From My Reader: Cake Wrecks

This is the first of a new feature for this blog! Every other week or so I'll introduce you to the blogs that make me laugh, make me think and just plain keep me coming back for more!

This week, I'll be highlighting the fun and funny blog: Cake Wrecks!

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Almost everyday Jen and her husband John offer up pictures of professional cakes gone terribly, terribly wrong with witty commentary!

On Sundays, they post the Sunday Sweets to balance the bad and the ugly showcased on the rest of the week.

Some of my favorite posts:

What's This?

Sunday Sweets: Wintry Wonders

Sunday Sweets: Halloween

Sunday Sweets: Steampunk

Sunday Sweets: Doctor Who

Sunday Sweets: Castles

In Which Happy Tanks SHOULD Be Given, But Are Not

Steampunk Cakes and More

Here's a few Steampunk tidbits that I've come across during the past week:

First up is the results of a Steampunk Cake Contest hosted by CakeCentral.com

This is the first place winner of the contest designed and made by Artisan Cake Company. There were some awesome cakes in the winner's circle including a Steampunk Venus de Milo cake!

Next up are some lovely Steampunk Short fiction pieces written in response to T.S. Bazelli's Author Aerobics: Plot Challenge at Ink Stained.

The Challenge:

In 1000 words or less, write a piece of fiction that includes all the elements of the 3 act structure, including at least one crisis in the rising action. To make things more interesting use the word "zeppelin" somewhere in the story.

There is only one rule: set a time limit.

There were two lovely responses:

The Last Flight of Lord Winstead's Vigilance by Stephen Watkins

The Metal Girl by T.S. Bazelli

You should also check out the fantastic blog post by Steampunk Scholar on Defining Steampunk as an Aesthetic. Here's a small snippet to hopeful pique your interest:

Steampunk is an aesthetic: it is a look, or a style. It is not a genre, because within the literature, there is no recurrent narrative element that one can point to which appears in all, or even most of the books.

Finally, if you haven't checked it out yet, the Great Steampunk Debate is currently running and has some great insights into Steampunk. There's lots of information and perspectives from all over.