VIDEO: A Day at the Beach + Tropical Cake Recipe

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I think a lot of people in Texas and in Europe would love a day at the beach just to escape this insane heat! I was talking to a friend in the UK the other day and it gave me deja vu to our winter storm in Texas, because what they are experiencing right now is EXACTLY what Texan experienced during Uri, just in reverse.

• Their homes are designed to RETAIN heat
• Our homes are designed to DISSIPATE heat
• They don't have AC
• Our heat depends on electricity, which we didn't have
• Both locales experienced the loss of water service. In that sort of unprecedented heat on unacclimated people in Europe, that's deadly. In Texas, it turned attic water heaters into bombs that caught people's homes on fire. 

Weather extremes are frightening for different reasons in different places.

One friend in the UK who is one of our Dare to Get Dirty hosts had to essentially put up baby gates at the doors to keep foxes out of the house, because they had to open all the doors and windows to try to stay cool! At least that's a bonus - the chance to find a fox in your living room! :) Although, Maddie and Splotchy - celebrating their 14th birthday this week, by the way - would not enjoy that!

Today's card is for Jen's Dare to Get Dirty challenge - we could pick any colors, layers, etc., but were limited to only sentiment stamps, so I decided to put some markers and die cuts to work for me! I used my beloved dotted waves die and this fun beach scene building die set and my OLO Markers. You'll see how easy it is to put together in the video! The sentiment is from this set, and I cut it out with the matching dies.

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Here's the video!

Here are all the supplies I used today:

Shoreline Scene Builder [ HNB ] Waves [ HNB ] Seas The Day - Honey Cuts – Honey Bee... [ HNB ] Seas The Day - 6x6 Stamp Set – Honey... [ HNB ] OLO [ OLM ] Floral Glass Craft Mat — Glassboard... [ GLS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | ELH ] Scor-Buddy Mini Scoring Board 9x7.5 -... [ ELH ] MIS-T Rulers [ MSP ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Understand Blue Bundles Specials for... [ CTC ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Honey Bee Stamps [ HNB ]

This week I decided to make one of my FAVORITE cake that my friend Mel made at one of my retreats. As you know, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and this cake is not overly sweet. AND the last time I made it, I made a mistake that ended up resulting in an AMAZING and different cake from hers! So I repeated it with the same mistake and it's absolutely amazing. 

I feel like you could even leave out the coconut if you didn't like it and still have a super yummy pineapple cake - I'll have to try that sometime. The pineapple flavor is not very strong - I think it adds moisture more than anything else. But it's delicious.

Mel's Tropical Fruit Cake

2 C. Sugar

3 C. Flour

1 tsp. Baking soda

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon 

1.5 C oil (I used unrefined, expeller pressed coconut oil for even more coconut flavor)

3 eggs

1 C. crushed pineapple

8 oz. coconut (I used Bob’s Red Mill super fine)

1 C pecans (I omitted)

1.5 tsp. Vanilla

2 C smashed bananas (about four for me) OMG I FORGOT TO PUT THESE IN TODAY 2/19/20 AND IT IS THE MOST DELICIOUS CAKE! IT’S THE CLOSEST TO THE KENTUCKY BUTTER CAKE I HAD IN CAMDEN, ME THAT I’VE PINED FOR SINCE 1989.

Mix wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients. Mix together. Put in greased 9x13 pan and bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Cover with foil and bake for 20 more.

Loveyameanitbye.

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