It all started with the party invitation...

When we decided on having our daughter’s 9th birthday party at the movies for a showing of “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” it seemed only right that I’d attempt to make a cake to match – a Spaghetti and Meatballs cake of course!

First, I baked 2 cakes, one 2-layer yellow cake for the base, and a chocolate cake to be crumbled up and turned into ‘meatballs’. Any kind of cake will do, whatever you prefer. The cake balls do not have to be chocolate cake if you are dipping them in chocolate, but if you don’t want to do that step, chocolate cake will look more authentic. Next I made a buttercream frosting for the ‘spaghetti’, topped it with thinned out strawberry preserves for the ‘sauce’ and added ‘grated cheese’ of white chocolate. You can use any recipe you want for the cakes and frosting, whichever you have tried and liked – even box cake!

Once the layer cakes cool, scoop out a little ‘bowl’ shape for the ‘meatballs’ to go in when the cake is frosted. This helps it look more real because real meatballs would sink down into a bowl of spaghetti, not balance on top. A step I missed but would do next time is to also shave down the sides of the cake so it’s more like a hill than a regular cake. That way you don’t have any sharp right angles for the spaghetti to break off on, that happened a lot on my cake.

When mixing the buttercream frosting, I added drops of yellow food coloring and about a tablespoon of cocoa powder to give it real spaghetti color. Just make sure the food coloring and cocoa are fully mixed before you add more, just get it to a color that looks like cooked spaghetti to you. I then lightly frosted the cakes so I didn’t have a ton of brown to cover up with the spaghetti. I also plopped a bit of frosting on the bottom of the pasta bowl I used to hold the cakes, so it wouldn’t slip around. Once that’s done, add the frosting to a pastry bag with a round tip (I used a #3 tip, but would probably go up one size next time) or you can use a plastic bag with the corner cut off. Just keep piping it out in a noodle-like pattern until it looks like a bowl of spaghetti.

Next up are the meatballs! For these I used Bakerella’s famous Cake Balls recipe. I’d never tried them, but friends had and swore by their deliciousness. For these I used an instant cake mix, because that’s what the recipe used and I didn’t want to mess these up. The basic idea is crumbling up the cake into a big bowl, adding a can of frosting, mixing together and forming into balls, chilling, then dipping in melted chocolate and letting harden. Oh my, they are SO good. Now normally I’d take great care in dipping them into the chocolate so they were all pretty like on Bakerella, but since these were meatballs, neatness didn’t count and actually made them look more believable. I just used a pack of chocolate chips, but I would not recommend that again because it wasn’t nearly enough and was really hard to use because it hardened up so quick. My friend said candy melts in the craft store work really well.

Here are the completed meatballs on top of the spaghetti. Just arrange the meatballs however you like. I used a lot, but I knew we’d have a lot of kids at the party and wanted to be sure everyone got a meatball. You can use as few or as many as you want. Just be careful because once you place them, you can’t really move them around, the spaghetti frosting will be crushed. Needs some tomato sauce, yes?

For the sauce, thin out some strawberry preserves with water, heating if needed to stir it up, just be sure to cool it back down before pouring it on the cake, or you’ll melt all that great spaghetti! Of course you don’t have to use sauce at all if you have guests that don’t care for strawberry or other fruit on their cake! I took a risk using it with my kids, but they let it slide this once.

The finishing touch is grating some Parmesan cheese – made out of whit chocolate of course – on top of your creation. This is the final detail that really adds to the look of real spaghetti & meatballs. My daughter really wondered if I’d ruined her cake by adding actual cheese to it!

We got some crazy looks walking into the movie theatre with a giant bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. I told my husband we should’ve announced “We’re here for the Pot Luck!” The person in charge of our party actually said – “what IS that?” I guess curiosity got the better of her wondering why people would bring hot food to a kids birthday party in a movie theatre. Once she found out it was a cake, she thought it was hilarious.

The cake also received the 9-10 year-old seal of approval and they all thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to eat dinner for dessert. It really wasn’t too hard to make, I’d recommend it to anyone that wants a unique spin on a traditional birthday cake. The reaction is definitely worth it!! Oh! And the movie was really great too – really funny, great 3-D effects. Steve the Monkey (voiced by The NPH) steals the show.

the birthday girl seal of approval!

In typical Zanna fashion, I started full-force on this website and blog at the least financially…um…fit moment of the year so far. While we are working on correcting that and battling the economic woes affecting us all (as a one-income family of 5), of *course* I want want want all these shiny, pretty things I see online. I tend to get very Veruca Salt about things when I start on a new venture. The fact that I am not able to go overboard with my wishes is probably for the best, but I simply have to get it off my chest, hence this entry you are reading now. If nothing else, it will help me keep everything in one place and have a list to tell my family and friends about for my birthday and the holidays!

1. Business cards from Moo.com. About 2 years ago, Moo.com did a cross-promotion with livejournal.com (where I have blogged privately since 2001.) to promote their new company. You could order 10 randomly designed Mini Cards with your livejournal name on them, or whatever you liked (I was not into handing out my lj name so I just got my gmail address on them with “Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust”). Naturally, when I decided to make this place a reality, Moo.com was my first and really only choice to head to for business cards listing the website. They are currently running a 50 free business cards promotion with paid shipping, so I might be able to take advantage of that, but my wish is still for the Mini Cards, because I think they are so unique and unexpected. I also want to get a nice Mini Card holder (in pink of course!) so I can actually take them with me and hand them out.

Geisha Poken

2. A Poken. I will fully admit to this being a luxury item for me. I am not yet a blogger with 100′s of followers, but I am damned determined to get there. I first discovered Poken on Twitter, when many of the bloggers I follow there were discussing their upcoming trips to BlogHer ’09. I googled Poken and fell in love. “HOW CUTE!” I thought. I will also fully admit to having a soft spot for all things Japanese inspired (ironic since they are not Japan-based), whether toys or candy or animation. So the idea of carrying around an adorable miniature creature, and ‘high four’ (Pokens only have 4 fingers) another Poken to instantly exchange contact information? I was sold. It was hard to decide which Poken I coveted most, but I settled on the Geisha. There are a few sites you can purchase Pokens on, a couple of which I’m following on Twitter as well. I can’t wait to be able to Poken with someone soon!

Disney's D23 Membership - look, it's Tink!

3. A Membership to D23, the exclusive Disney-run fan club. I have wanted one of these since it came out, but the planets have not aligned for it to happen yet. I asked for it for Mother’s Day, but I think that was around the time everyone in our family took turns being sick, twice, so it didn’t work out. I have the first issue of the magazine, but the membership is a must-have for a Disney site like mine, purely research purposes of course! Since the waiting list for Club 33 is 18 years now, I figure at least this is attainable!

4. A BIG OL’ Barnes and Noble or Amazon Giftcard. This really IS for research purposes. I’d like to increase my Disney library and brush up on my totally NOT useless trivia, history and stories behind the parks. There are several guidebooks I’d like to have on file as well as many more Disney trivia and history books. In this same vein, a Disney gift card would be fabulous to use for booking tours and other special events for research purposes!

Disney's Princess Netpal computer PINK! and Disney!!!

5. A mini-laptop. I am lucky to actually have a laptop, thanks to a tax return in 2007, but I was a little over-eager and thought the 17″ Dell Inspiron was the only choice for me. I love it, dearly, but when we do travel to Disney or somewhere else it is a bit of a hassle to lug around. We were able to get both kids mini Dell laptops for Christmas last year, and while the keyboards are kind of tough for me to type on, I think they’d be a great investment to be able to stay mobile with ease. Plus Disney just came out with new Princess Netbooks, though if I got a Disney one, I think the kids would stage a mutiny.

I think that’s it for now, short of listing items off my regular amazon wishlist. And that’d just be greedy. Any other ideas for must-haves that I’m missing here? Obviously I’m writing and keeping the site going without these items, but a girl can dream, can’t she? Especially a Princess. Is Genie from Aladdin still around? Maybe he’ll grant me a wish or two…In the meantime, I shall count my non-pressed pennies and save my pixie dust. *:•..•:*¨¨*:•.ºoº.•:*¨¨*:•..•:*

[Edit: originally published on ZannaLand on 7/31/09]

I was recently given the opportunity to try out some EcoStoreUSA products – and BOY was I glad I did. The well-packaged spray cleaner arrived in the mail after a day when cleaning the house had fallen to the bottom of the priority list. With a 9 month old cruising around, that happens every now and then. I was able to jump right in to testing out the Citrus Spray Cleaner because my stove and counters were covered in grease from cooking the night before. I will fully admit to being skeptical – “won’t all-natural mean it won’t work as well?” but I was quickly proven wrong. The citrus spray cut right through the grease and left no streaks. We have a clean-top stove, so streaks show up easily, however not with this spray!

Ok, I thought, let’s give it another tough test…dog stains. We have a Chihuahua. The kids love her, but don’t love walking her, so there are a few accident spots here and there on our light beige carpet. I had been avoiding cleaning those too thinking we’d have to lug out the big carpet shampooer. Nope! I sprayed the Citrus Spray Cleaner and the spots rubbed right out. Seriously, I was shocked. I almost hugged the bottle!

Next up, dried baby food, bananas and cereal on the baby’s high chair. By that time I wasn’t surprised that the cleaner cut right through that caked on mess with ease. In addition to the obvious cleaning ability, it smells great. A lovely citrus scent replaces the harsh chemicals you usually have to endure with other cleaners. I was so pleased with this product it has now become my favorite cleaner. The fact that it isn’t full of “nasty chemicals” as their website states is a wonderful bonus. I always worried about spraying the harsh Mr. Clean I used to use, with the baby nearby. Now those fears are forgotten when I use the Citrus Spray Cleaner. It’s the perfect marriage of effectiveness and feel good results.

I was also given a bottle of the Baby Moisturizer. I tried this out on myself first and loved the scent. It made my elbows so soft and it wasn’t greasy at all. I used it on the baby next and it worked wonderfully as well as making him smell wonderful.

I had received several national brand baby moisturizers as baby shower gifts but was reluctant to use them because you could just smell the chemicals in them. I didn’t want to put them on him and risk a reaction. With this moisturizer, you know what’s in there, you can smell the ingredients from nature, and you feel good about putting it on even the most sensitive skin. We all feel soft and smell delicious around here now!

In order to pass on the news of their wonderful company and products, the good people at have agreed to giveaway a $25 gift certificate to one of my readers! You can use the $25 certificate to purchase anything in their line of products – baby products, hair care, pet care.

EcoStoreUSA Giveaway Entry Information:

There are 4 ways to gain an entry for this giveaway-
1. Comment to this entry telling me why you would love to try EcoStoreUSA products and which ones you’d be interested in trying. (counts as 1 entry)

Optional additional entries:

2. Subscribe to ZannaLand in a reader.

3. Become a fan of ZannaLand on facebook and EcoStoreUSA on facebook. Leave a comment on EcoStore’s facebook page mentioning the ZannaLand giveaway and tell them if you’re excited about their product line. Comment here with the link to your EcoStore comment on facebook. (counts as 1 entry)

4. Add EcoStoreUSA on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway. Link to your tweet (click on your tweet’s timestamp to get the permalink) in a separate comment below. (counts as 1 entry) (you may tweet daily and comment with your tweet links for additional entries!)

Winner will be randomly drawn from received entries by midnight on Wednesday August 5, 2009. Good luck!

EDIT 8/6/09:

CONGRATULATIONS to Bethany, the winner of the $25 gift certificate from EcoStoreUSA! We wrote out names for every entry people submitted and my daughter drew Bethany’s name out of a hat. Thanks for everyone for participating and please be sure to check out EcoStore USA’s products!

[Edit: originally published on ZannaLand on 7/15/09]

As with most things of a fantastical nature, I avoided Harry Potter and all its hype for years. That sounds pretty confusing coming from someone that identifies as a small, stubborn, flying pixie. With the notable exception of The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien in general, I’m just not a sci-fi/fantasy kind of girl. After reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I especially wanted nothing to do with this obvious attempt to cash in on a similar story line that was Harry Potter. And then, the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone came on tv, back in 2003 or 2004 I believe. Wouldn’t you know I got sucked in by The Boy That Lived? I was pretty annoyed at myself, actually. Then we saw Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I didn’t care for that one as much, but it led to me wanting to actually read the books. The ironic thing was, we already had all the books that had been released up to that point, thanks to my mother-in-law that had been sending them down for the kids to read when they got older. So I cracked open Sorcerer’s Stone, and not only proved my earlier impressions wrong, I promptly fell in love.

When I had finally caught up with all the books, I had also found a new friend in my Starbuck’s barista at the local SuperTarget, who had read all the books several times. Our Harry Potter kinship led to us getting together with our kids, who were close in age, and eventually my getting a job alongside her. So when July 21st, 2007 rolled around, we were there with our two eldest children (both of whom dressed as Harry) for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. My friend wanted to stay up all night and read the whole book, but I couldn’t last much past 5am. When I did read it, of course I cried like a baby, as I had with certain parts of The Order of the Phoenix, as well as The Half Blood Prince. It was exciting to be a part of something that was taking place all across the country that night, and I’m glad my son got to experience it as well. Like it or not, the books got kids eager to read; connecting with their parents in some cases was an added bonus.

As our children have grown, so of course have Harry and friends within the books and movies. Honestly, the past two years since the release of The Order of the Phoenix film have been chock full of growth for both my older children. No longer interested in primarily toys, they now favor video games or just hanging out with friends. So I was surprised when they both exclaimed with great interest that of course they wanted to see the new movie at midnight when it was released. More than willingly, I purchased tickets online for the 12:05 showing in our local movie theatre.

It has been a while since I read The Half Blood Prince, so I won’t get into how “true the movie was to the book” or “this or that was missing and how dare they!” All I know is on its own merits, the movie was beautifully shot, and the story told was wonderful. It definitely set the scene for how Harry is growing up and must bear the burden of responsibility in the troubled world in which he lives. I loved the various camera angles and the different sets used this time around; visually it was just gorgeous. Not to mention Snape.

But quasi-movie review aside, what I loved the most about last night was the realization of the tradition and memories JK Rowling has unknowingly created within her series. This was the second time we’d seen a midnight release of a Harry Potter movie, and the kids were no less enamored of the event. When they are my age, they’ll remember these times and hopefully create some of those same wonderful memories with their own families.

It is quite a unique feat to fashion such constant yet ever-changing characters that serendipitously grow along with your very own children. While mine are not quite at the “snogging” phase yet (thank Merlin!) they are getting there, so they can still relate to this whole tale as opposed to quickly outgrowing a movie as being “kid stuff”. I love that about this series. It truly is something we can all share, get excited about and discuss for years to come.

So I am happy to proudly say that I am a Potter fan. While I may not own a Gryffindor scarf myself, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at one, nor anyone wearing one. In fact, it would be a great way to get to know them better, knowing we already share a love for something that has brought such joy to so many – hopefully my kids share that same realization. So thanks again, Jo. Well done.

[Edit: originally published on ZannaLand on 6/22/09]

This week’s review is on Gillette SatinCare Shave Gel – in Alluring Avocado. Now, I am not usually a shave gel kinda woman. I use body wash on a pouf usually and that’s just fine. However, after getting a sample size shave gel for a recent trip to Disney, I thought, why not “splurge” and get a full-sized can? So I perused the shaving cream aisle at my local SuperTarget, and Alluring Avocado jumped out at me. First, I thought “AVOCADO?! That’s not exactly alluring to me…” but then I thought, well, it must be nice if they made a whole shower gel based on it…(yes I am a consumer at heart). So I tried to smell it through the cap, and it smelled pretty nice, so I put it in the basket.

I used it a few days ago, and it was *delightful*!! It smelled light and cool, similar to a cucumber/melon scent, not overpoweringly sweet like other gels I’ve tried in the past. In addition, it worked wonderfully. I got a nice close shave and it didn’t dry me out. I highly recommend it! I have decided that $2 and change on a can isn’t that much of a splurge and definitely worth it for how much quicker and easier it is to shave with it.

So there you go. More reviews to come. If there is a product, service, film, book, or anything you’d like me to review here, please just drop me a line.