Delivering a five-tier wedding cake is nerve-wracking even without a Dome roof-ripping blizzard.

High-end cake designer Robin Martin of Plymouth's Gateaux Inc. gave me "great inside scoop" about the journey of Stephanie and Peter Stiles' wedding cake to the Landmark Center in St. Paul during the Dec. 11 storm. She doubts it will make it into WE TV's "Amazing Wedding Cakes" episode that will air April 3.

"The crew's mostly L.A. people. They're not used to the snow," Martin said. "You know when you are driving in a blizzard you have to reach out while driving and grab the windshield wiper and snap it to get the ice off? Yeah, you know it, but if you were in L.A. you [wouldn't]. These guys were following our lead and they were snapping their windshield wiper on the crew's SUV, and about a mile out of St. Paul, they snapped the wiper blade right off the damn driver's side," said Martin with a robust chuckle.

"So the crew spent the last mile on I-94 following us with the driver's head out the driver's window to be able to see," Martin said. "Honey, that image is burned in my memory!"

So is her description of the "metallic taupe gold [cake] with branches and purple orchids on it."

Martin found it ironic that the bride "wanted a winter wonderland but she didn't want it to be a snow scene. And she ended up in the middle of a blizzard. Torture."

A self-taught baker and designer who described herself as "O.C.D. for hire," Martin has been in the cake business for 16 years and "delivered cakes in pretty bad snowstorms before." Something told her this one would be different. "For some reason that morning when I started out to work, I called [my husband, Brian] and said 'Get over here, I need you to drive.' It was the best decision I ever made. He spent the rest of the night digging out my car from the side of the Landmark Center."

The newlyweds, who are living in Michigan while he completes his residency, are returning to Minnesota for the premiere of the episode, for which Martin is renting out a theater for a party: "Every girl wants to see her head 6 feet tall."

13th time isn't TMZ charm

"KIM KARDASHIAN IS AN ATHLETIC GOOD LUCK CHARM," blared a headline on TMZ's TV show.

The romance between the reality show star and Minnesota born-NBA player Kris Humphries keeps chuggin' along. Calling them "an intriguing couple," TMZ then added, "Know what else is intriguing? If you didn't believe us the first 12 times we said it or the four times we took it back or the next six times we said it again" and then the voice-over guy repeated the above headline.

TMZ and yours truly are always looking for an excuse to write about the gorgeous love birds.

Recalling when Kardashian was dating NFLer Reggie Bush, TMZ noted that the New Orleans Saints went to the Super Bowl. Since she's been with Humphries, his game stats have improved.

TMZ also tossed in a crude, unrepeatable sexual joke plus a clip from the sex video of Kardashian and a previous boyfriend, Ray J., the smarmy, self-absorbed, self-important singing loser, otherwise known as Brandy's brother. (If you've seen the video, and I have, you were probably left with the impression that Ray J., unlike Kim, was aware that he was making a sex tape that might get distributed.)

After Bush apparently dumped Kardashian, there was no return trip to the Super Bowl, noted TMZ, which predicted this about Humphries' New Jersey Nets winning an NBA championship this year: "No."

Rosko's ring? All in the family

So far the wearing of a ring by Fox 9's M.A. Rosko doesn't mean a thing.

A viewer chided me for not noticing that Rosko was wearing what looked like an engagement ring. When I checked she was ring-less on what she stressed were her "nine and three quarters" fingers. Rosko lost part of her right hand's flipperoff-er a long time ago when a horse, perhaps, mistook it for a carrot. Or maybe she rubbed the animal the wrong way?

Rosko said any rings she wears belonged to her mom, Alice, who died in 1991.

"I like to remember her with the jewelry she had; a little piece of something," Rosko said. "She had nice jewelry. If it fits my fingers I wear it. Not a very upbeat story but that's my story."

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. E-mailers, please state a subject -- "Hello" doesn't count. Attachments are not opened, so don't even try. More of this attitude can be seen on Fox 9 Thursday mornings.