Soaking It All Up

When I moved to Israel from Canada, I joined the ranks of what some call the “culturally stuck” – those who only know popular cultural references dating from the time they left. I’ve missed out on years of reality shows, skipped over flash-in-the-pan viral Youtube wonders like “Friday” (never seen it, never plan to), have no interest in Hannah Montana, and I have no idea why I should care what a Kardashian is or why any of them are famous for being famous.

Luckily, my customers keep me in the loop – especially the younger set, who request cakes portraying characters I’ve never even heard of and must resort to researching. Enter SpongeBob Squarepants. Wikipedia, as always, was illuminating:

SpongeBob SquarePants is an energetic and optimistic sea sponge (although his appearance more closely resembles a kitchen sponge) who lives in a pineapple under the sea with his pet snail, Gary, who meows like a cat.

O….kay. Nice to know that today’s younger generation is being educated in marine biology, and being taught non-conformity (animals can produce any sound they want! To heck with the traditional… um – I am not actually sure what sound a snail makes, so I’ll just move on).

SpongeBob’s face wasn’t too hard to capture – gap toothed grin, giant head, spindly limbs that seem incapable of supporting him (take note, however, of the authentic-looking tube socks), long eyelashes that are simply wasted on a boy (I am assuming he is male, based on his 1950’s tie). The craters in his body were produced with the help of an ice cream scoop and his body was constructed by piling several cake layers on top of each other. A number of wooden dowels were inserted through all the layers to make sure he didn’t topple over. I almost got carried away and made a sponge cake, but sadly the customer wanted banana chocolate chip.

So thank you, dear children everywhere, for helping me learn about what’s new and cool and hip today (do people say hip anymore?). Happy to make this cake again for anyone –pineapple not included. Next up: I kid you not, the adventures of Squidward Tentacles.