Shark Cake & a Food 'n Flix Invite

 It’s Food n Flix invitation time and I have a doozy!

Ready for it?  We’re watching Jaws!

Why Jaws for Food n Flix, you say?  What an odd choice!

And I agree with you.

So here’s how it came about.  

I noticed that it was mid-June and there was no selection for July.  I was wracking my brain but had no good ideas at all.

Then commercials for Shark Week started turning up and reminded my kids that they wanted to watch Jaws (Spud, my 10 year old played the Jaws theme song for his piano recital last year because he loves sharks so much).

I’ve never let my kids watch Jaws because I’ve heard that it’s scary and I’ve never seen it myself.  The parent reviews online were all over the board, so I decided that I needed to screen the movie myself before I made a judgement.

Then, since shark week is coming and I need to watch the movie anyway, I decided to throw caution to the wind and suggest it as this month’s movie.

I even read the book in preparation for this event and you can see my review below:

Jaws by Peter Benchley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Shark week is upon us and I before I finally watch Jaws, I wanted to read the book so here we are.

I often struggle with books written in this era (1970s). I don't know if it's just the writing style of the era or maybe the author were all buddies, but the story just seems to lack some finesse.

The shark attack scenes were masterfully written. They are horrifying and gory.

The interpersonal relationship however...meh.

Quint was my favorite character, by far.

Least favorite part: raunchy sex scene that came out of nowhere. View all my reviews

Since I have still not yet seen the movie, I have absolutely no idea if there is any food in the movie at all.

On the (highly probable) chance that there isn’t, feel free to be inspired by seafood of any kind and or foods that would be found in a seaside town.  Maybe food that you’d pack for a picnic on the (not shark-infested) beach.  

Or my personal favorite, make all the shark-themed treats you find in the repost from 2015 found below (from my other blog that I no longer maintaining) from when Spud, ever the shark fanatic, turned 5!

To join the the Food ‘n Flix fun, watch Jaws and make something  delicious, then:

-Share the deliciousness on a current (July 2021) blog post with links to Food n Flix and this invitation post

-Send an email to amyscookingadventures(at)gmail(dot)com and heather(at)foodnflixclub(dot)com

In the email , please include:

-”Food n Flix” submission as the subject

-Your first name

-Blog name

-Recipe title

-Recipe URL

-Photo of the dish

-Please email me no later than July 30, 2021 to be included in the round up

Repost from 2015:

Spud turned 5 in August.  He was set on a Paw Patrol cake for nearly the entire summer.  I had a cake sketched out and bought a toy to use as the topper.  I was prepared.

Then, two weeks before his birthday.  Boom.  Paw Patrol is out (Mom, I don’t even like Paw Patrol….whaaa?), and he’s suddenly obsessed with sharks and wants a shark cake.  And not just any old shark cake.  It needed to be a vicious looking shark with lots of teeth.  And he had to have pilot fish around to clean his teeth.

But really it worked out just fine, since I was able to reuse a lot of the nautical décor I picked up for his 2^nd birthday!

I added a watermelon shark (the kids went nuts over it) and “chum buckets” (goldfish crackers & Swedish fish).

But Spud wasn’t actually done throwing me for a loop.  Mere days before his birthday, he suddenly decided that his cake flavor was going to be Cinnamon Life (his favorite cereal) and chocolate.  Ummm…okaaaaay.

The cake was surprisingly delicious!  Of course, cinnamon & chocolate work beautifully together.  There was a slight texture due to the crushed cereal, but it just added to the fun! 

Spud was certainly a happy camper!

Cinnamon Life Chocolate Cake

1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix

1 (3.9 oz) package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

1 cup canola oil

4 eggs

1 tbsp special dark cocoa powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp instant espresso granules

1 cup warm water

1 cup Cinnamon Life, crushed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray two 8-inch pans with non-stick spray.

Stir together the warm water and the instant espresso, until the espresso is dissolved.

Add the espresso mixture, along with everything except the Life Cereal into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed until smooth and well combined.  The mixture will be thick and pudding-like.

Stir in the Life cereal.

Spread the cake batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Move to wire racks and cool for 10 minutes.  Then, run a knife along the edges of the pan and flip to remove the cake.  Cool the cakes completely before icing.