For cake's sake - my interview with Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss

Cake is one of my favorite things in the world.
What's not to love about a perfect slice of cake smothered in a creamy butter cream?

It was with great pleasure I recently interviewed Buddy Valastro from TLC's hit show "Cake Boss" for this week's Weekender. I love the show so much, partly because Buddy and his family remind me so much of my Italian family, but also because I'm always fascinated how he can make such amazing cakes out of, well, cake. My favorite one by far is his Leaning Tower of Pisa cake he made for a wedding. It was absolutely stunning.

Read the interview here, and enjoy these three pictures of cake. Glorious, locally made cakes I recently had for my 33rd birthday.


{The fish-shaped cupcake cake from my coworkers.}


{The cake from my parents, it's a marble-cake purse with a red velvet hatbox, red velvet, of course, being my most favorite cake in the world. The "flowers" on the left are actually cupcakes, and there was a cake slicer in the shape of a shoe!}


{Side view, it's precious, yes?}

One month down, a lifetime to go!

Let's take a look back, shall we, to my first Ramblings On for 2010, when I waxed philosophical about the year gone by and made my annual resolution list.

They were as follows:

1. To strive to be kinder, gentler and less stressed, to go with the flow, where the wind takes me, etc, etc ...
2. To be healthier, in food intake and exercise output.
3. To continue squirrelling away savings.
4. To write something every day for me, be it in journal, a haiku or tanka, blog or working on novel(s).
(I might even be so bold as to break out a creative writing book that has prompts for every day of the year!)
5. To keep a better, more organized household.
{Read the full blog here.}

Let's see how I made out on this 31st day of January:

1. I've really detached myself from a lot of things that used to piss me off. That's not to say that I don't still seethe, but instead of lashing out (too much) or binge eating, I exercise. I take a deep breath. I move on.
2. I have never, ever, felt better than I have this past month. Health wise and head wise. I chalk it up to really, really, REALLY sticking to a plan no matter what. My clothes are getting baggy, I look forward to the alarm going off (most) mornings to exercise. I am happy to report that, since starting The (New) New Regime on Sunday, Jan. 3, I've exercised all but four days (Saturdays, because of my schedule at the tanning salon, and I don't mind - see No. 2). I am so immensely proud of that fact.
3. Still squirreling!
4. This is monumental for me: Of January's 31 days, I only missed one day of writing for myself. One day. I would go weeks without writing a poem or working on my novel(s) and days without journaling. It's been cathartic, wonderful and inspirational. I can't believe I didn't do this before.
5. This is getting there ... slowly.

All in all, I am pretty damn happy with myself so far in 2010.
Life is brightening up by the minute, and I find that quite exciting.
I chalk it up to finally getting myself happy with myself.

How are you faring so far?

I do, old typewriter, I do!

Last night, I watched "Starting Out in the Evening," a lovely little film about the relationship between grad student Heather, played intriguingly by Lauren Ambrose, doing her thesis on her favorite author, played by the always amazing Frank Langella.

Langella plays Leonard Schiller, an aging novelist who received accolades early in his career, but now has been struggling with his next book for the past decade. His books are no longer in print and all but forgotten save for Heather.

Leonard sets aside a certain number of hours and days he writes and sticks with them religiously, usually dressed in crisp slacks and button-down shirts (just the way I like my men dressed), and pecks away behind his typewriter.

Long after I watched the movie, I was still haunted by the image of Leonard writing clackity-clack behind an old-school writing utensil such as the typewriter.

I became slightly obsessed with looking at photos on the Interweb of old typewriters today, almost as obsessed as I was with writing.

I've been feeling so inspired to write lately, be it here at Ramblings On, in my journal or in my haiku/tanka notebook. Seeing "Starting Out in the Evening" only fed the fire that needs to come out of my fingers and onto a page.

I wish I could have been one of those literary greats from those days in New York, like Dorothy Parker and her cohorts on the Algonquin Round Table. I'd like to have written, toiled and created behind a rickety typewriter, feeling those round buttons slam against the white pages with words - my words.

I'd like to take that typewriter above, move to a delightful apartment in New York circa the 1920s-1930s and marry it.

We'd live in that apartment together quite happily, I reckon, drinking Manhattans from gold-gilded glassware, maybe smoking ever-so-gracefully from a pearl holder, surrounded by books, books and more books as we wrote and wrote, hoping that someday, an aspiring novelist such as myself would blog about wanting to be like me many, many years later.

Show, don't tell.

"Writing well means never having to say 'I guess you had to be there.'" -- Jef Mallett, "Frazz" comic strip

Such words to live by ... rather, words to write by.

Recently, I read a concert review that was so dry and devoid of any emotion that it got me thinking about how people write - and how I write.

I'm a very nosy person by nature, so I'm always looking around or researching to the fullest extent to ask that "one question" no one else has ever asked someone before (wishful thinking I know, but I digress). I'd like to think it just adds a certain something, you know?

If I'm covering a concert, or reviewing a CD (as I am doing the latter this week so be sure to check it out at www.theweekender.com, you're welcome for the shameless plug), I want a reader to hear it like I did, or see what I saw when I listened. I want to capture every single moment and relay that.

I guess it stems from being a chronic journaler since the age of 17, where I'd capture nearly every single second of my day - who said what, what I did, where I went, etc., etc.

Or, it could be from my worrywart Mom who always told me to "get the big picture," meaning be observant of my surroundings - and keep myself safe, because as you well know, bad people lurk every where ... God forbid.

(Ahh, my auto pilot reflex phrase, another thing to thank Mom for inflicting into my daily life ...)

Word nerd.

"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained."
~~~~Mark Twain

For years, I have subscribed to an e-mail newsletter that sends quotes of the day.
OK - at one time, I subscribed to several such newsletters, but have weaned myself down to just two.

And I don't just stop there: If I am particularly moved by some witty, well-spoken chap or dame whose wise words pop up in my inbox every morn, I will do a completely nerdy thing.

"I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character."
~~~~Teddy Roosevelt (Nikki note: He is my 3rd favorite president.)

I will write said quote in designated "Quote of the Day" spiral notebook, one of three that rests n the corner of my desk for such deserving words.

"But why think abut that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?"
~~~~Jack Kerouac

I do the same thing if I come across anything in the paper, online or in a magazine article I read. It's almost like an OCD thing - or another one of my OCD things I guess I should say.

I like having these inspiring quotes at my fingertips. I like the process of writing them with my blue PaperMate pen, feeling and hearing the words scratch the white lined paper. It's not unlike the feeling I get when I write in my journal. That tangible inspiration.

I like to think that maybe one day, maybe someday, someone will be moved by my own words, the way that I've been moved at any particular moment by someone else's.

"I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them."
~~~~Jane Austen