkles to Jazz Up Your Yellow Cakes!

Check out this really sweet cake with a few streaks of color inside! Here's how I made it:

1. Mix up the cake mix according to the package directions.
2. Pour maybe 2/3 of it into cake pan(s). (For the above cake, I used 2 round pans.)
3. Sprinkle some sprinkles on top of the cake mix in the pans. 
4. Pour the rest of the cake mix on top. You might have to spread it around with a spoon so it covers all the sprinkles.
5. Then bake it and all that stuff, according to package directions.

During baking, the sprinkles melt or something and it turns into a streak of color going through your cake. So cool! 

Empty Tomb Cake

Happy Easter! Hooray for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which was quite literally the coolest thing ever.

My sister and I may or may not have made an empty tomb cake.

Start with a bundt and 5 mini cupcakes.

Cut a section off the bundt- this becomes the stone that was rolled away, and the back wall of the tomb.

The soldiers don't know what hit them.

The angel cupcake tells us the good news.

"Cupcake Jesus has risen!"

Mary and Mary are totally astonished.

Look! His graveclothes are still here, but where is Jesus? He is not here, he has risen!

Happy Easter!