Punk cock cake (A mixed up title)

In which I team up with a new tutor

and we introduce a penis shaped cake to an art class

I made a new friend, recently, and we hit on a potential new direction for the art classes.  She makes novelty cakes and told me that she could make up penis shaped cakes.  I was really interested in the idea and commissioned her to make one for an upcoming class... this class.  I also wanted her at the class, so she could present the cake personally.  If the girls had any questions - ingredients, content, anything like that - then she could answer them personally.  And if anyone was likely to be interested in her cake making skills - enough to commission her to do any more baking, for example - then it would definitely be best to have her on the spot.

That wasn't the only thing interesting about this specific class.  It was going to be a hen night... but then, a couple of days before the class was scheduled, word came down that the wedding had been cancelled and it was now going to be just a bunch of girls having a bit of a party.  That left Karin and I a little bit unsure about what kind of tone to take.  Whether to avoid any reference to weddings or marriages or anything like that.

Ultimately, it wasn't really that big a deal.  We let the girls set the tone they wanted to take and once the basic template of the class was established, it wasn't like a topic we had to studiously avoid.  In almost all my other classes, there may be the occasional reference to the upcoming wedding, but mostly the girls are focused on the immediate art class and the various opportunities for innuendo.

I seem to be developing a bit of a trademark pose, that I've called "The Lunge".  It's a nasty one to hold for too long, but it's a laugh while it lasts.  The best thing about it is that I can pick out a specific person to direct this pose towards, for maximum effect.  I lean in to her and reach out with grasping, clawed fingers.  I've even started using it sometimes, when I'm doing a bit of photographic modelling.

I ended up with a sort of half-melted face in one of the pictures.  I think the charcoal got a bit smudged, but I loved it.  It made me think of Two-Face in the Batman comics.  The "GRRR" word balloon definitely helped, though.

We weren't completely sure about what would be the best time to introduce the cake, so I suggested we kick off the class as normal, with the first traditional pose and leave it until we were a couple of poses in.  It made sense to let the girls settle into the normal routine, before introducing anything new.

When the cake was cut, it was also kind of fun - and probably predictable - for me to suggest that I strategically pose myself and look a bit shocked.  Cheesy, melodramatic and just a bit macabre.  I'm not going to claim I know what it's like to be Greyjoyed now (and why isn't that a verb yet?) but that's a good thing.

The cake definitely seemed to be a nice addition to the class.  I thought it was funny when one of the girls ate the sponge but left the icing, while another one ate the icing, but left the sponge.  I thought it would have been even funnier if they'd swapped plates once they'd finished the bits they liked.

I'm also very aware of the fact that - during every challenge - some girls draw faster than others.  I've got to keep an eye on that and time every pose, so that the faster girls don't get bored while they're waiting for the next challenge and the slower ones get a chance to finish what they're drawing.  Attention spans need to be taken into consideration, but people also need to feel that they've had time to linger over something.  It takes confidence in your audience to know when to slow the pace down a bit, because often the temptation is to speed up.  But that just creates a more frantic pace and can be a bit frustrating.

So I also appreciated that the cake was there as an extra "prop".  The girls who finished their drawings quickly, would reach for their plates and keep eating.  It was an extra distraction.

And finally, as usual, there was the Make-A-Giant-Man pose.  Always one of my favourites.  And one of the girls had to get special mention for her attention to detail.  She drew in the crooked little finger on my right hand.

That happened when I had to drag my dog away from a fight, nearly ten years ago.  I had just qualified as a massage therapist and one of his claws scraped down my finger and snapped the tendon.  There was no pain and the injury genuinely seemed completely trivial.   I genuinely thought it would heal and the crook would be a temporary feature, but it stuck around.  By the time I was aware it was there to stay, I had already managed to compensate for it in my therapy work.

So seeing it reflected in one of the pictures was really cool.

And all that was left was the final traditional moment - where I pose with a strategically positioned picture of a penis.  If there isn't an opportunity for something like this any earlier in the class, it's generally because the girls are probably a little too polite or civilised.  So the Make-A-Giant-Pose is a bit like giving them permission.  In fact, it's practically like requesting a penis picture.

This was a great one, though.  A punk penis.  I love the colouring of it.

It was a fun class with a great vibe.  And it could have been much less pleasant if the mood had been wrong.  But once we all relaxed into it, everybody seemed - as always - to really enjoy themselves.  I could break my arm patting myself on the back, here.  But if I don't blow my own trumpet (to really overdose on the metaphors) then who will?

Karin really seemed to fit in just nicely, too.  We've yet to decide on the future of the cock cakes, because there are a couple of teething issues to negotiate, but I'm hopeful that we'll come up with something.  Time will tell.