Vivian's Turning ONE!

My good friend Vinnie requested a cake for his daughter's first birthday bash.  I had the honor of making his son, Henry's first cake too.  Gotta love these once-in-a-lifetime occasions!  They mean the world to me!  

Vinnie sent a copy of Vivian's invitation and requested that I theme the cake off of it.  What fun!  I LOVE to do this!  Here's the adorable invite!

And here's the cake!  The cake is my chocolate-flecked cake and the top tier has chocolate buttercream filling, the bottom tier has vanilla buttercream filling.  The outside is frosted with my super creamy vanilla bean buttercream. 

I hope that Vivian had a wonderful birthday bash!!  Thanks for including me in the wonderful celebration!

May the 4th Be With Maren

I'm going to apologize for how self-indulgent this next post may appear.  I just had such a good time creating this experience.  Or should I say, re-creating this experience.    Let me also say that if I had the cake decorating skills I have 6 years ago, I would have done the exact same thing for my oldest daughter, Josie.  The two girls had very different first birthday celebrations.  Both of them were wonderful in their own right.  

But I digress.

Here is a picture of my first birthday cake.  From the 1970's.  All pretty and pink.  With a cute little ceramic baby on top.  

 There's my Grandpa flirting with me.  That's my Grandma looking on.  (I'll be making her 93rd birthday cake this summer!!!)

 And here I am.  Me.  One year old.

I'm wearing a cute little pink dress that my Grandma (pictured above) made.

 I really wanted to get my hands on that cake!

So, when Maren was born, I went down to the basement and looked through a few more bins of clothes I had down there.  My parents did a good job of saving valuable and sentimental things for me.  They didn't save it all; but they saved neat things.  Like the ceramic baby that topped my first birthday cake.  And the dress I wore at my first birthday.  I happened to come across those two items and knew then that for Maren's 1st birthday, I would recreate it.

Here's my rendition of that famous birthday cake, ceramic doll and all!

And here's Maren, wearing the same dress.

 Mmmmm!  Enjoying that cake!

 Yep.  Good stuff.

Her special day was easy and super fun to decorate.    Here, I took my favorite photo of her, face looking straight on, printed it in grayscale onto card stock and made little hats from scrapbook paper.  I love the effect and can't wait to make one for Josie later this month!  

I wanted to tie in the pink floral look to the food I served for brunch.   Here's the buffet.

Bacon and leek tart.

 Blueberry scones.

 Donuts.  Lots of 'em.

 Pink fruit salad.

 Yogurt and granola.

 And another picture of her cake.

Yep.  She's one.  I can't believe.  And what a wonderful celebration it was.

Happy Birthday, you sweet little girl!  I can't wait to see what this next year brings!

Carsen's 1st Birthday

Carsen shares the same birthday as my daughter.  In fact, Maren and Carsen were in the same hospital together at the same time.  I know her mom from high school and it's cute to think the two will have known each other for their whole lives; sharing the same birth date.  

So, when Carsen's mom, Brooke, asked me to do her birthday treats, I was absolutely honored to help out. Brooke had a vision!  She came prepared with pictures and inspirational shots of what she wanted for this magnificent milestone.  Pink, black and gray.  A schnazzy color scheme indeed.  SUPER fancy for a 1-year old.  ;)

The top tier of this cake is a yellow cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting.  The bottom tier is chocolate cake with Oreos, fudge and buttercream fillings.  

These cupcakes are yellow cupcakes, filled with chocolate cream cheese frosting and topped with buttercream.  

Cake pops are red velvet and cream cheese.  Mmmmm!

 

I hope Carsen had a fabulous birthday celebration!  She was in our thoughts as we celebrated over here.  Happy Birthday, Carsen!

Eloise's Pretty Petal Cake

A few weeks before my Maren was born, this little Eloise arrived.  My oldest daughter is in Kindergarten with Eloise's big brother, Alex.  The two of them have a LOT in common and it will be great fun to see Maren and Eloise grow up together.  So, when Jessica, their mom, asked me to do Eloise's 1st birthday cake, I was absolutely honored.  She said that she wanted something frilly and pink.  I came across an orange ombre-type petal cake on Pinterest and thought it looked super cool.  I used pink instead of orange and here's what it turned into.

Wilton tip 81 is what I used.  Never used that tip before and now it's one of my favorites!!

Here's a little smash cupcake for Eloise.  I used the same effect with tip 81 to top the cupcake.  Not too much frosting, but just enough!

Happy Birthday, Eloise!