'Some More' Week: Amazing Wedding Cakes, part 2

Here is the ultimate wedding cake story, dating from 2008 – the bride who had a life size wedding cake made as a copy of herself . . .

The following story is from The Daily Mail:

For one bride, her perfect wedding had to have that extra layer. So American Chidi Ogbuta had a life-size wedding cake made in her own image. Standing over 5ft tall, the spectacular cake, made up of butterscotch and polymer clay, was an exact replica of the bride in her wedding dress. 

The six-layered masterpiece was a dream come true for the Texan, and took pride of place when she renewed her vows to her husband of ten years, Innocent. "Growing up I have always wanted a doll made in my likeness," explained Chidi, 35-year-old mother of four. "So, when we started planning for our church wedding I told my husband that I wanted a unique, personalised wedding - a wedding where my dream will come true.

"I told Innocent that I wanted a life-size cake made in my resemblance - as I would look on my wedding day. He gave his consent without reservations."  

Initially Chidi wanted giant cakes made of both her and Innocent, 35, but the bakers, 'Absolutely Edible Cakes', didn't have enough time before the big day. It took five weeks to make the cake of Chidi - with the cake itself butterscotch and the body, head and arms made from polymer clay - after she supplied them with photographs of herself wearing the dress. Given its size, there was plenty to go round the guests at the ceremony last September. "We had over 500 guests and even after we had dished it out there was still plenty left," recalls Chidi. "We brought the rest of it home and a week later it was all gone." 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-507390/Bride-wedding-cake-life-size-model-herself.html#ixzz2QKxi4FsI

Bonus Moment:

If you thought that odd, then consider also the 2006 story of Ukrainian pastry chef Valentyn Shtefano, who surprised his fiancée by making her wedding dress. Surprised not because he made it but because of what he made it from  – flour, eggs, sugar and caramel.

The dress was made of 1,500 cream puffs and took him two months to make. The bride’s crown, bouquet and necklace were made from caramelized sugar.

"At first, it was even a little embarrassing," Viktoriya Shtefano said of the dress she wore to the couple's reception in August at Uzhhorod's 1,200-year-old castle. "Cameras, interviews, but after a couple of hours, I didn't even want to take it off."

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2003302229_weddingcake13.html

My question is:  Do you find it difficult to tell the bride from an Adriano Zumbo crockenbush?  . . .

 

"Some More' Week - Extreme Topiary, Part 2

"Please sir, I want some more."

-Oliver Twist

Having only just concluded Photo Week, it seems a bit soon to start another theme week but it’s a convenient means of using a buildup of Part 2’s (and, in some cases, Part 3’s) of topics where I have posted only Part 1’s. Accordingly, having previously done No 1’s, this week will be devoted to No 2’s . . .no, wait, that didn’t come out right . . . 

Extreme Topiary, Part 2:

Part 1 of Extreme Topiary was posted on 9 April this year, here is the link:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/tuesday-pics-extreme-topiary-part-1.html

Australian Firsts etc - Final Instalment

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The first country to explore both the Arctic and Antarctic by air

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The Dim Sim was developed in Melbourne by Chinese chef William Wing Young for his restaurant "Wing Lee".

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The 150th anniversary of the Eight Hour Day in 2006 marked the action taken by stonemasons on 21 April 1856 led to the establishment and maintenance of the Eight Hour Day, recognised internationally as a world first. The Eight Hour Day became a symbol of the rights of workers to organise to achieve their rights not only as workers, but as citizens in a democratic society.

The 8 Hour Monument, Melbourne, commemorating the slogan “8 hours work, 8 hours rest, 8 hours recreation”. There was also a popular rhyme at the time:

8 hours work, 

8 hours play,

8 hours sleep,

8 bob a day!

(A ”bob” was a slang term for a shilling, an amount of pre-decimal currency).

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The Great Barrier Reef, Qld, is the longest coral reef in the world, extending over 2,012.5 kilometres.

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At 790 km, the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight - Wylie Scarp, Baxter Cliffs, Hampton Tableland and Bunda Cliffs - form the longest cliff face in the world.

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In 1915, Sydney became the first place in the world to appoint female police officers when South Australia and NSW appointed Kate Cocks (pictured) and Annie Ross. Kate Cocks was forty years of age when offered the position of Principal Police Matron. She was offered six assistants but declined, asking for only one woman. The woman she chose was thirty-two year old Annie Ross. They were appointed on the same pay as male officers. 

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Australia is the largest continent occupied by one nation and is the least populated.

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Sir Macpherson Robertson

Australian company MacRobertson's invented and produced famous chocolate products such as the Cherry Ripe (1924), Crunchie (1929) and Freddo Frog (1930)

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Lions being enclosed in a large landscaped 'pit' with visitors able to walk through on high bridges at Melbourne Zoo was the first “walk through” feature at zoos.

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Fred Walker and Cyril Callister developed a spread from one of the richest known natural sources of the vitamin B group - Brewers Yeast – in 1923 and called it Vegemite. I personally find it vile and it is beyond me how people can eat it, but then again my wife finds it revolting that I like pickled herring, Dutch salted liquorice and black pudding.

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The idea of 'coffee and cake' became so popular at a McDonalds in Melbourne in 1992 that it spread all over the world, giving us McCafe.

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In 1891 Melbourne brothels created a telephone rendezvous system, giving rise to prostitutes becoming known as call girls.

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Mary Fortune (1833-1910) is regarded as the first female author of detective fiction. Under the pseudonyms Waif Wander and W.W, she was one of the earliest female detective writers in the world and probably the first to write from the viewpoint of the detective.

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An Australian, Robert Torrens, championed a simplified system for the transfer of real property, tat system becoming known as Torrens Title The system transferred property by registration of title, instead of by deeds, and it has since been widely adopted throughout the world. 

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And finally, to conclude this series of posts, some other uniquely Australian souvenirs:

Kangaroo Paw Can Opener

Kangaroo Scrotum Can and Bottle Opener

Kangaroo Scrotum Pouch

Cane Toad Bottle Holder

Cane Toad Skin Visor...

...and Bow Tie

Makes one proud to be an Aussie.

Photo Week - Colourising

A trend from the mid 1980’s of colourising black and white films attracted both criticism and support. 

Those who supported colourisation argued that the new technology would enhance films and that it would allow the films to be appreciated by newer and younger audiences unused to black and white formats. Critics contended that the colourisation process was crude (it has since improved), that colourisation would not do justice to lighting composition specifically selected for black and white photography and that it would violate the artistic integrity of the original. 

Film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert referred to colourisation as “Hollywood’s New Vandalism” with Ebert declaring: 

"What was so wrong about black and white movies in the first place? By filming in black and white, movies can sometimes be more dreamlike and elegant and stylized and mysterious. They can add a whole additional dimension to reality, while color sometimes just supplies additional unnecessary information." 

The advent of DVD’s reignited the issue by offering, in many cases, a black and white or colourised version of a film on the same disc. More recently the same arguments have been advanced in conversion of 2D films to 3D.

But what of photographs. Should classic black and white photographs be colourised? Does it add to or detract from the original? Is it enhancement or desecration? Here are some examples colourised by Sanna Dullaway for consideration of these questions . . . 

Portrait of Alfred Hitchcock

Dorothy Counts by Douglas Martin

Bikini Atoll Atomic Bomb test

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Winston Churchill by Yousuf Karsh

V-J Day by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange

Albert Einstein

Charles Darwin

Self-Immolation of Thich Quang Duc by Malcolm Browne

Guyễn Ngọc Loan executing a Việt Cộng officer in Saigon during the Tet Offensive, photo by Eddie Adams

The American Dream by Margaret Bourke-White, 1937

Bombing of Pearl harbour

A Harvest of Death by Timothy H O'Sullivan, 1863, Battle of Gettysburg

Bonus item

From the Museum of Hoaxes:

Popular Photography Magazine ran a special feature on how to touch up photos in which subjects have unsightly wrinkles or unattractive expressions. "Can these photos be saved?" the article asked. One of the examples used was Dorothea Lange's famous Depression-era photo of a "Migrant Mother" huddling with her children in a roadside camp outside Nipomo, California. 

Under the masterful touch of Popular Photography editors, the Migrant Mother was transformed from an iconic symbol of the struggle for survival into a smooth-faced suburban soccer mom. Her wrinkles were erased, her gaze softened, and the poverty-stricken kids removed. Readers were appalled. The editors later noted that the article "generated more responses than anything we've done in years… Most of our readers got the joke. But many didn't. We received hundreds—yes, HUNDREDS—of rants, hate letters, and excommunication threats."