Cake

Deepa Bharath A cake made with Meal Ready to Eat boxes may not seem too appealing to many. But that's just what Cpl. Bryan Bergey got from his fellow marines on his 23rd birthday bash in the Kuwaiti desert. The Corona del Mar reservist was deployed in February. He has since e-mailed home several photos, including one showing how his resourceful buddies made him a "cake" with pieces of bread slathered in chocolate sauce and decorated with M & Ms for his Feb. 28 birthday.

Because OCC used to be an army air base before being transformed into an educational institution 60 years ago, it?s only fitting that the milestone anniversary will be heralded by an airborne mascot. The Pirates will hit their six decade mark Wednesday, and the school is inviting the entire community to watch sky diving champion Jim Wallace jump from an airplane and parachute his way into the OCC quad dressed as a pirate. A massive cake weighing more than a half ton will be sitting right next to his landing pad, and everyone is invited to partake after a few speeches by campus dignitaries.

The Orange County Fair Board got a not-so-sweet treat Thursday — an old cake with a message stenciled in the icing: “Let ‘em eat cake.” But members from the Orange County Preservation Society, who delivered the cake, said they had good intentions. They initially bought the cake about a month ago to give to the board Feb. 2, but that meeting was canceled and rescheduled for Feb. 9. The board, however, canceled that meeting for lack of quorum — and the cake went stale.

COSTA MESA - Vibrant sprays of lilies, orchids, daffodils and other blooms surrounded artist Shaile Socher's work space Thursday at the Orange County Fair's "Live, Eat, Grow" exhibit promenade. The delicate, detailed petals looked real, but Socher's flowers were made entirely of sugar. "A florist at a bridal show said that I pretty much fooled her," the Huntington Beach resident said as she molded white sugar-gum petals between her fingertips. "She was at another booth, and she walked over and said that she wanted to check out the competition," Socher continued.

Rachel Lynn Smith and Jacob Anders Hughes were wed at Neighborhood Church, 555 Main St., Costa Mesa. She wore a custom-made bustle dress, featuring a corset with beige ties. He wore Armani. Their colors were green and brown. Their cake was made by Wedding Bakers Inc. Guests received a magnet with the new couple's address and a flower pin or barrett. On Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, Rachel Lynn Smith and Jacob Anders Hughes were wed at the Neighborhood Church, 445 Main St., Costa Mesa.

As if trying to channel its aviation past, OCC celebrated its 60th birthday with a pirate jumping out of an airplane and landing in the middle of the campus Wednesday. Thousands of students and community members gathered in the school quad, stared up at the sky and snapped photos with their cameras as sky diver Jim Wallace opened his bright green-and-yellow parachute and careened down, buccaneer-clad and wielding a sword. He helped cut the 1,200-pound, white-and-orange birthday cake with Betsy Worthy, one of the school’s first graduates who earned her diploma in 1949, right after the campus was cobbled together out of the remnants of an Army air base that was used to train pilots and bombardiers.

It's not often that we at Retail Roundup get really excited about statistics, but this week was one of those numerically enhanced times. That's because we got something in the mail called the "Wilton Celebration Report," a study prepared by the meticulous little data-crunchers at Wilton Industries, Inc. It's a report on the way Americans hold celebrations, complete with all kinds of strange facts about their tastes in...

CORONA DEL MAR — Linda Rankin of Laguna Hills feels better when the sun's out and she can dabble in her garden. She also loves impressing her guests with fantastic creations that marry her love of cooking and gardening. On Saturday Rankin and her husband joined a packed amphitheater at Roger's Gardens and listened and learned as chef Diane Weber cooked up some relatively easy summer dishes while answering questions about horticulture and cooking at her Edible Landscapes seminar.

Elia Powers On a day when the temperature exceeded 80 degrees, and the humidity was higher than average, a glass of lemonade and a spot in the shade seemed heavenly at the Orange County Fair. An open seat inside an air-conditioned building was invaluable Wednesday. So visitors filled the plastic chairs around the Home & Hobbies Stage, where chef Jan Mongell demonstrated cooking methods. Mongell is the founder of Kitchen Talk, an Orange-based culinary consulting company that specializes in food preparation and product testing.

A new university study released this week confirms what many here already know: Orange County has some of the most congested freeways in the nation. California can boast — or loathe — that it has nine of the 10 most clogged stretches of freeway in the country, with a majority in Los Angeles County. But just take a short drive southbound on the San Diego (405) or Santa Ana (5) freeways to the O.C., and the situation isn't much better. According to the study by an institute at Texas A&M University, parts of the 405, 5 and Costa Mesa (55)

COSTA MESA - Vibrant sprays of lilies, orchids, daffodils and other blooms surrounded artist Shaile Socher's work space Thursday at the Orange County Fair's "Live, Eat, Grow" exhibit promenade. The delicate, detailed petals looked real, but Socher's flowers were made entirely of sugar. "A florist at a bridal show said that I pretty much fooled her," the Huntington Beach resident said as she molded white sugar-gum petals between her fingertips. "She was at another booth, and she walked over and said that she wanted to check out the competition," Socher continued.

COSTA MESA — A six-tier wedding cake, created by a Costa Mesa bakery and adorned with 500 hand-crafted edible flowers, will be featured on an upcoming episode of "Access Hollywood. " One could say that the 6-foot sculpted, sugary masterpiece by Costa Mesa restaurateur Chris Russom, of Christopher Garren's Cakes, is fit for a princess. That's because it is. Russom designed the confection to match the china rumored to be selected for the wedding of British royal Prince William and his bride-to-be, Kate Middleton.

COSTA MESA — For Linda Kirkpatrick, who used to work in Las Vegas construction, there's no job satisfaction quite like building the perfect Bundt cake. The Newport Beach resident and owner of a newly opened Nothing Bundt Cakes location in Costa Mesa realized about two years ago that she needed a "paradigm shift" from her work as a commercial and residential subcontractor. "Vegas was hit the hardest, the epicenter of the fallout, and construction just stopped," said Kirkpatrick, 54, of the days leading up to the decision to sell her half of the subcontracting company, which specialized in mirrors, fireplaces and showers.

Rachel Lynn Smith and Jacob Anders Hughes were wed at Neighborhood Church, 555 Main St., Costa Mesa. She wore a custom-made bustle dress, featuring a corset with beige ties. He wore Armani. Their colors were green and brown. Their cake was made by Wedding Bakers Inc. Guests received a magnet with the new couple's address and a flower pin or barrett. On Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, Rachel Lynn Smith and Jacob Anders Hughes were wed at the Neighborhood Church, 445 Main St., Costa Mesa.

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Local Republicans and the Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn. hosted a party Wednesday at the Marine Room Tavern for candidates of their persuasion. Shari L. Freidenrich and City Council incumbent candidates Kelly Boyd and Elizabeth Pearson, as well as challenger Emanuel Patrascu attended. Laguna Beach Republicans President Amy Kramer introduced the candidates. Freidenrich has been endorsed by Laguna Beach Treasurer Laura Parisi and a host of elected or former officials at local, state and federal levels.

The Orange County Fair Board got a not-so-sweet treat Thursday — an old cake with a message stenciled in the icing: “Let ‘em eat cake.” But members from the Orange County Preservation Society, who delivered the cake, said they had good intentions. They initially bought the cake about a month ago to give to the board Feb. 2, but that meeting was canceled and rescheduled for Feb. 9. The board, however, canceled that meeting for lack of quorum — and the cake went stale.

For a sprinkle of sweetness this Valentine’s Day, try SusieCakes in Newport Beach. Owner and founder Susan Sarich makes home-style desserts taste (and look) like heaven. We check in this week to learn what’s baking. How did you get your start? I’m from Chicago, and the impetus for SusieCakes was that after moving to the West Coast, I had a lot of trouble finding true Midwestern desserts that weren’t really structured, or made with a lot of ingredients.