Saturday 28th October: Rainbow Cake

Whilst in San Francisco I made a spectrum cake to look like the Apple Mac "spinning wheel of doom" icon with a rainbow of layers in the same colours as their logo.  It took an evening of mixing and individually baking each sponge and then a morning of mixing and spreading icing to build the tower block!  Here are all the stages and the final assembly with icing on the whole exterior and sugar crystals to make the wheel pattern.

My blog has just hit it's 10th birthday so I'll dedicate this entry to such an auspicious anniversary!

Find the recipe I followed for quantities and method here.................. albeit without the pink layer because there's no pink in the Apple logo.  Thank God because I don't think it could have got any higher!

See archive blog posts on Rainbow cakes here, here,  here and here.

Saturday 28th October: San Francisco vibes

Snippets and snaps from my whole week in San Francisco which included a road trip out to the coast for a day at the beach, a walk thru the Golden Gate Park and its Botanical Gardens, the pyscadelic Haight Ashbury for a trawl thru the warehouse size record shop Amoeba, and a screen-print fair in Oakland.  There is so, so, so much to see and do.  I don't think I could have possibly fitted any more in, so I'll just have to go back!

Friday 27th October: "Nature's Gift: Humans, Friends & the Unknown" at Oakland Museum, San Fran

I found my natural habitat at Oakland Museum within the light installation by the Friends With You Collective "Nature's Gift: Humans, Friends & the Unknown".  Its like a gigantic bouncy castle animal, with inner caves of morphing spectrum lights.  Cosmic and the best day out, I didn't want to leave! 

Friday 27th October: San Francisco Museums & Art Galleries

In addition to the streets and buildings of San Fran being painted in all colours of the rainbow, so are the museums & art galleries.  Here are the pieces that I particularly loved including the Ellsworth Kelly and the permanent display at SFMOMA, Sol Lewitt at Fraenkel Gallery , "En Mas" Carnival exhibition at MoAD, Jim Campbell's light installation at Grace Cathedral and the outside of The Color Factory because its sold out for the entirety of its run!!!

I was also very happy to be able to witness two Keith Haring works - the first a sculpture outside the De Young museum "Three Dancing Figures" from 1989 and second a triptych altarpiece “The Life of Christ” from 1990 at Grace Cathedral.  Worldwide adventures and explorations are always worth it when I get to find some original Keith Haring still intact.  Glorious.

Wednesday 25th October: San Francisco Murals & Street Art

I have just returned from a week in San Francisco where I encountered so much colour, every day was a joy.  Just walking around the city was enough entertainment before I even stepped foot in a gallery.  Here are my favourite snaps including the spectrum street crossing of The Castro, a Felipe Pantone wall mural on the way to China Town, some steps and shop-fronts in Haight Ashbury and the rest are probably from the Mission District famous for its painted buildings and alleys of street-art.