California Gold Rush
Matthew is becoming quite an accomplished chef. He's enjoying his cooking class more than any of his other subjects. So when his history teacher gave him an assignment on the California gold rush of 1849, he decided to use a cake as his canvas. What a sweet idea! As you can imagine, his culinary creation was enthusiastically received by the whole class. His project was clearly a cut above the rest. Yep, this one took the cake! Two sticky thumbs WAY up.
Matthew's research revealed several previously unknown facts about the gold rush. Turns out the first miners on the scene were actually Ewoks. They built their tents from Toblerone wedges and weatherproofed them with fruit leather. They struck gold in a chocolate cake mountain thrusting from a bedrock of fudge brownies. These enterprising fellows panned for gold using chocolate cups and built their fires over red hots. Though they didn't wear pants themselves, they did help make them for Mr. Strauss. You'll see three pairs drying on a line in the lower right side of the cake.
Everything on the cake was edible but three things. There were two toothpicks used to create pickaxes. And the clothesline is dental floss. Toothpicks and dental floss? I guess it's one of those irony things.
Left: Blue jeans drying on a line.
Right: Miners work a sluice and pan for gold.
Below: portrait of the artist as a young man.
Speaking of cruel irony, Matt never got a piece of this cake. He was too busy helping serve it in his class to get a bite. He brought home a generous slice for himself, but left it on the countertop. His brothers (and his dad) thought it was free game and helped themselves. It was good!
