"lego" news and stories

Saturday afternoon, Scott and I hopped into the car and headed out to the King of Prussia mall (a strange name, to be sure) in suburban Philadelphia. He had been wanting to get out there ever since they opened a LEGO store in the mall earlier this month and we finally had a free afternoon in which to make the trip.

It was everything a LEGO store should be, with plenty of amazing models of towns, vehicles and many of the vessels from the Star Wars movies. There were also a number of kitchen-related goods, which delighted me to no end. In addition to the timer you see above (which I did end up buying), you can get LEGO salt and pepper shakers, baking pans, ice cube trays and popsicle molds. They'd make great gifts for cooking-inclined LEGO fans!

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I shamelessly stole this idea from the Betty Crocker website but I did manage to change it up to make it a bit more interesting. It turned out very well but it had me cussing more than I imagined it would.

I started with two leveled cakes that were made in loaf pans. I did one in chocolate and one in french vanilla for a little variety. The vanilla one was cut in half to make the two smaller blocks. For the chocolate block, I managed to find chocolate marshmallows to cut in half and use for the top of the block but let me assure you that these sound a lot yummier than they actually are. The smaller blocks got strawberry marshmallows which I highly recommend for sm'ores or just nibbling. The large block was covered in blue buttercream icing and smoothed for a flat surface. Then I covered each marshmallow half, set in it's spot and attempted to even them out as well. Those little buggers can be quite uncooperative.

Next, I covered the green block and set it at a small angle against the first one. The final block was the one that presented a couple of small challenges in order to sit on its side. I iced the bottom edge of the block while holding it then placed it next to the other pieces. The top portion of the block was resting on the points of the other two and I must say that marshmallows make for a squishy support system at best. They also tend to slide off when at an angle so, for the yellow block, they were secured with toothpicks as they went on.

The cake turned out cute although I never managed to get it as smooth as I wanted. Looking back, maybe the reason I found the cake, which was actually pretty simple, a chore is that it wasn't my original idea. Normally, all the little challenges I encounter when making a cake are fun and interesting but apparently that is only true when the concept is mine in the first place.

Legos are an icon of childhood for most of us, whether you were the one building elaborated fantasy worlds or your children are/were. Like just about every other product you can think of, Lego seizes just about any opportunity for merchandising that it sees and has moved out of the playroom and into the kitchen. Earlier this year, we saw some Lego Eggos, but now the company is offering us real kitchen gear, like ice cube trays shaped like Legos and salt and pepper shakers shaped - somewhat disturbingly - as Lego-men heads. They also have a Lego Apron, which is not made of Legos, but features the classic body of a Lego person on it, a set of Lego coasters and Lego corkscrews for opening wine (probably not something you want your kids to see in case they mistake them for toys).

All this Lego gear is a lot of fun to have around and definitely gives a new twist to playing with your food. The only way that this stuff could be more fun is if the ice cubes were stackable, though it should only take a little water to get them to stick together long enough to build a small tower. You'll need more than one tray for a fort.

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It was only a matter of time before that "leggo my Eggo" slogan went somewhere, right? Yep, there are now Lego-brick-shaped waffles from Eggo. I saw these in the supermarket the other day and then this morning found reference to them on a few different blogs. Most accounts agree that you can't build a damn thing with these, as they only have three holes on the bottom of each brick. Lore Sjöberg over at Wired had this to say: "You can't build. You can just kind of stack. Heap, really." (Sjöberg also has some great commentary on individually wrapped prunes, if you're into that sort of thing.) There were similar sentiments in the comments at Strange New Products but I think Lego blog Nextbrick summed it up best, saying "Finally, Lego elements that are supposed to have teeth marks!"