cakelava Interviews: The Great White Snark, Pt. 2

All images courtesy of Great White Snark

Chicks, Snarky remarks, and blogs. Pt. 2 of our interview. Click here for Part 1.

Sasha Reichart: Let’s discuss this whole Kristen Bell obsession. When did it start and have you ever met her?


Great White Snark: Eh, “obsession” is a bit strong. For a while there, I was playing up my interest as a fixation for the sake of entertainment on the blog. But don’t try that at home: only the most skilled of greasy-fingered bloggers can take a mild stalker vibe and turn it into “entertainment.”

Thanks to my nasty case of A.D.D., though, my attention tends to wander. I’ve since been distracted by other shiny things and have turned my attention elsewhere. I’m a big fan of Natalie Portman these days.


Sasha Reichart: You regularly attend conventions. What has been the strangest encounter you’ve had at a convention?

Great White Snark: On the convention floor at Comic-Con this year, a huge, muscled-out dude in a skin-tight leopard-print shirt (not a costume, mind you) and “Friend of Corey Feldman” printed on his convention badge asked me for directions to “Thundercats. You know… Lion-O? Thundercats.” Sort of surreal. In a trip-to-a-reality-show-on-VH1 sort of way.

That’s been the most unusual actual encounter. The trick at these conventions is actually avoiding having encounters with some of the stranger characters.

SR: No kidding! I wish you had a photo of that "Friend of Corey Feldman". How many comics do you currently own and when did you start collecting them?

GWS: Hm, I do have a couple of longboxes (that’s a bit of industry terminology there, for ya…) of comics that I collected when I was a teen, but I haven’t been actively collecting for a while. Until Marvel comes out with a comic book that you can eat and convert into a one-bedroom apartment, my money will be going elsewhere.

SR: Like Rick and I, you are a huge fan of LOST. How do you feel about JJ Abrams latest project, “Fringe”?

GWS: I believe my exact words on Twitter were: “Dear Fringe: Screaming, tense music, and lots of frowning do not fool me into thinking your show is interesting. P.S. I hate you.”

So, yes, I guess you could say that I love it. Except that I don’t.

SR: We don't exactly love it either, but our DVR is still giving it a chance. You seem to enjoy making Top Five and Top Ten lists. Here are a couple for you to answer:

What are the Top Five Fantasy Geek Costumes you Would Want Your Lover (or Kristen Bell) to Wear?

GWS: I’m not really into bringing cosplay home with me, but no self-respecting, red-blooded American man is going to turn down a lady in a Slave Leia costume.

SR: Top Five Guilty Pleasure Shows you wouldn’t want to admit publicly to watching?

GWS: I have no shame. So, subsequently, there are not shows I feel guilty about watching. I probably should feel guilty about watching 90210, though. That show is crap. Fluffy, escapist, popcorn-flavored crap.

SR: Would that be old-school or the New 90210? In the same vein, we actually found ourselves watching re-runs of The O.C., partly to hear all the great indie music, but that doesn't necessarily make it right.

SR: What are some of the blogs you frequent?

GWS: I have a metric ton-load of RSS feeds in my reader, but when I’m pressed for time, these are the sites I visit for my very basic essentials:

/Film for my film geek fix.



Newsarama for happenings in the comic book world.


Topless Robot for general geek news and hilarity.


Super Punch for geek curiosities.


And when I feel like a good laugh at the expense of others: Jen at Cake Wrecks.



(Jen was my first interview victim, er, Interviewee. Click here to see my 2-part interview with Jen of Cake Wrecks).

SR: All excellent choices! What’s next for Great White Snark?

GWS: I won't stop until I've appeared before the eyeballs of every Canadian of legal voting age.

It might be an arbitrary goal... but it's my goal. So I'm sticking with it.

SR: Brilliant answer, and somehow we think that won't be a problem.

END, Pt. 2

** Join us back here on October 22nd when we explore what it means to be a Diva, a Cake Diva, that is. Rick and I are very excited about our next interviewee, who is also one of his previous employers, the fabulous Joan Spitler of Cake Divas! Joan and her partner Leigh Grode own Cake Divas in L.A. which has always gotten a lot of attention due to their high-profile celebrity clientele (a list WAY too long to mention) but now they are even more in the spotlight with their new show on the We Channel, called "Amazing Wedding Cakes". Get to know Joan as we have and YES, she is pretty much exactly like you see her on TV -- totally fabulous! Check out Cake Divas website and tune in to the show, and we'll see you back here in a few weeks! **

cakelava Interviews: The Great White Snark, Pt. 1

All images courtesy of Great White Snark

It’s hip to be a geek these days. Whether it’s a computer geek, sci-fi geek, or music geek, it’s the mentality, this needing to dissect and analyze and discuss the minutia of some topic that not everyone understands or cares about. One reason I am so greatly drawn to the Great White Snark site is because I am a geek at heart, and so is Rick for that matter. He's a bit of a sci-fi geek (though he doesn't attend conventions). Having been a record dealer, and in the Bay Area no less, I had some pretty decent music geek credentials. These days, the only thing revolving on a turntable is cake but I’m still very much in touch with my inner geek, and regularly turn to Great White Snark to get my fix.

The humor of Great White Snark in part comes from being able to laugh at how seriously we take ourselves and our obsession with a given interest. The site is brilliantly written and the snarky commentary will entertain geeks and non-geeks alike. This past week I had the pleasure to interview The Great White Snark. In internet-y circles, he has quite a following. Given his ownership of two fantastic websites, a full-time job, and a very full DVR of programming to watch, The Great White Snark is one busy dude, and I'd like to thank him for the time and thought he devoted to our interview.

Sasha Reichart: How did you come up with the name, Great White Snark and what was your inspiration to start blogging about geek entertainment?

Great White Snark: I started Great White Snark in February of 2007. Originally I was going to call it “Snarky Fish,” but thankfully I have a friend who is much cleverer than I am who came up with “Great White Snark”. Unfortunately, you’re stuck with my writing on the blog instead of hers.

GWS began as a project to better understand bloggers, a target audience of my startup, Lootist. My first "understanding" had me realize that I enjoyed writing about geeky curiosities more than I enjoyed real work. Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to square that with my enjoyment of generously-sized paychecks.

Sasha Reichart: You make a distinction between a geek and a nerd and consider yourself a geek. Can you explain the difference?

Great White Snark: Nerds are easy to spot. They're socially awkward, wear their pants too high, and happen to be really smart. Bill Gates is a nerd.

(SR: and he's also a PC)

GWS: You can't recognize a geek so easily based on outward appearance. Geeks manifest themselves through their passions and interests.

My favorite definition of a geek comes from Fray magazine: "If you’ve ever been into something so much your friends wondered about your sanity, you’re a geek, too."

Think it's a little bit insane that I've got a tattoo of the Batman symbol? Well, you probably still think AOL is "the Internet," too, so your opinion doesn't concern me too much. But that does mean I've got a substantial bit of geek credibility. Not the kind of geek cred that would get me laid at Comic-Con, but... still. It's something.

SR: It’s no secret, we love the Great White Snark site. How would you describe your blog to the uninitiated?

GWS: I like to say that I’m “taking swipes at the soft, furry underbelly of geek culture.”

My goal is to regale my readers with hilarity and pithiness. And when that fails, I've got lots of profiles of really outlandish geeky cakes, tattoos, costumes, and other curiosities. So, at the very least, my readers won't get bored at work.

SR: Let’s talk cakes. The first cake profiled on Great White Snark, STAR WARS Max Rebo cake, was made by your mother, a cake designer, for your brother’s birthday. It was a retaliation of sorts over a sculpted Death Star cake posted on BoingBoing which you described as a “Large, pre-historic ball of turd with a dent in the side.” Can you tell us how you and your mother decided on Max Rebo, the keyboardist in Jabba the Hutt’s palace band?


GWS: It was quite an easy decision for her. I printed out some pictures of Max Rebo, pointed at them, and said, “Make that. Um... please.”

I selected Max Rebo for three reasons:
1) He and his keyboard presented a feasible form factor for a cake.
2) No one had ever made a Max Rebo cake, before. Not an awesome one that had blown up on the interwebs, anyway.
3) When in doubt, always go with the blue, piano-playing space elephant. That’s a rule. Look it up.

SR: The Jabba the Hutt cake you profiled has to be one of the strangest wedding cakes around. It’s not exactly appetizing but we are intrigued by it, and it certainly makes an impression. What are some of the most memorable geek wedding cakes you’ve encountered?

GWS: You know, I have the memory of a dead guppy, so the latest cake on the blog is usually the one I’m most excited about. That Jabba cake was definitely a landmark piece of confectionary artwork, though.

SR: I gotta ask. Where do you find your “Top Five Awful” Cakes (ie. Top Five Millennium Falcon Cakes, Top Five Awful R2-D2 Cakes, Top Five Scary Darth Vader Cakes). Have you offended anyone by posting their cakes?

GWS: You know, the internets are a wondrous place. It’s really not too tricky to find whatever you’re looking for.

Although I have been having trouble finding someone willing to trade an Aston Martin for a bag full of comic book convention swag and a notebook full of fart jokes. (Offer still stands…) So, it’s not like Google is perfect or anything.

Anyway, really awful cakes are pretty easy to find, if you’re looking. Shockingly, people have been pretty cool about my taking shots at their lame cakes. I don’t know if it’s because I’m hitting the right notes with my jokes, or if it’s because people are actually more self-deprecating than reality television programs would have us believe.

SR: What are your Top Five favorite cakes you’ve profiled on Great White Snark?

GWS: Great question. I’ll have to put some effort into ranking them at some point. There are quite a few classics that spring to mind, though.

The Alien chest-burster cake that some lady made for her baby shower. The incredibly-detailed, 1:1 scale Millennium Falcon cake. The Jabba groom’s cake. The perfect likeness of a Stormtrooper helmet cake. The epic Star Destroyer cake. And, of course, the R2-D2 cake that you and Rick made was phenomenal.


SR: Aww, we made your Top 5 list! Rick is actually making another R2-D2 this weekend. May the Force be with Him as he sculpts the droid. You revealed you have a Batman symbol Tattoo on your hip. Is this your only tattoo and were you drunk when you got it?


GWS: Getting tattooed while under the influence is actually frowned upon by the legal authorities of the state in which I had the ink done. So, no. I was not drunk. Although that might have dulled the pain.

That is my only tattoo. And it pales in comparison to some of the other work I’ve discovered through the blog. Like the guy who plastered a huge Dark Knight symbol across his back.

SR: Wow! That’s a pretty Bad-Ass tattoo. I like the profile you did of the Librarian who got a tattoo of the Harry Potter Dewey Decimal Number. Let’s talk about your giveaways. People love to get things for free, and I imagine the Giveaways you regularly offer on Great White Snark have been very successful. What is the most popular item you have given away, based on the readers responses?

GWS: People have been going coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs over the Iron Man special edition DVDs I’m giving away right now.


SR: Speaking of getting things for free, tell us about your other site, Lootist.


GWS: Lootist is my startup company. It’s a place where you can find people who share your interests to recommend and discover cool products. It fits nicely with the theme of my blog; there are definitely a bunch of geeks (e.g., toy collectors, comic book collectors, video gamers, etc.) on there who like talking about the latest stuff that they’re enjoying. In fact, I’ve collected quite a little collection of random Star Wars swag.

END, Pt. 1

Want more loot? Check out Part 2 of our interview tomorrow. In the meantime, visit Great White Snark to see today's "Geeky Cake of the Week", and give Mr. Snark some blog love by leaving your comments here.

cakelava Interviews: Rebecca Sutterby of Sugar Creations, Pt. 2

Things get even sweeter. Part 2 of my interview with Rebecca. Click here for Pt. 1.

SR: What are the top three favorite cakes you have made?

RS: Oh man, that’s like asking me to choose a favorite child! Normally, my answer is “the cake I’m working on right now!” LOL – but if you’re going to make me pick . . . .

I made this one for a birthday this Summer. It made the favorites list because it was really fun to look at in-person. I didn’t want to give it away:


Then I have to pick this one from the 2006 National Wedding Cake competition. It’s the one that placed “first runner up”:


And I really liked this one that I made this Spring. I’ve been getting a bunch of e-mails from people asking what cutters I used to make the flowers. I used pieces from the JEM Jacobean cutter set:


SR: Both Sugar Creations and cakelava were selected for People Magazine’s “A Cake in Every State” wedding feature. Your cake was beautiful, by the way! We noticed when the magazine was released, our all-bamboo design was even more requested than before. Did you find the same to be true with your winning cake and do you still have people asking for that design?


RS: Actually, I’ve only made a similar swag design once since then. LOL – see, I told ya I don’t like to make the same cake twice! Actually, I think the photo they chose for me was just sort of a generic design and nowhere near as memorable and unique as the one they chose for you.

SR: Rick and I love that Sugar Creations offers a clothing line for cake enthusiasts, and brides and grooms, all designed by you. What are some of the pieces you offer in the line and how can people place an order?

RS: That little project started out as an outlet for my repressed graphic design background. The “Eat Cake!” T’s were the first designs and then I sort of kept branching out to other subjects. Birthdays, weddings, graduations . . several occasions where you would want cake, you can also have a t-shirt to celebrate! The address to go there directly is: http://www.cafepress.com/sugarcreations


SR: What are your best sellers in the line?

RS: Actually, the “flower girl” t-shirts are by far the most popular which sort of surprised me. http://www.cafepress.com/sugarcreations.226320459 Next, the stuff for bakers and cake decorators sells best.

SR: We like that you are active in the cake community, writing instructional articles in American Cake Decorating magazine, giving classes and promoting other bakers all over the country on your website. What drives you to want to teach others and connect within the community?

RS: I mentioned before that a lot of what I learned came from things people where willing to share on the internet. So now, I sort of feel obligated to share as well. You know what I mean? I feel like it would be wrong to sponge up all that free information and run. Plus, I’m not finished learning, so if I share what I know, hopefully others will let me in on their tips and secrets as well!

SR: How long have you been teaching classes for? Are the attendees mostly professional decorators or people learning for more recreational purposes?


RS: In 2004, I taught a series of beginning cake decorating classes at a local community college. Those students were mostly recreational decorators. I’m not all that comfortable speaking in front of groups, though, and didn’t really think teaching in a class format was much fun. Last year, people started e-mailing asking about classes on a regular basis, and one day after 2 e-mails and a phone call within just a few hours, I gave in and said, “okay, I’ll schedule one for pete’s sake!” LOL – anyhow, I worked out the date and the details and posted the info and had 30 people signed up within a week. YIKES! This was more of a professional level class and I hosted it here in my tiny little hometown. We rented a log cabin reception hall overlooking a pond just outside of “town” and people came from 15 different states to attend. I think a good time was had by all (including me) even though nobody’s cell phones had a signal out there. I still plan to keep the classes to a minimum because I just don’t want to be traveling a whole lot, but I am teaching one in Georgia at the end of October, and in South Texas next April.

SR: I asked Beryl (Byrd, of Just Fabulous Pastries) this as well. I know it’s a difficult question. Who are your top five cake designers, or people you draw inspiration from in your field?

RS: Ron Ben for his style, Colette for her creativity, Alan Dunn and Nic Lodge for their flowers, Kerry Vincent for her precision, and Mike McCarey for his 3D work. Okay, that was 6, but who’s counting.

SR: They are all wonderful designers and some of our favorites are in your list as well. What do you like to do when you aren’t making cakes?

RS: Well, we live out in the country on a few acres and have 3 sons ages 11, 9, and 6. Between the livestock, the boys’ activities, and daily chores like laundry there’s not a much chance I’ll ever get bored. Once upon a time I liked to cross-stitch and sew, but I think the last time I touched my sewing machine was to make my tablecloth for last year’s National Wedding Cake entry.

SR: What’s next for Sugar Creations?

RS: Hmmm . . . good question. I wish I had a crystal ball and knew the answer to that! For now, I’ll keep plugging along just baking. When the boys are a little older and less demanding of my time, I would like to travel more to teach and eventually write a book. That’s a ways down the road, though . . . . my main focus for now is just putting out a quality product and letting the chips fall where they may.

SR: It sounds like the present is keeping you plenty satisfied and busy, and the future certainly looks bright for Sugar Creations. We hope you knock ‘em dead in Tulsa!

END, Pt. 2

** For our next interview, we are getting in touch with our inner geek and who better to show us the way than the snarky caped crusader of geek entertainment, cakes and curiosities, our friend, Great White Snark. Join us back here on October 1st as secrets will be revealed, hilarity will ensue, and geeky cake curiosities will be discussed. In the meantime, indulge yourself in one of our favorite intelligent humor blogs, Great White Snark, and prepare to bust a gut laughing! **