Treasure Chest Cake

Happy Gasparilla, Friends!

We are SO excited to attend the parade today with our friends and family! Gasparilla is such a fun time for our fair city. Admittedly, jolly rogers are not my favorite accessory, but they sure are cute during Gasparilla! Our house is decorated with wreaths and beads and beautiful hand-decorated jolly roger ornaments and hand towels. It's fun to be festive. Today we'll don our pirate apparel and leave super early for the parade and its surrounding entertainment. We can't wait!

To get into the spirit, we made a fun pirate treasure chest cake last night. We began this tradition last year when we made our first treasure chest cake. I have learned that I am not necessarily a neat cook, so I'm sure you can make your cake look even better than ours. The fun part of this cake is filling it with candy treasures. I had fun going to the Dollar Tree to buy candy necklaces, ring pops, gold candies, gummy worms, gummy coke bottles, wax bottles, et cetera to go inside our treasure chest.

I found this fun recipe on familyfun.go.com!!!
Ingredients
1 baked 13- x 9- x 2-inch cake
6 cups chocolate frosting - One container of store bought frosting will work
Edible treasures, such as chocolate coins, Rolo candies, chocolate almond kisses or Necco Wafers
Red Fruit by the Foot
Mini jawbreakers
Candy jewels, such as candy necklaces and rock candy and ring pops!


Cut a section approximately 2-inches wide in the center of the cake. The two remaining 5 1/2- x 9- x 2-inch rectangular pieces will form the bottom and top of the chest.

Slice the 2-inch section on an angle to form two long triangular wedges. Place the wedges on the bottom half of the chest, about an inch apart. Both wedges should face the same direction (tall end toward the front of the cake) as they will support the top of the treasure chest and keep it propped open.

Then frost the bottom half of cake, including the wedges.

To add further support for the top of the chest, stand a few large gold coins under the lid.

With the "hinged" end (left side of photo) at the back, place the top of the chest on the bottom and frost.

Wrap the fruit leather straps around the chest and press mini jawbreaker "nails" into the frosting alongside the straps. Fill the chest and the surrounding area with edible treasures and jewels.

Tuesday's Tip... Gasparilla Pirate's Rum Punch!

Aaargh... Maties!
It's that time again! Tampa will be invaded by pirates this Saturday, January 22, 2011 for the Children's Parade! Are you mateys ready? Just in time is a Gasparilla Pirate's Punch Recipe! Those who don't want the bang can enjoy Hawaiian Tropic's red punch with sprite!

Gasparilla Pirate's Rum Punch

1 part rum (Bacardi rum works just fine)
1 part cranberry juice (50 ounce bottle)
2 parts orange juice... the best kind is Tropicana with pulp
Mix all of the ingredients together and serve! I also like to add some Coco Lopez to it or use a little coconut rum to make it taste very island-y!

Cheers!!!

Ahoy there, Matey!

One of my favorite things about Tampa is that the winter blues never have a chance to begin here. As you begin taking down your Christmas decorations, you must start facing forward and planning for Gasparilla. Gasparilla now takes place over two weekends with a Children's Parade the weekend of January 22, followed by the crazy Gasparilla on January 29th. Virgin eyes should stay away on the 29th! The whole city unites for these fun events and doors are decorated with pirate wreaths and homes have pirate decor. You may remember that I made a pirate cake last year.

As I took down our very dead Christmas wreaths, I happily replaced them with our oh-so-tacky but oh-so-festive Gasparilla wreaths. I started to put away our hot pink tinsel tree until I realized it would look fabulous with beads thrown all over it. I saved last year's beads so that I would have plenty for decorating purposes. The children loved throwing beads at the pink tinsel tree and at our front hall mirror. It is fun to be festive!

While in one of my favorite local stores, Baby Sweet Pea, I overheard some women talking about what they'll wear to all of the YMKG events. I learned that gold is the color to be seen in this year. What fun the ladies will have in choosing their dress for the Captain's Ball and other events!




Of course, I love focusing on what the children will wear. My favorite children's line of all time is called Two Friends. Sadly they have had to retire due to the busy demands of life with children. Thankfully, Mama Henley's girls can STILL wear their pirate dresses from a few years ago! If not, I have been perusing the web for great ideas for your little one to be fashionable at the parade! I'll see you there!

Gasparilla!

Some of us enjoyed frozen treats in their entirety!


The children enjoyed being with their friends and catching beads.


These poor pumpkins were WIPED OUT!

Gasparilla was TONs of fun!! We caught lots of beads and enjoyed time with our friends "with whom we ALWAYS watch the parade. I mean, next year I can say "always" with authority!

Gasparilla!

This weekend is the fun Gasparilla Children's Parade! Our town is very excited about this event. The Children's Parade is like the real Gasparilla, but it is served family-style, which Mama Henley prefers! There will be less hoochie mamas and more baby mamas seen on Bayshore on Saturday. Last year we moved to town less than 2 weeks before the festivities began. This year I can say things like, "We always go to so-and-so's house to watch the parade. She invites our whole church." Yeah, I'm all "we always" now and no one has to know that always means once, right?

To get into the fun, I made a treasure chest cake. I can't take the credit; I found the idea on the internet, but isn't it cute?! I love it and the children had fun decorating it.


My cute new friend, Kim, is an artist, as in a real-my-paintings-hang-in-really-nice-galleries-kind-of-artist. She helped me paint this cute pirate shirt for our son! She drew on a whiteboard and I painted on the t-shirt. She painted darling ones for our girls in the time it took me to paint one. Happy Gasparilla!! Surrender the booty!

Out with the old, in with the new....

I have been hurriedly taking down Christmas decorations as I usually have them down by New Year's Day. We are behind this year, but I have learned that it really does not matter. No one is going to award points for first decorated, first un-decorated. I wrestled our tree this afternoon and finished removing all ornaments and the ***lights and then I hauled that baby to the street. Whew.

While driving home earlier today, I noticed that neighbors had started putting up their Gasparilla wreaths. We moved here just 2 weeks before Gasparilla last year and I was determined to have a fun wreath this year. In fact, I was so determined that I decided to make my own in November. I've had them waiting in my garage ever since, so after removing the Christmas wreaths, I put up our Gasparilla wreaths.

Gasparilla is a festive time in our town. It is reminiscent of Mardi Gras. Pirates will invade our fair city and a parade ensues. In fact, Gasparilla now has a separate weekend for the Children's Parade and then the real Gasparilla follows. We enjoyed the parade last year and are excited to be in the spirit this winter!

AARRGHH! Ahoy there, maties!!! Gasparilla 2009

Our first Gasparilla Children's Parade was a LOT of fun! We were able to meet the Red Baron parachuters who literally jumped out of fighter planes and parachuted to Bayshore Blvd! Then, the children had fun catching lots of beads during the parade. It was a beautiful 70*F day in Tampa. A gracious lady from our church allowed everyone to picnic at her beautiful home, so we enjoyed lots of fun and fellowship with new friends following the parade. Our night ended with a fabulous display of fireworks!