Cthulhu Cake

As today, August 20th, is H.P. Lovecraft's birthday (1890 - 1937) I thought I would make a Cthulhu cake in his honor.  He was the most prolific writer of the 20th century and was a founding father of the modern horror and science fiction genres.

It is supposed to be the Necronomicon with Cthulhu like tentacles coming out and The Colour Out of Space flowers around the base.  The color is Yellow.  If you have ever read the story, by the end of it the color has to be yellow, it is the only color that works.

The passages are from 1- The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (all time favorite) 2 - The Call of Cthulhu and 3 - At the Mountains of Madness.

I am pretty much obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft right now.  I got my Bachelor's degree from Miskatonic University located in Arkham, Mass. (Made-up University and town from his stories) in 2010 by reading all of his major works.  J read "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" on a 6 hour road trip to Las Vegas.  It was the best part of that vacation.  I could not wait to get back in the car and have J continue reading to me.  That is when I really got hooked on Lovecraft's antediluvian cyclopean eldritch style of writing.  Then I went on got my Master's degree in 2011 by finishing three different anthologies.

Now, 2012, I am working on my PhD in Lovecraft by reading anything he has written that I have not read yet.  This includes a lot of his short stories and some pretty bad poetry, most of which are from a set of books published in the 1970s and 80s that J found for me.

Yes, it would be easier to just pick up a copy of the "Necronomicon" which has every published story he ever wrote and read through that.

Two reasons why I have not brought myself to do this yet.  First, it is a really big book and I prefer reading the smaller more compact anthologies because they fit in my purse and I can take them everywhere with me.

Second, I like the adventure of going to different bookstores and finding anthologies with stories I have not read yet.  It is the thrill of the quest that I look forward to.

The aftermath shot.  I made a Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese frosting.  I decided that a Cthulhu Cake could only have one flavor, and it had to be Red Velvet.  Another reason for making this cake, other than to celebrate H.P. Lovecraft was that it is J's birthday on Aug 22nd and he needed a birthday cake.  He shares his birthday with my Aunt Lonnie.  We had a lovely end of summer BBQ birthday last night with the family and extended family and celebrated two birthdays.

I also made Red Velvet Cake Pops.

And chocolate French macaroons because I knew a lot of people would be there and I was afraid the cake was not going to be enough.

This is what my kitchen looked like after the Cthulhu cake, Cake Pops, and chocolate French macaroons.  It is going to take me days to clean this mess up.  Sigh.  I think it was worth it.