A Pirate Cake Fer Connor

A little over two weeks after my daughter turned five, my nephew turned five as well.  These two cousins have gone through everything together and it's so perfect that we live just down the street from one another.  After Josie's big princess/villains party a few weeks ago, I knew I had to get one more party under my belt before the month of June was over.  Connor was having a PIRATE party and I wanted to make sure that his cake was a cool, piratey kind of cake.  

After looking at what seemed like thousands of cake images online, I really couldn't find one that I loved enough to duplicate.  So I took some ideas from here and there and came up with my very own design.  Connor's only request was that it had the pirate skull on it.  I made sure that there were FIVE on there.  Can you find them all?

At Josie's party, Connor came dressed up as a pirate.  Fortunately we got a great picture of him at the party and I included it/him on his cake.  Awesome, eh?!  Arrrrr!  The treaure here is a candle I ordered from Wilton.com.  I thought it was perfect for the occasion!

I also wanted to incorporate a treasure map or an "X" marks the spot motif which you can see below.  The cake itself is a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling and frosting.  The ship is made out of rice krispie treats and covered in modeling chocolate.  (Special thanks to the hubby for molding it for me.)  I used paper and skewers for the ship's masts, but everything else on the ship is edible.  

And here's the birthday boy...I mean, the birthday PIRATE!   

Happy 5th Birthday to you, Connor!  Auntie Ann loves you very much!

Disney Villains and Princesses oh my!

We celebrated Josie's birthday yesterday.  We had a GREAT day for it!  Sunny, almost 90 degrees and NO CHANCE OF RAIN!  Since our visit to Walt Disney World last October, Josie has been wanting and wanting a Disney Villains-themed party.  Her favorite villain is Malificent and she requested [last October] a Malificent cake.  Okay....?  Needless to say, I had some time to think about design. 

Getting back to the party, I added the "princess" bit for her because I think most her her 5-year old-ish friends would have more to do with princesses than with the villains.  We encouraged all of her friends to dress up as their favorite Disney villain or princess and also come with their swim suits.  Because it was so warm, we made it into a water party!

Josie's Grandma Marcia was able to secure this wonderful Snow White cut-out which we had all of her guests pose with.  What a beautiful addition to the party!  

I still can't believe I was able to find Villain-themed plates and napkins, but was so happy I did.  (These were actually for Halloween parties!!)

We had all of Josie's guests find their goodie bags right away after arriving.  We had them hidden throughout the yard.  The girls got foam tiaras with adhesive jewels to decorate, lots of fun jewelry, princess tattoos and silver wands.  The boys got knight masks and knight shields to decorate, knight tattoos and a foam sword. 

Here are all of Josie's guests.  A few Cinderellas, Snow Whites, a Rapunzel and even a Darth Vader in there!

After the photo-op, we had the kids get their suits on and that's when the fun began!  Sprinkler time for everyone (while also watering the veggie garden)!

We played Cruella's Dalmation [water balloon] toss game.

And Hades Hot Potato.

We finished up the water games with water limbo!





Then it was time for cake.  Like I said, Josie wanted a Malificient cake (the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty).  It was so hard to make such an evil cake for my 5-year old daughter, but this was really what she wanted.  I kept the color scheme very Malificent and added the dragon (made out of gum paste & fondant) and included some little pink flowers around the cake, per the story. 

The top tier is a yellow cake and the bottom tier is a chocolate cake.  Both are filled with green buttercream frosting.

 I think she liked it!

 If cake didn't provide enough sugar, we had the kids take down this pinata. 

 And here they are enjoying the deliciousness of the candy, after their cake sugar high. 

....and then we quickly sent all of the kids home.  :)

Happy Birthday, Josephine!  I hope you had a wonderful day!  We sure did!

Our Maren, Full of Grace

Saturday we celebrated our daughter, Maren's, baptism.  It was a special day for all of us and one that we were looking forward to for some time.  The gown she wore for this occasion has been in my husband's family for 105 years. Danny, Josie and Maren all wore this gown and it just feels holy!

To celebrate the occasion, we had all of those involved over to our house for an Italian-style meal (lasagnas) and we enjoyed these delicious cupcakes.  I made pink lemonade cupcakes with pink lemonade frosting.  I was really picturing something simple and innocent for decoration and came across these little cross toppers and thought they were perfect.  



I came across the plates and napkins at a later date and thought they went perfectly together.  What luck!

My God Bless our little Maren Grace.  We love her so!



Oh, The Places They'll Go!

My oldest daughter, Josie, graduated from K4 this week.  It was a bittersweet ceremony.  On one hand, she's accomplished SO much this year, and on the other, I can't believe she's moving on to KINDERGARTEN next year!  Oy!  Where has the time gone?!

Her K4 experience has been an exceptional one.  Her teachers are outstanding and have really worked hard to offer neat, fun, unique experiences for all of the kids in the class.  This included "travel around the world".  Her teacher is from England and has a love of travel and throughout the year,  incorporated her journeys into their curriculum.  So, when I was asked to do a cake for their gradutation ceremony, I thought going along with that theme would be a nice tribute to their travels together.  

The little red dots on the world map show where they've gone this year: 

And during their travels, by the way, they all got on an [imaginary] airplane and were served their snack as they traveled.  They'd spend about a week in each location before their [imaginary] trip home.  When in Italy, they actually sampled pizza and gelato for snack time.  When in China, they got to try eating noodles with chopsticks.  What fun!

As for the cake, it's a two-layer sheet cake.  Half of the cake is chocolate, the other half is yellow.  Both sides are filled and frosted with vanilla buttercream.  The decoration is made up of a gum paste/fondant mix. 

I wish the graduates of the 2012 K4 class a heartfelt congratulations and wishes for a great summer.  We'll see you in the Fall!!

Give Me Five!

Today, my oldest daughter turned five.  I kind of can't believe it's been FIVE years already.  Where on EARTH did that time go?!  She is a spectacular little girl, full of creativity and imagination.  I'm honored to call her my daughter. 



So, this special birthday required a special treat to bring in to school today.  Josie requested cake pops.  Oh no.  Not just plain cake pops.  She's was specific.  She wanted pink cake, (I made a yellow cake and dyed it pink) with pink chocolate and pink sprinkles with the letter "J" on them.  Yep.  Specifics.  Gotta love it!  Here's how they turned out. 



 I'm pretty sure she was pleased!  Her party will be in a few weeks and she'll get her cake then.  Think Disney Villain.  I can't wait to get started!

Happy Birthday, my sweet 5-year old.  I love you to infinity and beyond!



Curious Will...I mean George!

My friend Kate requested a cake for her son's 2nd birthday. She was going with a Curious George theme for him and his birthday party. I hadn't done a Curious George cake before and I couldn't wait to get started!

We decided on a 10-inch chocolate cake with a Curious George face on top. She also wanted some cupcakes to accomodate the many guests she was hosting. So, I suggested banana cupcakes with chocolate frosting. You know, because monkeys like bananas. I would top each cupcake with a little yellow hat.

Here's how the cake turned out. I made George out of a gum paste/fondant blend.

Here are the cupcakes with the yellow hats which are made out of gum paste and colored with edible black food marker.

Here's the cake and cupcakes at their final destination.

I know it's not cake-related, but these are the party favors for the kids. Too cute not to share!

And here's the birthday boy! What a cutie!

Happy Birthday, Will! I hope you had a fantastic day! Thanks for having me be a part of it!

Captain America

My wonderful husband is a real fan of Captain America. Always has been. His favorite super hero indeed. So, when he requested a Captain America cake for his birthday, I was ready to roll. That is, until he came across a picture of Captain America cake pops that he wanted instead. I was all for it!

Cake pops are not hard to make, but they ARE time consuming. There are a lot of steps involved in making them and in making them well. I always forget about this. But when the finished product is in front of me, I'm always pleased - and they are a fan favorite!

I took some chocolate and vanilla cakes and mixed them together with a smidge of frosting until they were able to stick together for me to form them into balls. I refrigerated them for a few minutes and began to melt the red melting candy. When that was ready to roll, I dipped each of the sticks into a little bit of the melted candy and inserted them into the cake balls. Back into the refrigerator until I was ready for dipping.

Later, I let the cake pops sit out at room temperature while I got the candy melted again. I found that when I dip the pops cold, the candy tends to crack. They need to be chilled, not cold. So, I dipped each one into the melted candy and let them set up for a few minutes.

Later in the day, I began decorating. I used a gum paste/fondant mix for the white and blue decor and I attached everything using some more of the melted candy.

Then, I wrapped each one in a cellophane bag and tied them with some ribbon.

This was the box of goodies that Danny brought in to share with his team at work.

And these were what we had for his birthday celebration after work.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! I hope you had a great day!