Watermelon Cake

For 4th of July we decided it would be best to be in town since I had to work early that following morning and wanted to make sure I got enough sleep to avoid any grumpiness. We were invited to our friend's place, Charles and Jessica, and got to join in on their 4th of July fun! They had a house full of BBQ and people and we had an amazing time.

I always work hard to make delicious treats and enjoy when I make something super fun. My mom had ordered me a subscription to Woman's Day magazine, and I really have enjoyed the great ideas for life, health and food. One article focused on this amazing cake, Watermelon cake.

Well, I held on to that magazine for a while since I knew I would one day make that cake. And 4th of July seemed to be the best attempt for that. I threw on my apron, got my flour ready and made the best Watermelon Cake I have ever seen. Well not really- the one in the article looks better- but I think I did a fantastic job!

So if you want to give it a try, I decided to share the recipe! Just be aware that you will use all of the red dye just to get that color right! And I would suggest chocolate covered coffee beans would be better for the seeds. (**And don't make fun of my cake! I wouldn't care if you did since it was fabulicious!**)

Recipe Ingredients

• 1 box (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix
• 1 box (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1⁄3 cup oil
• 3 1⁄2 cans (16 oz each) vanilla frosting
• Red, orange, leaf green, yellow and black gel or paste food color
• Chocolate-covered raisins (Raisinets)
• You’ll also need: pastry bag, coupler, petal decorating tip 101S or 101 or basketweave tip 44 or 47

Recipe Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Coat two 9-in. round cake pans with nonstick spray. Line bottoms with wax paper; coat with spray. 2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour evenly into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean. 3. Cool in pans on wire rack 15 minutes; invert cakes onto rack, remove paper and cool completely. 4. Tint one can frosting red-orange. Using leaf green, yellow and a bit of black, tint one can frosting pale green. Remove 1/2 cup pale green frosting to a pastry bag fitted with decorating tip. Using more leaf green and black food color, tint remaining pale green frosting until it turns dark green. 5. Stack cake layers on a cutting board; cut crosswise in half. Set one piece aside. 6. For large melon slice: Sandwich 3 cake layer halves with 1/3 cup white frosting between each (invert top layer so flat side is up). For small melon wedges: Cut reserved piece of cake into 3 wedges. Frost slice and wedges with a thin layer of remaining white frosting. 7. Frost rounded edges of cakes with dark green frosting. Using flat slide of decorating tip, pipe pale green frosting along edge of dark green frosting on sides and top. Pipe squiggly lines onto sides over dark green frosting. With spatula, smear pale green lines to create the look of watermelon skin. 8. Reserve 1/2 cup red-orange frosting. With remaining red-orange frosting, frost top and straight sides of cakes, leaving about 1/2-in. border of white frosting. Cut chocolate-covered raisins in half lengthwise. Place cut-side up into red-orange frosting for pits. Refrigerate several hours or overnight to set. 9. Remove large melon slice to serving tray, standing it on rounded edge. Frost back side of cake with reserved red-orange frosting; decorate with additional chocolate-covered raisins. Place small wedges on tray with large slice. (To serve large cake, place it back onto a flat side before cutting into slices.)

America's Got Talent

A few posts ago I spoke about this amazing band called Arc Attack. I'm sure if you scroll down a bit you should be able to find it. Anyway, they are a little something of amazing and David and I have tried to follow and support them as much as we can. I found out recently that they had gotten on this show called "America's Got Talent."

David and I don't like shows like American Idol - mainly because we think it's crap and I have a moral issue with the main fact of the try-out episode's. I have heard and read that they will build these "bad singers" up as much as they can to make them believe they are amazing singers, and let them be humiliated by some grumpy old people behind the judge's panel. Anyway... we usually don't like judging shows, but when I decided to watch an episode, David and I got really into it. Soon enough we caught ourselves recording this show, and we honestly look forward to watching whenever it comes on. We Love this Show!!

So Arc Attack went on because they are awesome and they get sent to Las Vegas to compete in the 2nd round. David and I watched the 2 night show and the 1st night- they found out that they don't even have to try-out they are automatically going to the 3rd round in Hollywood! Hooray!

So we are very excited to cheer on our favorite scientist, Arc Attack! So be sure to watch NBC next Tuesday at 8 central and vote for ARC ATTACK!

I'm Back!

After many phone calls and emails from my mother, I have decided it's time to pick this back up. Well hello there blog world. It's been a while- and I promise it wasn't you, it was me. I got too busy. So here you go blog world - I'm going to try to catch you up....

Here's what you missed...

David and I like to meet up with friends and go to 'Dinner Night' where we have a pot luck meal and everyone brings something- and it is all so good! For the first time, I made a tiramisu cake. David made his delicious Lasagna. Mmmmm - makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

That was a good time.

Another post I would have posted if I was blogging would have been about my adventure with my friend Pata to Hobby Lobby. I call her Pata and she calls me Bear. (It's a long story) So we went to Hobby Lobby on a rainy day with nothing to do - and we had a blast!

Did you see that? I was a queen for a day!

Next adventure landed me downtown with my old friend Kelly. It was our first time to 6th street together so I thought I would make it memorable. I bought a over-sized afro wig for a friend's Big Dirty 30 party and have worked very hard to keep it in good condition. So we all head to downtown with my crazy self. I swear, I love to wear that afro. I think I was in Black Panthers in my previous life. It just fits me so well!

Oh - and before I forget from the cold months around - It was Mardi Gras and Copland and Johnny got beads. They really liked that so much! We tried to teach them how to respect themselves - but they just really didn't care. They wanted those Mardi Gras Beads!

Oh yeah... and we threw a surprise birthday party for our friend Sean. We got him cookie cake and a pinata and toys and balloons!

... And David and I went on a trip to Houston. We got to go see the Astros play! It was super fun to go with David to his 1st baseball game ever! Can you believe that!! First game ever!

And wouldn't you know it! When we still kiss we still see fireworks!

The last thing on the list of what we have been able to do is throw a benefit for our friend Bryan. He had a nasty fall while on vacation and has worked so hard to get back in working condition. He is actually coming back to work this week and we are very excited to welcome him back! David and I were able to put together 2 great events! The first was at Plucker's where we got the place to donate 20% of food sales. We ended up getting a nice amount. Then we threw a larger party at a local bar with lots of prizes. We raised so much and were so happy to help out Bryan and his wife Amy with all of their medical bills. It was a great thing to be able to work with my husband and get something so amazing done.

So that is what the Balentine household has been up to. I'm sure if I ever talk with you - you probably already know about everything that we have done. But just to cover everything at once and not make 8 posts, I thought I could be efficient and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I promise this time I will start to keep people in the loop and continue with my blog. If I fall off the bandwagon and stop - just complain to my mom and I am sure I will hear something about it soon!

Thanks for stopping by! See you around next time!

Arts & Craft Time!

I have had a 'To-Do' list for a while now, and the more time goes by, the more I keep adding to my list. I'm sure this happens to everyone and everything that is added has something in common. My list has mainly to do with doing things for the house. I had an intention to finally put up all of my pictures, put that huge painting up somewhere, convince David to finally make me my headboard and do something with all of our bottle caps we have saved up over the years. I decided to take the hardest job first. I figured that if I tackled the biggest challenge then everything would fall in line and the rest of the tasks would just fall in line. So I grabbed the 2 gallon Ziploc bags full of bottle caps and sat down with the intention to separate all of them. There were sections everywhere filled with every type of domestic beer you could think of. Everything was individualized and ready to go. Now, what to do with all of them! I wanted to do something special for David and could only think of making him his own man table to fit perfectly in his man room. So I grabbed the wood glue and started to put everything together just the right way. I tried to place everything layer by layer from outside in and just went with the flow. Before I knew it the table was done and ready for grout. Thanks so Kelly letting me use all of her grout the table was done. I made it for him while he was out of town for work and when he came home he was so happy for the table surprise. It's been working out so well and does an amazing job as a table, if I had to say so myself.
So after the bottle cap table I decided the task of a new craft was in order. I was walking around Hobby Lobby and decided I wanted to learn how to make a wreath. I grabbed some flowers and wreathe made of sticks and just threw it all together. I was so happy the way it turned out, I am excited to make more for the future and can not wait to show you more!

Ella's New Haircut!

Ella has been growing like a Texas weed! She will be 1 year old on March 27th, and time has flown by so quickly since when we first got her. Sometimes I sit and look through her pictures of her growing up. I remember when we first got her, she immediately started running the house. We have done training and have worked with her diligently to listen and follow the rules. She really does a good job for the most part. But when she gets too excited there is really no hope of getting her to listen and that is when we place enforcement of the rules. As she has been growing, so has her hair. This little ball of fur that we once had has taken shape of a dog with a very shaggy hairstyle that can get very dirty, very quickly. After many baths and constantly brushing this unmanageable fur I realized it was time to get her a haircut. I have given Copland a haircut before, and to be honest it was horrible. I didn't think it would be that hard to give a dog a hair cut, and assumed that no one would even notice a bad haircut on a dog, because it's a dog with dog hair. Little did I know how bad a haircut can actually turn out, and how it can actually affect an animal's self esteem. After I gave Copland a haircut, he would not keep eye contact with anyone for the next couple of days, and constantly hid away from us. After that mistake I realized the a job like this would be best left for the professionals.
I took Ella to the groomers and hoped things would end well. I decided to go all out and get the full grooming with the haircut and was told she would be ready within 2 hours. I dropped her off and came back at exactly 2 hours, only to find out that she did not like the industrial blow dryers and had an issue with that. I had to come back and hour later, and that is when she was ready. I couldn't believe my eyes and it felt like I was seeing a new dog. Until I saw that little excited face, and the dog that would listen, but pay attention to enforcement. I was a little nervous to see how David would interact with this new puppy look. He was honestly so blown away about how she once again looks like a puppy before her 1st birthday. I really have enjoyed getting this new haircut for her and plan to continue through out the shave for her and Copland- especially during the summer. Texas heat is just way too hot to deal with an undercoat. So now we have our fashionable puppies with their fashionable haircuts and same old attitudes.

Lucy's Birthday!

* I know I have a hard time keeping up with this Blog. I finally understand how some people ignore their computers when they come home after sitting behind one all day.*

A couple of Sunday's ago I was at work thinking about what needed to be done for our Super Bowl game night. We originally were not going to host a game night, but then we realized every one wanted to play Game Night so we decided to put it back on. Eveything was going fine at work, while I was surfing Facebook and realized it was Lucy's Birthday that following Tuesday. I knew there would be no way we could see her Tuesday so we needed to throw a surprise party and fast!
I took an immediate break and called Kelly and Pata with emergency on the brain! "Lucy's Birthday is on Tuesday! We need to do a surprise party!" Kelly took the task on of making a Birthday Card and Pata took the task of Birthday Cake. My job was the Birthday gift. Everything turned out so well in such a short period of time. Pata had managed to get a birthday cake, streamers, loot bags and more! And Kelly went above and beyond by taking a canvas and making the biggest best birthday card I have ever seen. I went the "Lyzz" route and had one of my favorite pictures of Lucy and Cameron printed out to a 8x10 and placed in a matted frame.
I got home a little early to go pick up the print and met Kelly and Pata at the house. We blew up ballons and set that house up for a Birthday Surprise fit for a Queen. (A queen who loves chocolate and unicorns with rainbows) Everything looked fantastic and the only thing we were waiting for was the birthday girl. They finally showed up and the best part was getting to see Lucy's face when she walked through that door.
She was so touched and so excited about all of the things that we put together! It was so great to have such amazing friends that can count on each other when we really need it. There was a birthday to be had, and we took care of it!

Happy Birthday Lucy!
Hope it was the best so far!

Arc Attack!

Last year during Rock Fest, I was lucky enough to be working backstage and saw an amazing Austin band called Arc Attack and I had fallen in love. Their show was one of a kind and no matter what you were into, you will love Arc Attack!
I tried to convince David to come see their show and with him hating large crowds and downtown I knew I could never convince him to make his way out. He ended up missing the show and I was worried that he would never get a chance to check them out. Even though Arc Attack is an Austin band, they are very very big over seas. They were going on a 3 month tour in Europe and it is just really hard to catch a show when they come back home.One day I was browsing Facebook and noticed that Arc Attack was back in town and having a free show in Austin. It was a fundraiser for relief in Haiti and was in some venue close to downtown without having to deal with 'downtown parking.' Of course it being a BYOB (bring your own booze) party wasn't half bad either. So the Foster's and the Balentine's packed up the cooler, put on some jackets and headed to the show. We ended up getting there just in time to get a good enough spot, right in front of the barriers to see the magic that is Arc Attack. I had explained to David, Kelly and Alan how the show works out, but there really is no way to explain what it is they do without seeing it. The way they explain it on their website is "Two custom engineered hand built Tesla Coils throw out electrical arcs up to twelve feet long, each one acting as an instrument with a sound reminiscent of the early days of the synthesizer. A robotic drum set accompanies the spectacle, it's high power LED's flashing bright colors with the stroke of each mechanically actuated stick, while ArcAttack's six members churn out rhythmic instrumental melodies." I like to explain it as "AWESOME!"So, really it is electricity that they have shooting out making music. They have a robotic drummer, a guy on keyboard and a full band. They've created their own music and do some amazing covers. They even have a guy go in a metal suit and stand between the "bolts of electricity." They even had a raffle and chose 5 people from the crowd to stand in a metal cage and rockout to the music while the bolts were touching the box. I know I can't do this band justice, but all I can say is if you know they are having a show and you can make it, then don't miss it!