cake

Matching Firefox's new rapid-release development cycle, Microsoft's Internet Explorer team has downsized the traditional congratulatory cake it sends to its browser rival.

The new cake arrived last week to Mozilla upon shipment of Firefox 6. Jonathan Nightingale, director of Firefox engineering for Mozilla, posted a photo of the cake on Flickr.

Under the rapid-release program, new versions of the browser ship every six weeks, which means the change in features from the earlier version is correspondingly smaller. No doubt Microsoft--which is still using the big-change, infrequent-update approach with IE--was poking fun at the new release philosophy when it … Read more

I was out for a walk with my son this weekend when he stopped me, gobsmacked, in front of the bakery. "Dada! Look! An Angry Birds...cake."

So I called Michael Gassen, the owner of Noe Valley Bakery, and asked him why, and for whom, he had built the giant and clearly fragile construction in his store window. "I love Angry Birds," he said. "I'm kind of obsessed with it."

Thinking it'd be "awesome" to build a 3D Angry Birds, he gathered "a couple of people," and took about three days to build the cake out of rolled fondant and gum paste. There are a minimum number of structural aids (dowels and toothpicks), "to avoid surprises," should anyone actually want to eat it.

He says the cake would cost about $750 if anyone wanted to buy it, but that it wasn't created for a customer. It'll keep indefinitely, because the bakers added drying agents to the ingredients. It is edible "and actually tastes pretty good," he says, but less so with each passing day. … Read more

Having the ability to create an extraordinary cake is something you'll never see on my resume. That doesn't stop me from living vicariously through those who can bake something that looks like art, like an an almost-too-realistic Angry Birds cake.

The "Furious Fowl" Angry Birds cake is originally inspired from a T-shirt design by Brian Cook that is sold at the artist-driven Threadless clothing store. Jamie Masterson and her husband are self-described addicts of the popular smartphone game, and decided to create the cake as an entry on Threadcakes, which is a Web site that encourages … Read more

Cake has a remarkable way of bringing people together. It's hard not to enjoy it when a cake is unveiled or brought into the room. Except cake alone only goes so far. While the effect a cake can have on a gathering is certainly tangible, the effect a masterfully created cake has is much more pronounced. Too bad those professional-looking cakes are so hard to produce. Or are they?

The Provo Craft Cricut Cake takes cake decorating to a whole new level. At the press of a button, sheets of fondant can be cut into any number of preselected … Read more

Blooming buttercups have been a symbol of good fortune, as well as happiness, since Victorian days. You can share the good fortune with your friends and family by way of the Buttercup Cakelet Pan, which allows you to bake six cakes in the shape of blooming buttercups at a time. Each flower will have details like petals baked in, but you can easily make them even more festive flowers with a bit of icing or other decorations. If buttercups aren't exactly right for the situation, though, the miniature cakes you can bake with this pan are also ideal bases … Read more

Ever tried to slice a round cake into equal pieces? Perhaps you are more skilled than I, but I have a ridiculous amount of trouble slicing a cake into eighths, twelfths--or even fourths. Apparently, I am not the only one in the world with this problem, hence the invention of this innovative cake-slicing guide from Wagaii (Taiwanese for "I like it!" according to their Web site).

It's a small plastic flower with removable petals and leaves. (I'm guessing it's plastic, actually, because I don't speak Taiwanese.) Remove the single disc of petals and place … Read more

This week on preGAME we bring you a trio of some of the most unique PSP games around. That's right, on today's episode we bring you live demos of Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake, Patchwork Heroes, and Echoshift. Joining us on the phone to chat about the PSP version of Fat Princess will be Matt Morton, the U.S. producer on the game.

But first, we'll take a look at the just-released teaser-trailer for one of the most acclaimed mashup fighting games around. Join us as we screen the first-ever video for Capcom Vs. Marvel 3! Sure the game may not be out for another year, but Mark tells us why this title is so important. Next, we'll talk about some of the most highly anticipated Xbox Live Arcade games due out this year. From Limbo to Sonic the Hedgehog 4, there's something for everyone on our list.

Been to a 7-Eleven lately? The company has announced that after a successful trial, used console games will be available for sale in most of the nation's stores by September. Games will go for $20 or lower and classic consoles may soon be supported as well.

Next we'll chat about publisher Ubisoft and the announcement that it will soon be removing paper instruction manuals from games to reduce the cost of production and help prevent waste. Finally, Mark and Jeff discuss software piracy and how it affects portable gaming consoles the most, especially now that Nintendo blames it for a 50 percent sales drop in Europe.… Read more

Some pans are easy to get out of the oven: they have handles that can be easily gripped with potholders. But there are others--especially cake pans--that have no handles. It seems like you're expected to magically move them in and out of the oven without even touching the pan. The Cake Pan Gripper can take hold of those pans a little easier, however. It grips the edge of a pan, without deflating the tops of high-rising cakes. The heat-resistant gripper latches on to the lip of a pan, letting you lift it out of the oven. If you're … Read more

After nearly a whole month without a new episode, the Gadgettes are back and badder than ever! We devote today's episode to examining the category dubbed "mommy tech" from this year's CES. By the end of today's episode, the entire mommy tech category is practically crying to it's own mommy.