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When someone says barbeque, there’s always a brief moment of panic for me. As the dessert go-to girl, I will be ostracized for not bringing some sweets. But the idea of desserts in the heat just gives me melted nightmares… that is until I discovered upside down cakes.

Most of us are very familiar with the traditional pineapple upside down cake. They’re so popular, I distinctly remember being able to make one in my friend’s toy oven. However, there are many other great kinds of upside down cakes. The final product is a sturdy, beautiful cake with intense flavors that doesn’t dissolve in the sun.

Especially since plums and raspberries are in season, this is my new favorite summer cake. Take the ripest, dark plums and combine with the tartest of raspberries (use golden for a little extra flare) to make the flavors really pop against the cinnamon and nutmeg in the cake.

Did you know that we’re in the middle of National Rabbit Week? It’s true. And I should know, proud owner of a bun that I am. My darling bun, Rory, is featured in Quirk’s upcoming craft book, Microcrafts. That’s her tail at the end of the book. Squee!

Ahem, but I digress.

According to Petwork, National Rabbit Week is “dedicated to education and the promotion of responsible ownership, as well as showing people what great pets bunnies can be.” So in honor of the week that pays tribute to my favorite cute and fluffy animal, I’ve pooled together a list of my top 10 literary bunnies. From comic books to classic literature, baby books to newspaper strips, these buns adorably appear in all wakes of print. If I missed a favorite of yours, let me know!

Bunnicula: Attempting a Google image search for an actual illustration of Bunnicula is a study in patience. Rabbit owners all over post photos of their bunnies, red eyes blazing from camera flashes, labeled as Bunnicula. A favorite pick of Quirk’s own Doogie Horner (he recommends the Celery Stalks at Midnight and the Howliday Inn), it’s hard not to love James Howe’s vampiric bunny who sucks juice out of veggies with his tiny fangs. “Today, vegetables. Tomorrow… the world!”

Peter Rabbit: Even though the story is over 100 years old, Beatrix Potter’s tale of Peter Rabbit and his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail continues to sell a fantastic amount of copies. Peter’s rebellious nature makes him all the more endearing. Really, who can blame him for going to town in the vegetable garden? As a child, any one of us let loose in a candy store would do the same thing, and maybe that’s why we love him so much.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. Reagan wanted everyone to honor the fun and nutrious food that is enjoyed by a full 90% of the nation’s population. This is actually a real proclamation and the President called for all people of the USA to observe these events with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.” See the archived proclaimation on the American Presidency Project.

Well, I always try to fulfill my civic duties and do what is expected of me as a citizen of this nation. In keeping with this proclamation, I quickly got busy in the kitchen and whipped up my own Strawberry Ice Cream. It was so good, that it almost never made it to the freezer! The strawberries, which I cooked in sweet syrup and swished around in creamy yogurt, were simply sublime.

Now it’s time for YOU to do your part. Take this recipe and get started. It’s your duty.

A little over a week ago, Broetry author Brian McGackin visited Philadelphia to host his first Broetry Slam at National Mechanics, a favorite haunt of the folks here at Quirk.

Fledgling Broets and Broettes shared their broems in front of a lively audience at the Old City bar, while Jason Rekulak, Doogie Horner, Brian McGackin, and Anna Goldfarb (from the popular local dating blog Shmitten Kitten) judged away. We gave out some books, epic prizes to our two winners, and had an absolute blast. One of the winners, Christopher Wink, posted his broem in full on his personal website.

For those of you who missed the slam, Nathan Edmondson of Reel 9 Productions shot this fabulous video, full of highlights from the event. Enjoy!

Now, I know you're curious about those cupcakes in the video. Whipped by local baking genius (and guest Quirk blogger) Christine Eriksen, the recipe for those Broetry Cupcakes (which featured Jell-O shots inside), will be posted on here in the coming days.

Before the slam, Nathan shot a handful of Bro-Vignettes, featuring Brian reading select poems from Broetry at a couple locations around our office. That being said, a huge thank you goes out to A.K.A. Music, Brave New Worlds (especially Brian Johnson for his cameo appearance as a character in a video), and the Book Trader for letting us impose ourselves in your shops. I'll be posting the video clips here on blog over the next few weeks. For now, here's some photos.

Joseph D'Agnese, co-author of the Indiana Jones Handbook, 24: The Official CTU Operations Manual, Signing Their Lives Away and the upcoming Signing Their Rights Away (due out in September), recently decided to try an experiment in self-publishing, releasing a collection of his best non-fiction science journalism in an eBook.

Entitled The Scientist and the Sociopath, this best-of collection features a number of pieces featured previously in places like Discover, Wired and Seed. From profiling the guy who conceived the Big Bang Theory (but watched someone else get the Nobel Prize for it) to hanging out with scientists investigating flying snakes, there's plenty of true, undeniably quirky stories here

You can download a copy for the ridiculous price of 99 cents for the Kindle and Nook. Get it.

When Ransom Riggs isn’t busy penning awesome New York Times bestselling novels or collecting odd vintage photographs, he enjoys shooting short films. And I’m not just talking about his book trailers for Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. He’s done a number of them, all of which you can brose on his website, including this fantastic short film, The Accidental Sea.

He released this video back in May, and it has since racked up over half a million views on YouTube, some nice compliments from Roger Ebert, and has been featured on popular websites like Neatorama and mental_floss.

Check it out. It’s pretty incredible.

The Accidental Sea by Ransom Riggs [YouTube]