Got a chance to check out The Rebel Legion setting up for a photo op!

Hey, we went to ORLANDO! It was so much fun, even the rainy bits. We came for Celebration VI, and stayed to experience The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I know it’s been a couple of weeks since Celebration, so I’ll spare you a ton of details and just get to the eye candy: photos (more photos after the jump)!

This was our first Celebration and it was spectacular. So much amazing cosplay, some great panels and shows, and some of the coolest geeks and nerds this side of the galaxy.

Katie Cook was there doing custom pieces for people. Here’s what we got:

Left to right: Katie Cook drawing our travel companions… more on that later. Jedi Stitch fighting a Sith Red Panda. Pinkie Pie as a Jedi Master.

Top: Imperial Hoth regiment + Wampa. Left: Gender bending Obi-Wan and Prince Leia. Right: Shadow Trooper and Lady Vadore… Only I found out later that she was Jen from Cake Wrecks!

Some of the stuff we got at Celebration. Left to Right: ROTJ Luke Skywalker Lightsaber. Gamorrean Piggy Bank. My Hero Tee from Her Universe.

Oh yeah, did I mention THE Nerdist himself was there? He was gracious enough to sign stuff for us.

Chris Hardwick signing our TARDIS… It’s cool we brought a TARDIS to a Star Wars convention, right?

We were sad to have it end. Even with 4 day passes we still wish we could have done more. Luckily we got to see the “Smuggler’s gambit” radio drama live, More on Star Wars 1313, found out about Star Wars: Detours and even got to participate in a Bounty Hunt! Although with Celebration over, we still couldn’t leave Orlando without hitting up The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The Butter Beer and the Pumpkin Juice were great (although I am personally partial to the Pumpkin Juice).

Left to Right: Butter Beer and Pumpkin Juice

We would have been remiss if we hadn’t picked up some replica wands from The Owl Post/Dervish & Banges.

Top to bottom: Hermione Granger, Sirius Black

Why can’t we all live in the Star Wars and Harry Potter universes?

After catching up on orders and a subsequent hectic week, I figured it was high time for another blog post. First, thank you for the amazing response to the new nomz. I felt like a one-man TARDIS factory! Next will be some more love for the Browncoats. Until then…

Head on over to GeekyCookies.com now to grab some of these nomz, fit for a Time Lord (more pictures after the jump and a discount code).

Your favorite blue box has finally been nomzified.  After many requests and a few prototypes, I finally found a design I liked – which I hope you will like too! But I couldn’t just leave it to the blue box alone…

Meet Skaro’s pride and joy, the Daleks! Curious to find out what a Dalek tastes like? The Doctor would say ‘hate’ but I think you will find them so delicious you’ll say they taste ‘FANTASTIC!’ You can choose from any 6 colors of dalek, or mix them all up for the variety.

On another note, we will be attending Celebration VI (and probably making a pit stop over at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter) this week.

So any orders placed from now until August 31st will start to ship on September 4th. We apologize for the inconvenience, but to help with things here’s a discount code for 10% off your entire purchase through GeekyCookies.com:

NEWNOMZ

Enter that code in during checkout and it will update your total with the 10% off applied.

I’ve got more in store in the coming weeks. Something for the Bronies and even more Browncoat Brownies, so stay tuned.

We did it again!

What a great Craft Lake City this year. I could not have asked for a better turnout! There were so many geeks, nerds, Browncoats, Whovians, gamers, Trekkies, Bronies & Pegasisters… the list goes on. My favorite part of this event is meeting all of the fans and just sharing our love of all these universes together. It is definitely a very gratifying experience to get all your feedback and suggestions, and in turn it makes me want to give you guys MORE! (even more after the jump…)

Last year’s CLC was a test bed of sorts for some new nomz, but this year I brought some of the best received nomz ever. Look forward to seeing those new nomz on the store site this week.

I brought back the beloved “Captain Mal” Browncoat Brownie, and with him came “The River” (a walnut fudge brownie on top of a chocolate chunk cookie) and “The one they call Jayne,” (a s’more brownie with a graham cracker layer). You can’t really see them from the picture above, but I also brought some Star Trek: TNGingerbread men prototypes.

CLC also saw the premier (finally) of the TARDIS  (which apparently I can’t make enough of, as they sold out so quickly) and Dalek nomz! For the Bronies I brought cutie mark cookies. Last but not least, I added Superman and Batman cookies to the repertoire.

More importantly, I love meeting all of you geeks. You make me smile. I plan on hitting up more festivals and conventions in the future and I hope to see you there

Meanwhile, check out these awesome kicks that someone who came to the booth made, a la Doctor Who:

Best kicks ever. Doctor approved!

<3

For those of you that are not familiar, Craft Lake City is Salt Lake’s premier Arts & Crafts festival focusing on hand made goodness. There are approximately 200 exhibitors and each one has a very unique style that make this event hard to miss. They added a DIY category for 2012, and I’m excited to walk the Gallivan Center this year to see what they are offering.

That is of course if I can even leave my booth! Last year was such a huge success that I wanted this year to be even bigger. I’m going to be bringing new nomz, which will be available online some time this week. In order to show them off at CLC though, I needed to make a display worthy enough to house them. Got any guesses?

It may not be bigger on the inside, but it will hold your favorite blue box… nomzified!

It’s about time, isn’t it (Hurr hurr, get it)? But those aren’t the only new nomz coming to GeekyCookies. I’ve got some more Brownies for those of us who are “still flying,” something for the bronies and pegasisters, and an Enterprising crew of the next generation. So stay tuned for those.

If you are going to be in the Salt Lake City area this Saturday, August 11th from Noon to 10PM, come stop by our booth, show us some love, and grab some nomz. Once I get specific placement info, I’ll post it via the various social sites (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest) but until then you can find us by looking for our new banner:

It’s 8 feet long, and it won’t be on my carpet. You can’t miss it.

It’s summer time, and to me nothing says summer like a nice warm paper bag filled with zeppoles. Having originally lived in New York City, I sometimes long for those humid summer nights at the local fairs and festivals so that I could grab a bag of those sweet and salty, crunchy and chewy balls of dough. When I crave them now, I whip up my own batch, and add a little twist – GeekyCookies style.

Ingredients: (makes about 24 zeppoles)
1 cup of all-purpose flour
2 tsp of baking powder
⅛ tsp of salt
1 ½ tsp of white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup of ricotta cheese
¼ tsp vanilla extract
vegetable oil for frying
powdered sugar for dusting
food coloring and any other goodies you want to decorate your zeppoles with

1. Heat up your vegetable oil the in deep fryer to 375 degrees. If you don’t have a deep fryer, a medium saucepan filled with about 4 inches of vegetable oil will do.
2. In another medium sized saucepan, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Place the saucepan on low heat and stir in your already beaten eggs, ricotta, and vanilla. Gently mix it all together until everything is combined, and the batter is thick and sticky.
3. Scoop up tablespoon sized balls, then carefully drop them into the hot oil a few at a time as they expand slightly. Fry until both sides are golden brown – about 3 to 4 minutes. They tend to flip themselves over, but keep an eye on them so they brown evenly.
4. Once done, they’re traditionally placed inside paper sacks, to cool for about 30 seconds, then a generous amount of powdered sugar is thrown in the bag and shaken up. You can eat them right out of the bag or serve them however you’d like.
5. As you can see in the photo, I turned mine into little Zeppole Creatures using powdered sugar that I colored with green food coloring, chocolate chips for their eyes, and cashew halves for their mouths. Just have fun with it and see what fun and geeky things you can make out of your zeppoles!

Here’s a picture I took during sunset on the summer solstice:

Solstice sunset in Anchorage, AK. approximately 11:50PM. Taken with the PANO app on my Samsung Galaxy S2. You can see some distortion on the photo.

More pictures after the jump:

And here’s some obligatory pictures of food:

Avalanche Slices @ Moose’s Tooth. Chicken, pepperoni, bacon, other yummy stuff with cheese and BBQ sauce.

Halibut Fish and Chips and an Alaskan Pale Ale @ Humpey’s Great Alaskan Alehouse

The definitive highlight of my trip was when my wife made it up for a weekend to visit! Particularly, we went on an hour long boat ride to get up close and personal with Portage Glacier. We rode the mv Ptarmigan on Portage Lake on a nice and sunny day and got pretty darn close to the glacier.

The beautiful Portage Glacier in Alaska.

The boat captain dumped a bucket into the freezing cold water and fished up a large chunk of glacier ice, chopped off a few pieces and my wife and I got to touch actual glacier ice. Who knew ice was this fascinating?

A piece of Portage Glacier.

We got married last year on May 25th, which many of you will recognize as Towel Day and Geek Pride Day. Now we add Wedding Adventure Day to that list! So this year we went back to the scene of the crime for a few sun-filled and relaxing days. We experienced our first Segway tour (amazing!), hung out at the beach, had some absolutely great food, and reminisced about the wedding and the time we have spent together so far.

So in honor of that, I wanted to make sure I posted this blog about our wedding cake, before I wait too long yet again to do so. This was actually intended to go up pretty much right after we got married, but since I am a slacker at blogging it just never did. With that, let’s start with a photo (more photos after the jump):

photo by Jenna Kageyama of flutter glass PHOTOGRAPHY

Now for the self proclamatory cake origin story:

While we were planning the wedding I had the responsibility of figuring out the wedding cake.  Better yet, I needed it to be a surprise!  We both absolutely LOVE the game Portal (and the amazing sequel Portal 2).  I had seen Weighted Companion Cube cakes in the past and honestly, I really, really wanted one.  As luck would have it, our wedding colors were orange and blue, which was absolutely perfect.  Portal colors!

I spent months planning and scheming in secret with our lovely friend Jackie who masterfully created our Weighted Companion Cube cake. I sent her what was just a set of mock pictures and blueprints I drafted up of how I thought the cake should be presented, including preliminary measurements and positioning of the cake.  She completely knocked it out of the ballpark!

photo by Jenna Kageyama of flutter glass PHOTOGRAPHY

The cakes sit on simple stands that I drafted up, using the final measurements of a prototype cake that she had cut diagonally. It had to look like it was going through a the portals, so the stands were made to represent them.  A co-worker at my day job did the woodwork and I put the pieces together then I colored it and added a food safe surface on which the cake would lay.

Since I was granted the element of surprise and since it was a Portal cake, I would have been remiss if I didn’t make a fake cake.  In the original Portal, GLadOS attempts to reward you with cake and then it is made apparent that “the cake is a lie”. I made something similar to that referenced cake in the game:

photo by Jenna Kageyama of flutter glass PHOTOGRAPHY

I made the cake out of some floral Styrofoam stuff and Sculpey clay. We actually brought this cake out first and we even turned off the lights and lit the candle (LOL). There it was, this tiny little rinky-dink cake that we’re about to cut into and my wife started to show some confusion (and maybe a little concern) on her face.  As we cut into it together, it started to become clearer. She peeled back the clay and saw it was fake… then in comes the real cake!

Then we finally brought that amazing cake out! And there was much rejoicing.

P.S. Our Weighted Companion Cube was filled with Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake and Vanilla Buttercream icing. Om nom nom nom nom!

- Jackie Stone made our wonderful cake. We are currently working on building her website. Once it is ready I will definitely be touting it out!

- Special thanks to Jenna Kageyama of flutter glass PHOTOGRAPHY for photographing our special day and our special cake We recommend her to all of you!

Things have been pretty hectic IRL for us here at GeekyCookies. But since it is spring, it is time for rebirth. For some of us that means the yearly spring cleaning. For others, it means new perspectives and outlooks. For some it might mean some “outdoor fun.”

For us it means that we are making some changes and will be bringing you more yummy goodness. And to celebrate, we are kicking it off with a cool discount code you can use today only for 15% off your entire order at GeekyCookies.com.

Use the code: FIRSTOFMAY at checkout to apply the discount.

With that said, we look forward to supplying you with awesome nomz and seeing you in the near future. We plan to be at a couple of events this year so we’ll keep you posted on that. In the meantime, enjoy our favorite song about the First of May written by the awesome Jonathan Coulton. Warning: Not suitable for work or tiny children’s ears.

First of May – Jonathan Coulton

 

{Every holiday season we at GeekyCookies post this story to remind everyone to be kind to your fellow geek all the time, not just this time of year. So please enjoy the nomz based on this story, and remember: even Pirates and Ninjas can look past their differences and get along.}

In an old ninja village, a young ninja apprentice baker was honing his skills in the ninja bakery. He decided to craft a cookie in honor of his master, in appreciation for teaching him both the ways of the sword, and of the spatula. He shaped the cookie in his master’s image and decorated it to wear the traditional garb of their clan. And as the young apprentice placed the eyes on the cookie, it sprang up and shouted:

Run, run as fast as you can!
You’ll never catch me…
*Poof*

And with a well timed smoke bomb, The Ninjabread Man vanished.

The Ninjabread Man was never captured and his skills matched those of the ninja baker that crafted him. Over the course of his travels, he encountered many creatures and beings, leaving many defeated in his path. And those he could not defeat he would out-guile with his wit and trademark-smoke bomb-vanishing-catchphrase. He had a knack for smoke bombs.

—–

One cold, December’s day, The Ninjabread Man happened upon a harbor town, and ventured across a group of pirates ready to weigh anchor. The tiny cookie ninja had never actually encountered a pirate until this very day, although he had heard tales of their existence as he roamed the lands. I have to see what these people are like, he thought to himself, and quickly stowed away on the vessel before it left the dock.

What The Ninjabread Man didn’t realize was that these were no ordinary pirates. Nor was this an ordinary boat. The ship belonged to the fabled Pirate Cap’n “Saint” Nick.

The ship was no further than a couple miles away from land when it magically hoisted itself above the sea and started to slowly ascend higher and higher into the night sky. The Ninjabread Man trembled with fright as he watched himself soar into the clouds. He looked around the ship and saw that no one was at the helm… let alone on deck!

Just then a large, white-bearded man had kicked open the cabin door and let out a loud, jovial laugh. He wore a large black pirate hat and wore a patch on his left eye. Following behind him were a dozen much smaller crewmen, all of them dragging out a large sack, seemingly bottomless, with stuffed animals and toy swords and the like.

While his gaze was set in wonderment of the large sack, The Ninjabread Man was spotted by one of the crewmen, who then alerted the others.

“Cap’n Nick! Ninja on deck!”

The Ninjabread Man jumped out of the shadows and readied himself for battle. Cap’n Nick barked what seemed to be orders to his crew, but their rally cries drowned out his bellowing. Try as they may, the tiny pirates fell injured, one by one to the swift movements of the cookie ninja. The Pirate Cap’n drew his sword.

“I did not want it to come to this, but I am running terribly late,” the fat man said worriedly as he stood battle ready.

The Ninjabread Man stood to face the Pirate Cap’n and a ferocious sword fight took place. Cap’n Nick seemed too skilled, even for the cookie ninja, proving to be a master swordsman with every swing of his blade. The Ninjabread Man knew this and leapt away from his enemy and exclaimed:

Run, run as fast as you can!
You’ll never catch me…
*Poof*

But the smoke bomb didn’t work. Cap’n Nick laughed with glee.

“Your smoke bombs don’t work on my ship, tiny ninja! We’re in the air and there’s nowhere to hide!”

The Ninjabread Man felt his demise was imminent. He lay down his sword in front of him and sat, cross-legged, ready to accept his fate. Cap’n Nick approached slowly, each step heavier than the last as he closed in. But rather than giving his foe the final blow, The Cap’n lay his sword down next to the ninja’s and offered only his hand.

“Rise, little one. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

Hesitantly, The Ninjabread Man looked into the pirate’s un-patched eye and saw a calming sincerity that he had never felt before.

“I am the Pirate Cap’n Nick. My crew calls me ‘Saint.’ You are not in danger. I tried to stop my crew, but I wasn’t fast enough. I apologize for the confusion.”

The Ninjabread man, ran up the bearded pirate’s arm and perched himself on his shoulder as he continued to speak.

“You seem to be lost little one. Do you know of this ship?”

The tiny ninja shook his head.

“You have stumbled upon The Sleigh, my lad. On this day every year I leave my cove in the White North with my crew and we bring gifts to all the good pirate children of the world.”

Just then, The Sleigh’s crew let out a pained “Arr!”

“But I don’t see how I can do that tonight, with you having incapacitated my crew and all! I steer The Sleigh over the rooftops, and my tiny crew ropes down and delivers the gifts from that sack to the dwellings below. But now in my crew’s haste to defend the ship, we are left in a… predicament, to say the least.”

The Sleigh began to hover over a pirate cove. The Ninjabread Man noticed this and made his way to the sack of gifts. He pulled one out and to the surprise of the captain, he leapt off the ship. Before Cap’n Nick could run to see where he had gone, the cookie ninja returned almost immediately and repeated his gift dive.

The speed of this amazed Cap’n Nick and his eyes lit up. The ninja was delivering his presents for him! He ran to the helm and without saying any other words to each other, they flew all over the world delivering presents to all the pirate children. Eventually they had run out of pirate homes, yet the sack still lay full.

“I wish to give presents to those of my kind,” said The Ninjabread Man to the Cap’n.

The jolly man smiled and simply nodded.

—–

They made their way to The Ninjabread Man’s village and he began to deliver gifts to all the ninja children. The ninja’s took notice and stormed the ship, ready to pounce the captain and the recovering crew when The Ninjabread Man stood firm between them and yelled in the biggest voice his tiny cookie body could muster:

“STOP!”

Of the ninjas, the young ninja baker’s apprentice emerged, recognizing his creation. He stared at the cookie ninja and saw he had drawn his sword, ready to defend the pirate crew. He asked of him:

“Come now, tiny one. These are pirates. You do not belong here,” offering his hand.

The Ninjabread Man only stood resolute. He refused. The ninja baker’s apprentice drew his sword.

“Can’t you see,” said Cap’n Nick. “He’s helping us.”

The look in the ninja baker apprentice’s eyes changed as he sheathed his sword. He sighed knowingly, staring at both the Cap’n and the cookie ninja, then turned to his clan and motioned to the never-ending sack of presents. The ninjas understood and they began grabbing the gifts and delivering them.

Cap’n Nick saw this and smiled. The Ninjabread Man, along with The Sleigh’s crew joined in. After they made deliveries to the whole ninja village, they moved right on to the next one, and the next one. The sack seemed to stay full. They even continued to the other villages filled with townsfolk and delivered presents to them, together.

After a long night, their work was done. For the first time in history, pirates and ninjas worked together to spread goodwill to the world. Both sides lay their swords down for one night, and it was all thanks to The Ninjabread Man and the Pirate Cap’n “Saint” Nick. A calm took over the ship as they headed back to the ninja village. And for a while, they were able to coexist peacefully.

As the ninjas returned to their respective homes, The Ninjabread Man vowed to help Cap’n Nick next year. The Cap’n smiled and told him to spread word of their deed so that the world can see their example.

The Ninjabread Man joins the Cap’n every year. And for at least one night, there is peace.

3rd Annual Craft Lake city

I got word that GeekyCookies was selected to participate in CLC about a week and a half before the event, which meant: CRUNCH TIME! The following day I’m scrambling to get ready for a local TV shoot and promoting the event! They were showcasing five out of the one hundred eighty artists and crafters that were going to be at the event.  We each got a chance to plug our craft and had to do a quick demonstration. I’ve never done TV before so it was extra nerve-wracking, but the whole thing was over before I knew it. Although I think the interviewer called me Ian instead of Leo during the second segment… hmm.

Here’s a video about Craft Lake City. This isn’t the segment that I did but you get to see a PowerUp Mushroom and a Star Trek Science Uniform on TV! (And someone made a sweeeet chain mail tie… business casual battle attire? Love it.)

If I can find my actual segment I might post it… if it isn’t too embarrassing. But the above clip is still pretty cool.

My wife and I spent the entirety of the remaining week with cookies on the brain. I was focused on making the large amount of cookies I planned on making while she was busting her ass on the displays and branding.

A small cabinet that my wife turned into a Mario Brick!

Mushrooms getting decorated. Just a fraction of what I had baked.

The day of the event finally came and the few hours just before we arrived turned out to be one crazy and hectic blur.  We were packing, working on signage and trying really hard not to forget anything.  After frantically searching for anything that we had the slightest possible need for, we took off for the Gallivan Center, which was the outdoor venue where they were going to hold the event.

Unloaded the car and ready to set up! Drawer of cookies, anyone?

Starting to lay out the table with our displays.

Set up was pretty smooth, aside from battling the sun and fighting with the signing. For first timers, I think we did pretty well. We had about an hour after we finished setting up to really let it all sink in.

Open and ready for business! (Photo Credit: City Weekly)

When Craft Lake City officially started, the flood gates pretty much opened. It was crazy! Apart from selling the nomz, it was great to see people’s reactions once they saw our table. Even better to hear their reactions after tasting them!  Young and old they all had the same smiles on their faces after leaving the table.

I got some GREAT feedback on my prototype Browncoat Brownies. I plan on releasing multiple brownies, based off of characters from the beloved Firefly series. The field test on the Cap’n Mal got some great results. I will start shipping tests pretty soon to see if they are good to sell online.

Field testing the Cap’n Mal Browncoat Brownie. Nothing in the ‘verse could stop them from selling out.

We didn’t have any time really to take pictures when it all started. We met tons of awesome people and had loads of fun! It was a great experience and hopefully you will be seeing more of GeekyCookies.com at more events in the future!

Check out more set up pics on flickr!