I Didn't Forget - It's Aqualad's Birthday

Every year, in memory of Leah, I bake a cake for Aqualad on his March 6th birthday. Of course, this year I was at Emerald City Comicon, and not my own kitchen, so I didn't have the opportunity to bake a cake. But I asked my mom nicely, and she came through magnificently. And here is the result...

The Final Cake

The cake turned out really well. A little bland, I'm glad I added chocolate chips. The icing actually turned out not half bad, but I think I'll hunt for a different recipe next time I make a cake. All-in-all, this was a wonderful first attempt at making a cake from scratch.

Leah continues to influence people for the better. Thank you, Leah.

It's Aqualad's Birthday

And so, in memory of Leah, I made a cake.

I've done this three years running now, and I hope to manage it every year. Last year I posted some pictures of the finished cake, but didn't go into detail on how I made it, like I did in 2007. This year I feel like a little detail.

I'm going to digress for a bit here and tell you about my baking experiences. My mother is a fantastic cook. She cooked amazing meals for seven children, although there was always at least one child that "hated" whatever she made. In addition, she taught a cultural class while I was growing up that inspired her to make dishes from other countries... but before she'd serve them to the class, she'd try them out on her children. So I was exposed to a lot of different cuisine early in life, and to cooking and baking techniques from childhood as we all got to pitch in on occasion. So it's not my mom's fault that I can't cook. She tried.

The problem for me was the insane measuring system that I simply could not wrap my head around. I just could not "get" a pint or a cup or a teaspoon. It didn't (and still doesn't) make any sense. When I saw tsp written in a recipe, I had to ask what it meant... every single time. There was a time that I decided to just go for it and make Nestle Toll House cookies all by myself. I mean, c'mon, Toll House cookies... I can't mess that up, right? HA. I confused Baking Soda and Baking Powder and apparently confused tablespoon with teaspoon for good measure and ended up with rock hard chocolate studded lithobiscuits that not even the dog would eat.

That pretty much scared me away from baking for a very very long time. The waste of chocolate chips alone was devastating!

I didn't take up baking again with any seriousness until... well, until I realized I had to keep Leah's tradition of baking a cake for Aqualad alive. So in 2007 and 2008 I used boxed mixes and made pretty normal if lopsided birthday cakes in memory of Leah (and Paul Norris, creator of Aquaman). In between, I started making a few more little items of baked variety here and there, and trying new things and old recipes I hadn't tried in a long time. I started to expand my knowledge, in other words, and I had some success.

I didn't realize until Monday that the anniversary was coming up, so I didn't pick up a cake mix at the store on Sunday. When I realized I'd forgotten, I decided to hit the store as soon as I could and get my cake mix so I could make the cake... but I wished I could only make half the box, because we really didn't need a two-layer cake. A single round would be more than enough for hubby-Eric and I. As I thought about it more and more, I wondered if I could make a cake from scratch. I haven't done that, ever. I have made a biscuit pizza crust from scratch, and done so recently. But a cake... so much more difficult. I remembered the lithobiscuits, but decided that I had to give it a go.

First difficulty was finding a recipe. I found in our recipe books alone five different recipes for a basic yellow cake... each completely different. Ack. Which one do I trust? I went online. I started reading recipes for yellow cake and ... every one seemed completely different. How can there be so many ways to make the most basic of basic cakes?!?? I have a logical mind at the best of times, so I started to note what the recipes had in common. First: the majority of the recipes agreed that the eggs and butter should be at room temperature when you start. The pans should be greased and floured. The normal cooking temperature was 350 degrees F. Almost all recipes included flour, sugar, butter/shortening/oil, milk and eggs. There are two distinct mixing methods: 1) cream butter and sugar first, and 2) dry ingredients first with egg last. Method 2 requires only one bowl.

I finally decided on this recipe based partly on the reviews, and also on the fact that it has a handy calculator so I could halve the recipe easily. Which I did. I planned on one 9 inch round for my cake.

When I got up this morning, I set out the butter and egg to get to room temperature.

After I was sure they weren't cold, I put my dry ingredients in my bowl, then put in the butter and milk and vanilla and mixed and rediscovered that flour flies all over when you use an electric mixer on it like that. I added the egg a little more carefully, and got a strange colored batter when it was fully mixed.


My addition to the recipe was half a bag of chocolate chip cookies, which I just felt were needed for this particular cake.


And so I mixed them in and poured into the waited greased and floured pan.


All my anxieties came rushing back as I waited for the cake to bake. No way could it turn out good. But looking at it in the oven, it seemed to be baking just fine.


Jumping the gun a little, I got out our meager supply of decorating icing and candles, and decided that I had enough. I planned to make a nice buttercream frosting, also from scratch, to go with the cake.


After 25 minutes, I tested to see if the cake was done. It sure LOOKED good, nice color and the smell... oh, what a great smell for a cake! Wow! However, some batter still stuck to the toothpick, so it went back in for another two minutes.


After two more minutes, the toothpick came out clean, so I set the cake to cool while I did other housey stuff.


Annoyingly, I apparently left it to cool in the pan too long, because when I came back to take it out, the cake stuck rather firmly. Because I had read that leaving it in the pan was bad, I'll put this one down to my own mistake and not an error in the recipe. The damage is going to make this cake really hard to ice... but the chunks that came out allowed me to get a taste of the cake and it's really good!


After I was sure the cake was cool, I started on the buttercream icing. First time I'd done this icing, it's simply powdered sugar, butter, milk and a little vanilla mixed together. Unfortunately, it seemed to be a tad lumpy.


Forging ahead, I added the blue food coloring to make a blue icing. Ah, food coloring! Allowing us to make foods with colors that shouldn't exist in nature!


Icing the cake was a little too easy. The icing turned out slightly runny and very lumpy. Ah well, if I wanted to make a perfect cake, I would actually practice and train with a baker. As it is, this one just has to satisfy me.


The decorating icing turned out to be MUCH harder to use than I expected, and the nice "Happy Birthday Aqualad!" and "In memory of Leah" turned into something very simple. Someday I will take a cake decorating class and learn how to actually use these things. For the moment, this cake will have to do.


I don't think I'll be able to find any Swedish fish to put on the cake this year. So this is the very simple cake hubby-Eric and I will enjoy after dinner tonight. In the meantime... Happy birthday Aqualad, and I miss you Leah.

Aqualad's Cake

I won't torment you like I did last year with the details on how I made my now annual tribute birthday cake for Aqualad. Instead, here are a couple of pictures of the finished product:

Leah

It was a year ago today that Leah died. I will never forget her. I will continue her tradition and remember her every year. Every time I read anything about Aqualad I think of her and wonder what she'd think of it. I'll sometimes hear some news and think I ought to e-mail her about it. I try to stay as even-minded and as light-hearted as she was. That is my ongoing tribute.

Thank you Leah. I miss you.

Aquaman #54 Tribute

I urge everyone to pick up Aquaman #54. But not for the reason you might suspect. It's because Aquaman #54 is the first appearance of a tribute character in memory of Leah Adezio, who passed away early this year. This Leah will be giving guidance to Garth, aka Aqualad/Tempest, the character that Leah loved deeply all her life.

I don't think the current Aquaman title can be saved from cancellation, but if everyone whose life was touched by Leah bought a copy of each of the next few issues to remember her, it would surely go out with a bang.

Random Thoughts Continued

In memory of Leah Adezio, who baked a birthday cake for Aqualad every March 6th, I've continued the tradition. I think Leah would have enjoyed being remembered with a birthday cake devoted to Aqualad.

Galaxion updated, and there's a little extra something on the forum that Tara doesn't want you to go see.

New Supergirl Costume Design.

Mike Sterling has described the evil comic shop, which all comic book fans have been in at least once. And usually only once.

Unfortunate match up of Shazam! Monster Society of Evil and 52.

Artist Ryan Kelly is cleaning out his old artwork, and offering it to fans if they make a donation to his site.

Movies based on comic books are based on comic books, not graphic novels, and we should be proud to be fans of the form instead of embarrassed by it, so says Mike Gold.

A set-back for creator's rights?

Oh... Osvaldo Cavandoli, 1920-2007. I certainly recognize La Linea.

The strangest level of Counter-Strike ever made. I mean, really, Hotel Fawlty Towers?

We have started in on this year's set of Girl Scout Cookies. While my favorite type is the Tagalongs, hubby-Eric loves Thin Mints. We got a box of each type this year, most of which went into the freezer. I was asked to try the "Little Brownies" by some friends, as they are sugar-free. My initial reaction? Ok, but too dry.

On the topic of food, here's a way to communicate menus in condiments, used by the Waffle House.

Charles Bonnet Syndrome. It's D*mn Interesting.

Mel Gibson made a one-frame appearance in this Apocalypto trailer. I would make you watch it to find it, but instead, here's the screen grab:

I still don't have any need to see the movie, though I think I'd sit through it before I'd sit through some of his other movies.

Snow from Boiling Water.

A very strange comparison of private versus socialized health care. I've always been pro-universal health care, but right now, as I go day to day without any insurance, I'm even more for universal health care than I used to be.

Speaking of health, there's a way to find out if medicine will work for you, but most doctors don't use it, and insurance won't cover it. The technology has "the potential to significantly reduce the 2 million hospitalizations and 1 million deaths caused by adverse drug reactions every year". Isn't that a good enough reason to give it a shot?

Slate argues for the release of Holocaust Archives that have been closed since the War.

Boing Boing shows an anti-anti-piracy ad. As long as the companies that distribute movies and music treat their customers as de facto criminals, piracy will grow.

Oh No! There's a pug in Get Fuzzy!

I lit a candle

I couldn't go to Leah's funeral, so I lit a candle this morning for her. There are thousands of words ready to pour out of me about how I feel, but none of them are adequate. So this is all I'm going to say. I lit a candle.

Linkages

My birthday is in a couple of days. I'll be celebrating by being at the pledge drive for the Tacoma PBS station, KBTC as they run a Doctor Who marathon. If you are so inclined, drop a few bucks to the station for Doctor Who as a birthday present. If you aren't inclined, please do not. If you're really daring, you can even try calling during the pledge drive itself and see if I answer the phone (if you do please donate some money, and ask for Laura not Tegan).

Fun Fifty of 2006 part 4 and Fun Fifty of 2006 part 5.

Heroes returning for a second season.

I gotta get this issue. Power Man and Iron Fist meet... WHO???

We're going to have to introduce Bully to Torvald someday.

Colleen wants us to watch an ad.

What does 200 calories look like?

How Big Is YOUR Starship?

The secrets of the 1918 flu, and what it can tell us about bird flu.

If the snow and ice continue much longer, I will have to order a pair of these just to get around. I don't want to completely stop walking when the weather gets like this, but I cannot risk falling. At least it's raining today, and the ice is pretty much gone.

Speaking of weather, here's a video of car crashes in a tunnel when there's ice on the roadway. And I thought Seattle drivers were bad. And, in case you missed it, here's video of that icy hill in Portland. The Modulator also links to another version of the video.

The Comet.

Police need to be educated in the use of tasers, as shown by another tasering incident in which a man was tasered for refusing to take off his hat at a city council meeting. Too many police departments seem to think that tasers are a stun gun... they aren't. Tasers can kill. No police officer should use a taser unless they think they situation is so bad that they are willing to kill the person they are tasering to stop them. Getting unruly after an officer forcibly steals your hat from your head doesn't seem to be a drastic enough situation for tasering.

More on Leah, from Colleen.

Requiem

About eleven years ago, I decided I wanted to make a website. I had done some searching, and hadn't found even one website about Aquaman, so I decided I'd make my website an Aquaman fan site. I posted an incredibly sparse page with the limited information I knew and asked for help.

The first person to respond to my plea was Leah Adezio. She gave me background information, ideas, and filled in the gaps in my knowledge. She also had an infectious love of Aqualad, and reading her comments on the character made me appreciate him even more.

It's hard to believe how little I knew back then. But Leah, and a few others who also found my page, filled me in and the website grew as I learned. Leah's love of the story and the whole concept of Aquaman and his world pulled me along. She strengthened me. She was a force. I admired her greatly for her even discussion skills and strove to be as eloquent as she was in her fandom.

For years, she and I corresponded on-line. Then an opportunity arose. If I could find a roommate, I could go to the 2000 San Diego Comicon. Leah came to my rescue. She was my roommate that year, and it was the best comic convention I've been to. She, in turn, introduced me to many people she knew at the convention. It was amazing, fantastic, wonderful. It was one of the best times I've had in my life. And much of that was due to Leah's presence.

The next year I returned to the San Diego Comicon, and met with Leah again. That year I had some issues with the hotel, and Leah stood by my side and helped me sort them out. She was an anchor. She saved me from myself. I cannot explain how much I owe her for those two short meetings, for those two small times we got to be together. I wish we'd been able to hang out more. If only the entire country wasn't between us, I would have gladly spent more time with Leah.

We continued to correspond. The occassional e-mail, phone call... we read each other's websites (she had a private LiveJournal). I didn't chat with her nearly enough. She was a great artist, and her project "Ari of Lemuria" was a book that I looked forward to someday reading. At San Diego she showed me pages of Aqualad fan work she had done, beautiful artwork that filled in a backstory for Garth. She consulted on the Tempest mini-series, and was thrilled about it.

Leah was active in fandom. She attended conventions, and was a member of Friends of Lulu. She was bold, exciting, interesting, and simply lovable. People who knew her liked her. I've been called many names (and deservingly so, sometimes), but I never heard anyone who mattered say a bad word about Leah.

When Elayne e-mailed me to let me know that Leah was sick, I immediately called Leah and left a message on her phone. I left a second the next day, but I believe she never heard either of them. The third day her phone's inbox was full. I considered flying out to the east coast, but Elayne said it was too late. So instead I waited, while hanging onto some faint thread of disbelief, denying to myself that this could be happening to someone like Leah, so full of life.

Goodbye, my friend.

Farewell, My Friend

Peter David confirmed that Leah Adezio passed away yesterday after liver and kidney failure.

Thoughts and Links

Fun Fifty of 2006 part 3.

Wanna help get a webcomic into print? Templar, Arizona needs committed folks to make it to paper.

Sword in Hand, a man helps the police.

Colleen finds a Star Trek vid on YouTube.

Filkertom recommends getting The Last Unicorn on DVD to support Peter S Beagle.

I'll try to write something about the new DC Previews later today, but when I read the Aquaman solicit I started crying for Leah. She would have liked to know that Tempest is returning to the book. Colleen has more details on Leah's condition.

Leah

I cannot put it as eloquently as Elayne.

Links and Friends

Emerald City Comicon gets a little press. It's a great show, I will be attending again this year. Looking forward to meeting Brian Wood.

BIG updates from the former Henchman Publishing, now Do Gooder Press, LLC. In short, PS238 is going monthly, Nodwick is going to back-ups, and PS238 is also coming to the web. Go read the entry for full info, but I'm wishing Aaron Williams lots of luck on this one, and will try to keep mentioning updates as they come. I firmly believe that PS238 is the best superhero book out there right now, and perhaps the best comic out of all that I read.

Another use for TiVo (remember, if you get one, please put tiktok at eskimo dot com in as your referrer and maybe Eric and I will eventually get an upgrade), listening to podcasts about Dorothy. That's right, I put the podcast up on the TiVo and listened to it. No special software required, even.

And lastly, if you have any good thoughts or vibes or even prayers to send, please send them to my friend Leah Adezio. She's in the hospital. Leah was my roommate at the 2000 San Diego Comicon, and she's a big reason I had so much fun. In the following image, Leah is in the upper left (the other folks are John Coates, Nick Cardy, and myself).