One Year Old!

 One year ago today, my dear friend had a baby girl.  I can't believe how fast that year has flown by!  It seems like yesterday, I was making this quilt for her.

 Her family is having a little party for her tonight and I got to make the smash cake for little Avery to demolish.  Just a simple white cake, two six-inch rounds stacked on top of each other, frosted with buttercream.  I printed out a large "1" on my computer, put it on top of the cake, and sprinkled the top to death.  Make sure to push the sprinkles down a little with your hand, ensuring they stick to the frosting.  Peel off your paper number, fix any frosting disturbances, and you can call that cake DONE!

I'm bummed that I can't make the party to take pictures of this in all it's messy glory, but I'm hoping Mom will get some good shots for me to see later.

Happy 1st Birthday Avery!

Star Wars Party Favors

Found these adorable party favor printables at Sandy Toes and Popsicles. Actually, it's a Father's Day kit, but we changed it to party favors.  I didn't put together all the printables, check out the link if you want to see the rest.  These were a breeze to make: just a trip to the grocery store, some printing, cutting, and taping.  My boys enjoyed helping putting them together as well.

The Vaderade was my favorite.

 

We used Pringle chips for the R2D2, Rolos for Hans, individually wrapped cookies for Chewie, red Gatorade for Darth Vader, Trident for the Boba gum, a jar of trail mix for Jar Jar Binks, and a can of Sprite for Yoda.

Not pictured:  We made the pretzel Lightsabers too.  Just dip large pretzel rods in tinted chocolate, leaving a bit of pretzel uncovered for the hilt.

Simple Star Wars Cake

We kept the cake simple this year.

Two 8 inch rounds, frosted with cream cheese buttercream and spray painted gold with food coloring spray paint.  Topped with silver star sprinkles, a couple of light sabers made with gel frosting, and a birthday sign.  The birthday boy loved it and it was so easy to make.  Win win!

Retro Cupcake Oven Box

  Retro Cupcake Oven Box

So cute, right?  Bought the printable HERE and am so glad I did.  They are adorable to look at, hold the cupcake well so the it is protected during transportation, and easy to print and assemble. 

So far, I have made a few for a baby shower, including a little flag on top of the cupcakes that said "bun in the oven".

And then, my son decided he wanted to make them for his class on his birthday.....

It took a long time, but we pulled it off...and the kids loved it, so it was worth it.  Just pop in a movie or two if you are planning on busting out 30 of these.

Artist's Palette Cake

This cake was made for an arts and crafts loving 10 year old.

 Started off with a confetti cake leveled and iced with chocolate frosting.

Rolled out some white fondant.

Cut out a shape and shaved down the sides bit by bit until it would fit on the top of the cake.  I just eye-balled it.  Smoothed out any jagged knife cuts with my fingers and some powdered sugar.

Mixed up a few colors for the paint.  I did a thin consistency of frosting and used Wilton gels for the colors.

 I placed the fondant palette on the cake first and then added the paint colors.

 I improvised for my border and combined all my leftover colored frosting into one piping bag fitted with a #22 tip.  The consistency was a little thin, but it ended up looking like dripping paint a bit, which I liked.

Simple and cute.

Made a quick triangle pennant using my Silhouette software and the Waterbrush font.  Used a paintbrush for the pennant's pole.

She loved it!

Happy Birthday, Brenna!

Lego Number Cake

Our friend, David, was turning 6 and wanted a Lego Cake.  We got to work.

Start off with two sheet cakes.  I used jelly roll pans and it worked out great.

While the cakes are baking, make yourself a pattern for cutting.  I measured my cake pan, cut a piece of butcher paper to that size, and then made a grid using a ruler.

I didn't measure things out exactly, I just used the width of my ruler as my guide.  I like to cut corners like that.

Frost one of your cakes.

Flip the other cake on top of the frosted one.  Hopefully you used flour or a lot of cooking spray to keep your cake from sticking.  Not too bad.

Place template on top of cake.

Cut with a serrated knife. Clean up edges a bit if needed.

Frost.

I did big dollops, just eyeballing where to place them for the little Lego "teeth".  What are they really called?

Flatten dollops with your finger dipped in a little cornstarch.  Excess cornstarch will eventually fade or can be brushed off carefully.

I added the Lego words onto the teeth.  I like to be authentic when possible.

Made a sign.  I didn't put it in the cake until it was at the party.

Lego cake complete.  Took an hour or less after baking and cooling time.  Any single digit would look really good.  I may be using this idea in the future, as we still have some Lego lovers at our house too.

Happy Birthday David!

Angry Birds Invitation

This was the invite for my son's birthday party.

A great free printable from Digital Mom Blog, an Angry Birds font online, and a little time in Photoshop.  He loved it.

Angry Birds Cake

We saw this amazing video HERE of an Angry Birds interactive cake.  My birthday boy was smitten and had to have it.  I admit, it looked like a lot of fun, so we went for it.

Started off with a sturdy, wooden board, covered in aluminum foil.  I colored some frosting green for grass and spread a thin layer all over the top.  Sorry for some of the dark pictures.  I did this at night after the kids were in bed.

The building blocks for the cake were frosted chocolate cake pieces and ice blocks from our "Don't Break the Ice" game.

Our wooden logs were Little Debbie Nutty Bars.  Yum.

Instead of making a traditional Angry Birds structure, we decided it would spell out the birthday boy's name.  The "S" was the hardest letter.  I used some strategically placed toothpicks, chocolate frosting, and a prayer...it held!  It actually didn't need the piggies to hold it up, but since we were going to be moving the cake a couple of times, I thought better safe than sorry. 

The "C" had a couple of toothpicks as well.  The rest of the letters just had frosting glue.

A dab of frosting on the bottom held the letters to the board as well.  If you really want a strong hold, use royal icing instead of buttercream.  It hardens really well.

Our Angry Birds and piggies were a combo from an Angry Birds board game and some figures purchased on Amazon.  My kids have played with them every day since the party, worth every penny.

Since I was going to let the kids destroy the cake, we decided to bake some cupcakes for the adults and anyone else who didn't want demolished cake for dessert.  I found the Angry Birds font online and cut out letters in green cardstock with my Silhouette.  Kabob sticks worked great, holding the letters up high so you could see them behind the structure.

The kids and birds won this battle.

Happy Birthday Scott!

Sidenote:  This cake took less than 2 hours from start to finish, plus baking time for the cake pieces.  The guy in the video above made his own ice blocks, birds, and piggies.  I took the easy route by using some non edible things and saved myself hours and hours of work.  This is a big impact cake for minimal effort.  Let me know if any of you make one too!

Homemade Lemon Curd

My friend loves (amongst other things) lemon and chocolate.  For her birthday, I made her a lemon berry trifle with homemade lemon curd.  You can find the recipe for the lemon curd HERE.  I only used their lemon curd recipe and made up my own version of trifle.

The curd was amazing.  Light, smooth, and very lemony.  It was a bit of a labor of love because you have to stand and stir it while it cooks for 20 minutes, BUT it was worth it!  I will make it again.  I'm thinking for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in July....it's in London, so lemon curd with scones and tea sounds just about right.   

(My husband will roll his eyes when he reads that last bit.)

Here's my trifle.

A layer of diced poppy seed muffins (mine are from Costso), lemon curd, fresh berries (I used strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries), and fresh whipped cream.  Repeat layers until you reach the top of your bowl.

My whipped cream was heavy cream, about a teaspoon of vanilla, a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, and the juice of one lemon.  Beat on high until stiff peaks form.  My measurements were approximate.  I tasted as I went.

The top was decorated with lemon slices and my son insisted we spell out a "J" for the birthday girl.

Another friend brought the chocolate decadence with the candles on it (also in a "J").  It was delish and would satisfy any chocolate craving. 

Happy Birthday!