26 Cakes Perfect for Geeks

Here is the most awesome list of cakes and cupcakes (perfect for Geeks).

1. Geek Cupcakes!!! Too Cute!

These are by far my favorite cupcakes EVER! How cute are the pencil protectors, taped glasses and compasses? Yummo!

2.  R2D2 Cake Updated: R2M5 Cake

Mark Randazzo, who has a  bakery, Mark Joseph Cakes, got a lot of buzz for his cake-making skills on BoingBoing, Gizmodo, Elite Choice and more.  I made the update and need to polish up on my Start Wars trivia.

3. Pacman Cupcakes

So these are CUPCAKES and not a cake… but too cute to resist. This is perfect for any kid who grew up in the 80’s. 

4. For the Dungeon & Dragons Geek

This delicious dragon was made by Mike’s Amazing Cakes for some kind of Dungeon and Dragon party.  If you can’t afford to have one made, you can try to make your own dragon cake - but it probably won’t be quite as amazing.

5. For the Camera Geek

A Nikon Camera Cake.  This cake is from a bakery in  Pennsylvania called Granny Schmidt’s. The outside was made of fondant and the inside is red velvet cake.

6. Super Mario Cake

This cake was actually made for a wedding! I wonder if the bride was dressed as Peach. Actually, after the bride and groom went around looking for a Mario and Peach wedding topper, the bride decided to surprise the groom on their wedding day with this masterpiece.

7. Wii Cake for Gamer Geeks

Back in July, 2007 Wired Magazine’s “How To” feature included a Wii Cake that was inedible due to support structures.  However, Brian Walak actually created one that you can in fact eat - and ended up on Martha’s show. I wonder if Martha has ever even played a Wii?

8. iPhone Cake

I love my iPhone and think this cake might just be one of the easier ones because of the simple shape.  All you need is a steady hand for the icing.

9. Laptop Cake

Everything is edible except for the screen, it is a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream covered (bottom layer) with blue fondant and then the top layer (laptop) is the same but covered with grey fondant then painted silver.

10.  Tux the Linux Penguin

This one is perfect for your open source geek.

11. Kindle Cake

Kindle is a wireless reader.

12. Helio Ocean Cake

A Helio Ocean CAKE!!! This was made by a girl for her boyfriend.

13. Apple, Apple Pie

Okay, so its not a cake but who can resist apple pie? APPLE, apple pie that is! 

14. Mario Kart Wedding Cake

This Mario Kart wedding cake is simply stunning.

15. Super Mario Cupcakes

Continuing on the Mario theme, next up are these Super Duper.

16. Sushi Cake (not made of fish)

This is made out of spiced carrot ginger cake with cream cheese icing. All those cute little details, the chopsticks, soy sauce bowl, snap peas… they aren’t plastic. Those are edible, made out of gum-paste, and the bamboo, wasabi, ginger… made out of fondant. The rice is coconut.

17. Heineken Bottle Cake for Beer Geeks

Debbie Does  Cakes is the master behind this cool Heineken bottle cake too. What can she NOT do?

18. Yoda Cake for Star Wars Geeks

Defies gravity, this Yoda Cake Does… yes… hmm?

19. Nintendo Cake

The cake is yellow, the controller is two Hershey bars with nougat between them, connected to the cake by black licorice, and the whole thing is that hard-sugar frosting.

20. Lego Cupcakes

These Lego cupcakes.  I love playing with Legos!

21. Black Berry Cake

Crack Berry anyone? Check out the detail on the screen and the perfect buttons.

22. Back to the Future Geeks : The Delorean Cake

Can i hav this cake pleze? Who doesn’t LOVE “Back to the Future”?

23. Optimus Prime Cake

Transformer’s aren’t just for little kids anymore the one above was commissioned by a girl for her boyfriend’s 30th birthday and was The cake was modeled after the Robot Heroes version of Optimus Prime, the one that was released in the first wave of these toys. 

24. Raving Rabid Cake

Raving Rabbids happens to be one of my favorite games on the Wii. 

25. Gutiar Hero II Cake

I have yet to play Gutiar Hero but my guess is that I would be horrible at it because I have a really bad ear for making music. I tried playing the violin in grade school and was always in the last chair.

26. Mac Mini Cake

This cake was made for boy’s 15th birthday.

Phew, that was quite a list! Do you know of any more? Please do share!!!

Web Designers Should Code....

14 Jan

6 Reasons Why Designers Should Code

Categories: Accessibility, Programming, SEO

I know, I know…none of us creative types want anything to do with coding past the very basic HTML/CSS we need to know to get our designs to the developers.

Doing development is something for those programming grunts, those code jockeys, those geeks.

Why should we enter the trenches of development when it’s so nice up here with the Photoshop brushes, afternoon tea, and MacPros? 

Because you’ll be a better designer for it.

Skeptical? Read on and discover 6 reasons why designers should code…

1. Better XHTML

I’ve worked with and known many designers who knew only the bare minimum needed to get their designs out of Photoshop and into a web format. Oftentimes they would make use of a software program or plugin like SiteGrinder. While these programs keep getting better and better at making compliant code, they still don’t match the human-produced variety.

Knowing how to write your own standards-compliant XHTML will make you a valuable addition to any web team (emphasis on the standards-compliant part). With all the fuss about PHP, ASP.NET, Ruby, and many other languages, people tend to forget that everything ends up being HTML in the end, because that’s what your browser has to have in order to render a page. The more you know about the medium you work in, the better you work in that medium.

2. Better SEO

And while we’re talking about standards-compliant code, we should mention SEO. This is a big buzzword, though not quite as much as it has been in the past. However, what this means is that SEO is becoming a much more commonplace idea of what a website should strive for, instead of just an added special feature for big business sites.

If you can learn to write your own code, you’re much closer to being able to list “SEO Compliant Designs” on your sheet of available services. That means you can charge more, and it’s another badge on your hat.

3. Better Accessibility

Better code and better SEO = better accessibility. Part of of the job of any designer is to present information in a clear and coherent manner, and on the web that means not solely in a visual manner. A shoddily-coded website can be a nightmare to navigate if you’re blind, or even if you’re using a mobile device.

Learning the ins and outs of developing code for accessibility not only allows you have that knowledge as part of your production skillset, but it will also help you to better understand the considerations you should take when designing for accessibility.

Accessibility is a mandate for all government websites, nearly all education sites, and businesses are starting to see the value in it as well. The more people you can reach via your site, the more chance you have of accomplishing your goal, whatever it may be. And that has to be reflected in any successful design.

4. Better Left Side

Being a right-brained creative is great, but giving your left side a workout can spur on creativity of a different nature. The motto at the bottom of the WordPress website is “Code Is Poetry”, and this is because translating a written language to something that can be visually seen is truly an art form.

Learning to write your own code opens up whole new avenues of expression. Developing your technical and analytical abilities can improve your information design, developing wireframes, and create a pathway to work with interaction design. And who knows, it may even improve your math skills!

5. Better Communication

It’s easy to get lost in the techno-jargon used by developers, simply because you may not have been exposed to the type of things they are discussing. Digging in and working with code yourself will allow you to become familiar with the terminology that is used when conversing about the construction of a site.

Being able to speak the lingo will help when you need to communicate with a developer or project manager about how a design should be implemented.

6. Better Design

You can only do so much knowing the fundamentals of design. Typography, color theory, composition, etc. are all fantastic and extremely important skills to know (and know well)…but eventually if you want to excel in your creativity, you must learn the tools of the trade. Painters learn about canvas types, paint compositions, and bristle qualities. Web design is no exception. Learn to code: you’ll be better for it.