It took most of the day, multiple batches of icing, killed my hand mixer, and caused me a bit of worry…
But it was worth it in the end!
Instructions and inspiration found here.
Friday Photos
Cakes
Bowling Birthday Party
Today we had a birthday party for Carolyn at a bowling alley. What fun!
We only had to bring the birthday child and a cake. Or, in this case, cupcakes.
I was heavily inspired by these twobowling cupcake projects. And honestly, this was probably the easiest birthday “cake” I’ve ever made. Cupcakes, piped swirls of icing, and fondant decor. There was so little work and they turned out so cute!
Everyone seemed to have a great time! The fancy shoes on the slippery floor were an especially huge hit. As were the “lightsaber” battles with the glow stick necklaces we gave out…
Neither of my children have bowled very much – actually, this might have been Anna’s very first time. Luckily, they were far more interested in throwing the ball down the lane than their scores!
I would definitely do a bowling party again. It’s by far one of the easiest birthday parties we’ve had for either child. Carolyn was absolutely thrilled with it!
A Berry Fun Birthday Party
Anna had a birthday party to celebrate turning 3 today. She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party, which was a pretty easy theme to work with!
For food, we made a variety of pinwheel wrap sandwiches, a veggie tray with dip, a layered fruit salad (in my new Pampered Chef trifle bowl – it was pretty as well as tasty!) and chips with homemade french onion dip. I also made some blueberry muffins, my mom picked up some incredibly delicious lemon bars, and I made these strawberry shortcake cupcakes in lieu of a fancy decorated cake. (We skipped the raspberry torte and the apple dumplings. There were plenty of desserts already!)
I’ve never made cupcakes from scratch, so I was really happy with how they turned out. The baking was the easy bit – filling them was a bit fiddly and time consuming. And then the icing started sliding off the cupcakes while they were in the stand and it was a messy disaster, so they were on there approximately long enough to take the above picture and then went back in the cupcake carriers. But even though they turned out a bit messy, they were delicious!
I made a bean bag toss game a couple of weeks ago, which we put out but didn’t really organize. The kids were mainly more interested in just playing with each other. So much so that I don’t think any of them ate lunch! And then it was time for cupcakes. Anna was very excited to blow out her birthday candle!
It was a “berry” fun birthday party, and it was followed by some time in the pool for those who could stay and play. Thanks to all who came and made Anna’s birthday party fantastic!
Dora Mermaid/Under the Sea Party
We had a giant kids’ party today, featuring a Dora mermaid cake:
and sand art:
and presents:
And now, Carrie is officially five!
(Also, thank you to Greta and my dad for taking some of these pictures!)
Birthday Party (part the second)
Today we had a few friends over to celebrate (again) the momentous occasion of Anna turning one. Carrie was thrilled to see several of her friends, and Anna was more than happy to have another cupcake. I think she had sort of caught on this time to the whole idea of a party and was pretty happy with the whole present and cake bit.
The cake, by the way, came out much, much better this time:
And the weather pretty much held, although it was a pretty chilly pool party and only a few brave souls actually bothered to go in the pool at all.
There are more pictures here if you wish to sign in to see them.
And now, after two parties in the space of 8 days, I’m ready for a break!
Lovely Flowers
Lisa taught a course on gum paste flowers last night. I had such fun making the flowers for my grandparents’ cake that I decided to take the class.
Here are few of the flowers I made:
There were also daffodils and tulips, but those never managed to get on stems. I have to say I really enjoy making flowers from gum paste. It’s like working with playdough, but with much more realistic results.
Cake, Cake, Cake…and More Cake.
The party went really, really well. It was so nice to see some of the more distant relatives that we haven’t seen in years. In honor of the occasion (and I’m still not sure why the restaurant allowed this) I baked a cake. Four, in fact.
Lisa and I spent hours making tiny gum paste flowers, including a few calla lilies since those were my grandmother’s bouquet. Two nights ago I literally spent more than four hours baking cakes, and then yesterday’s icing bonanza involved several hours of Lisa and I working together, and many, many videos for the kids.
Apparently, at least one of the wait staff was wondering if she could get my card. Uhhhh. Card? That would imply that you could pay me enough to do something like this for someone not closely related to me. Now I know why wedding cakes cost so much!
Quick, Somebody Call A Contractor!
Julia is moving soon, so today was her last playgroup with us. We threw a little going-away party, and I baked a house cake:
Isn’t it lovely? Except I didn’t read the pan instructions about using a pound cake mix until after my favorite Duncan Hines butter recipe golden cake was baking in the oven. Still, I persisted in believing it would all work out. But less than an hour after I finished decorating the cake yesterday, it looked like this:
Not good. Not good at all. I was terrified of what it would look like in the morning, so I decided to take pre-emptive house-saving action. I cut a cake board the shape of the back of the cake – no small feat, since it didn’t resemble the shape of the pan much at all anymore – and gently tipped it backwards. (Meanwhile, Carrie is hanging onto my pant leg, begging “Carrie eat cake? Carrie eat the cake please?”) Luckily, the bushes and flowers around the base of the house mostly stayed attached to the house. Unluckily, I was completely out of icing so I had to make another half batch in order to frost the bottom of the house. This is what it looked like when I served it this morning:
I can only imagine what it would have looked like if I’d decided to leave it standing up. Either way, it was tasty. It was a good playgroup. All the kids had a lot of fun playing together, and I know Carrie will miss Maddie in future playgroups, just as we’ll miss Julia!
Birthday Cakes and Gardening
I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, it’s just been a busy week. Denis was on a business trip until early Friday morning, so I was playing single mom to a toddler and two dogs. I honestly don’t know how people do it. I was desperate to have another adult watch Carrie for five minutes so I could have just five little minutes to do something by myself! The other thing I did this week was make a cake for my great-great-aunt’s 90th birthday party:
It’s not a great picture, but it turned out far better than I’d anticipated. If you don’t count the writing. I suck at writing on cakes. I can practice on wax paper and have it turn out perfectly, but the pressure of writing on the actual cake…I just can’t handle it. I actually ended up scraping off the writing and re-icing the top of the cake three times before I gave up and let it be whatever it was going to be.
As a gift, since my aunt is an avid gardener, I gave Carrie a watering can and let her have fun in the flowers I put in our front boxes. Most of the water ended up on her dress, soaked into her socks, and covering the random ants crawling around, but I got some really cute shots. I made the background on this one black and white so the focus was on Carrie and the flowers.
