Jared's Pokemon Dive Ball Cake

Jared's birthday is Friday, but one of his friends is only around on Weds, so we decided to celebrate early with a Pokemon Battle Party. This is really Jared's first official party, though it was not pitched as a birthday party at all. Some of his friends brought gifts, but most did not. In our head, the party would consist of a tournament style event. Eight boys were invited and everyone drew a card. Matching cards were meant to battle each other. Unfortunately half the group had no idea how to battle and a good hour or so was spent teaching them so only a couple of boys managed to do more than one battle. As a party favor, everyone received a Pokemon card from a booster pack. At the end we went swimming for about a half hour. I hope everyone had fun.

Like Aaron, Jared chose a Pokemon themed cake. He chose a Pokemon Dive Ball, making it another year of a water theme. I decided a poke cake would be a fun way to prepare it because I could use blue jello and have a water effect all the way through. So although he didn't have the jello pool like in year's past, he did have jello in the cake. I debated a white cake or a lemon cake and ended up with a blend. I added lemon juice to the cake batter and frosting but it really wasn't flavored much. I used the Jolly Rancher Blue Raspberry jello, strawberry cream cheese frosting to layer and stack the cakes, and a cream cheese/whipped topping lemon frosting dyed blue for the design. I think it turned out pretty well.

Jared wanted characters on top and I had originally planned on creating some water characters for it, but it was delusions of grandeur. I ended up making the cake within hours before the party which is a bad thing for a poke cake. It is best to let it soak overnight. I ended up putting it in the freezer to chill and most of the boys didn't eat their slice. Oh well. But I digress.... While I worked on the cake, Jared and Aaron made Pokemon characters from marshmallows: Cleffa, Igglybuff, and Execute. There were just enough that I could put them around the cake.

Recipes Used:

Nathan's Lemon Cake base (subbed whole milk w/ vinegar and 4 TB lemon juice. I dyed 1/4 c sugar blue thinking I'd use it as sprinkles on the top of the cake, but added it to the batter instead. The cake turned a greenish hue as it mixed with the yellow butter, but it looked fine once it was done and the blue jello was absorbed. I also only had one egg, so two of them were THRIVE eggs. Instead of water I added lemon juice.)

Raspberry poke cake (referenced for making and adding the jello)

Lemon Poke Cake (Recipe is basically the same as Nathan's cake but uses sour cream instead of buttermilk. She adds sweetened condensed milk instead of jello. I based my frosting off her cream cheese frosting and the traditional cool whip frosting for poke cakes.)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (Used the leftover frosting from Aaron's cake to layer and dirty frost Jared's cake)

My frosting:

8 oz tub of cool whip
8 oz softened cream cheese
powdered sugar to consistency (at least one cup)
about 1 tsp lemon extract (I didn't measure, just poured)

We want cake! Give me some chocolate cake!

Aaron's birthday was on Wednesday. This was no ordinary one though, this was his 8th birthday! He had the privilege of being baptized that day as well, due to the timing of the move and grandparents being in town still. It was a great experience. Matthew gave a combined talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost. He asked Aaron questions throughout, as he answered each of them with assurity. Afterwards, Sharon said she was very impressed by him because she would have had to whisper the answers to Eliza.

After the baptism everyone came to the apartment and Matthew cooked hamburgers. Only the Blacks and the family attended, but we were prepared for as many as fifty people. We have a lot of hamburgers left :p Mike and Tran left as we pulled out the cake because Gen was getting fussy tired. Aaron chose a Pokemon theme this year, so I made a Master Ball. Simple enough - round cake with purple and white frosting. Unfortunately I ended up having to make his cake twice because my flour tasted too metallic from the #10 can. But it was so much better the second time. I added chocolate chips to the batter and tried the trick of coating them in flour so they don't sink. It worked, but since I forgot to put them in the batter until they were already in the pan, they just sat on top and didn't melt into the cake. I ended up getting the chips off the bottom cake so it would be flat enough to stack. Oops. I left them on the second cake and used it for the top layer. It worked.

I also decided to make the strawberry cream cheese frosting from scratch. I made a strawberry reduction and went the extra mile to sieve the seeds out so Mom could eat it. It was very time consuming but Aaron was happy to do that for me. I'd wanted to make the cream cheese frosting as well but bought one just in case which is good because I used it.

Overall I think it turned out well. It wasn't pretty or very creative, but all the stress and effort are worth it when I hear the words, "I love it!"

For future reference, these are the recipes I used:

The Best Chocolate Cake is a great reference for the 'why' of each ingredient
Chocolate Cake (ended up adding three eggs instead of 2 plus 1 yolk)
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (I used probably two cups of strawberries, half frozen and half fresh. I still have a lot of the reduction left and have used it to flavor yogurt and other things.)

The strawberry cream cheese frosting was still kind of runny after using the sugar amount listed, so I added another cup or so. It hardened up well in the fridge though. Had I realized the implications of that, I would have added more to the middle layer but it was still ok. We ended up with three flavors. Purple was vanilla, white was cream cheese, and pink was strawberry cream cheese.

Here and There

Last weekend the boys and I traveled to Manassa, CO to meet the family and celebrate Gma's 90th birthday. All but one sibling group and Matthew were there. It was so wonderful to be together. We visited the Great Sand Dunes an hour from there, as well as attend the Pioneer Day parade and rodeo. The drive was beautiful and the boys were amazing. Great memories. The girls have grown so much! Peter really took a liking to Hannah which was surprising and delightful. Occasionally he'd go to Sarah, but Hannah was chosen even over me by the end. We only had two whole days together. Much too short, but still so grateful for the time.

Dad traveled back with me because I was having car problems. It was really helpful to have another adult in the car. We only had to turn the car off once, and that was in Price when we stopped for gas. Thankfully Mark took his car battery charger and let me borrow it so we were able to get the car going again after waiting for it to charge a little. Peter did not want anything to do with Gpa until the last hour before he left. Sad, but at least he did finally warm up to him.

Monday Peter decided to try his legs at walking. He is officially a toddler now. He riddled across the living room to where Aaron was playing with his walker. He hung out there for awhile with Jared and his trumpet and then he decided he'd come over to me. He did it and giggled all the way!! We clapped and cheered. He's been walking off and on since!

Friday we finally received our official orders. Let the chaos begin! Matthew reports on the 10th. We were both released from our callings today. It is bittersweet and surreal. We have been in a good place. The Lord knew what he was doing when he directed us here. I trust He will have the best place picked out for us there as well.

Lamps

Began Monday, July 13

"If our lamps of preparation are drawn down, let us start immediately to replenish the oil." ~Elder Fallon H. Oaks, April 2004, Gen Conf

I am embarrassed to admit that my spiritual lamp has been getting pretty empty. In fact, I've been feeling kind of hollow and on my own because I'm not doing what it takes to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

I had the privilege of attending a friend's sealing in the Payson, UT temple in Saturday the 11th. The sealing was scheduled for 5:30 pm but we sat waiting for probably twenty minutes before they came in. I took the opportunity to enjoy being in the temple. I had rushed to get there and I allowed myself to take a deep breath and slow down. I prayed and pondered and allowed the spirit of the temple to penetrate my heart. The sealer spoke to the couple and then proceeded with the ordinance. It was beautiful and so special as I thought about their journey to this moment. I was filled with love for my own family. I felt such love and gratitude for Matthew and each of my children. The temple filled that hollow spot.

I gained an appreciation and testimony of the importance of regular temple attendance. Truly there is power in doing this. We become fortified and strengthened. I know I've been pretty hard to live with lately, and I think if I filled my cup with the influence of the Spirit everyone would be happier, but especially me.