Monster Melons!

Hi Bloggers!
     This is not a post about what probably first came to your mind! (dirty dirty people) Today's post has to do with one of the many cute and handsome lil men in my life. (i.e. 3 nephews and a godson!) One of my adorable nephews just recently turned one. This lil man, however, unfortunately is currently allergic to MANY things. :( In talking with my SIL about this struggle for her and the family, I remembered the cake I made for the hubby this past summer. I offered to help and got several cute Pinterest ideas sent my way as soon as the party was set to be a monster party! Based on what I got, this is what I came up with. I'll show you each step of the way, and the final result. (There were not a ton of step by step offerings online that I could find)

   Begin by finding a nicely shaped watermelon. As lil man's birthday is in February, we had to compromise with mini watermelons. Regularly sized melons were not in season. (Commence childish giggles…just me?…oh…) The first step is to cut a small slice off of the bottom of the melon in order to NOT be cutting the watermelon while it wobbles.

   My next move was to outline and cut out this dude's mouth.

From here you can work on carving/hollowing out the whole melon. This can be cut up and tossed into the fruit salad as well. 

My next move was to cut some teeth into the top and bottom edge. Just a cool note about watermelon and carving is that you can actually score the skin and peel it off of the greener flesh. I used this method to carve a tongue for my lil monster after his teeth were done.

I also used a lovely orange and blueberries to create some goofy eyeballs and a nose. I made sure to slice the orange in nice circles, and attached everything with tooth picks. Sometimes I cut/broke the toothpicks in half for the smaller pieces.

Here is the first dude ready to go! I didn't document the whole process of the second monster just because time began to move quickly and you can figure out what I did! 

Here they are ready to travel!

I can't tell you how much fun I had making these crazy monsters! They were a hit at the party and I couldn't help but giggle my whole way through the process. This is a GREAT option for parties especially when cake is not always an option. Enjoy the final image! 

Up next you can expect a post about my experiment with succulents for our bay window in the kitchen! 

<3 

Introducing: The Hubby Cake

   Better late than never. That's the motto I'm going with for this post. 

Background: For the last few years, Hubby and I have been working on keeping to a healthier diet. 

   Partially for Hubby's health and partially just to treat our bodies better. 

   With that in mind, most of my Pinterest hours are spent on healthy alternatives for things we usually would splurge on. About a year ago, I found just a picture on Pinterest and it got me thinking. We don't usually do birthday cakes for the hubby, but this one seemed perfect. 

    Now, don't get me wrong. Part of the fun was watching the Hubby's face go curious and concerned every time I mentioned his "birthday cake." The fear of having to eat something unhealthy, or pretend to like it was evident. 

   Let's get down to the details. You'll need to go to the grocery store or your local produce market and have a hay day in the fruit section. The great thing about this idea is that it can be different every time you make it. No matter what, however, you'll need a watermelon. 

Begin by cutting your watermelon to the size and shape of the cake you'd like to create. Use your creativity! I started out with a circular cake, but it could be square, a hexagon, etc. 

   Now is when the fun begins. I found this cute little set of fruit/cookie/etc cutters at TJ Maxx and figured they'd work well. I cut up some cantaloupe in nice flat slices in order to use the cut outs best.

   From here, I cut out some fun shapes and began to figure out a pattern to create on my "cake."

      The other fruits that I chose had some great colors and went with my beautiful reds and oranges.

You've gotta love blues and greens



From here on out it's just a fun exploration in patterns and shapes that you can arrange on your "cake."
For my first try, I went relatively simple. But after this success, I have all kinds of new ideas floating around my head. In the mean time, here are the final images of my Healthiest Birthday Cake Ever!

   Needless to say, the hubby was delighted and there was NONE left by the time the two of us finished with it!

   <3