Josie's Art Party

Josie is going to be turning SIX at the end of this month.  I can't believe she'll be six already!  Man!  This went fast.  Coming up with the theme to this year's party was actually a pretty easy one.  She's had a princess or villain theme the last few years and this year she wanted to do something different.  Since last summer, she has become quite the artist, so it seemed obvious for us to do an art party for her.  

We had close to 30 kids at our house, so even though I am the Cake Mama, I wanted to keep it simple and I didn't want to have a huge cake to cut.  Also, the prep time would have cut in to the other fun things I had planned.  So I decided to do cupcakes but they had to be really COOL cupcakes.  I did this technique before with Josie's Elmo party 3 years ago, so I did again to make rainbow cupcakes.  

First step is making the batter and splitting it into 6 different containers; one for each color of the rainbow.  

One color at a time, I added about a tablespoon full to each cupcake liner.  I started with red...

...and ended with purple.

I frosted each one with some white buttercream and topped them with colorful rainbow sprinkles to match the cupcake liners.

And voila!  Rainbow inside!

The rest of the party was super fun to plan.  I ordered these aprons online and absolutely LOVE them.  They are Oriental Trading Company aprons, but I actually got them on Amazon.com (better deal for me that way).  With all of the kids we had coming, this was a super fun and affordable gift to give each of them.  And before we started the party, they looked so fun and colorful flapping away in the wind!

Rainbow balloons were a must for the party!

I added some colorful artwork to dress up the gardens.

And then as each child arrived, we had them take a picture with Mona Lisa or The Scream.  These pictures will be sent with Thank You cards.    Here's Josie...

And here's Hope and Josie.  They are SO silly!

After all of the kids arrived, I decided it was best to feed them right away.  We had a rainbow of a buffet with very kid-friendly foods.   (The food labels were made by my mother-in-law, Marcia, and were made from color sample paper from the local hardware store.)

Mmmm - lots of colorful foods!

I was most excited about the Rainbow Jell-O.  Six different layers of Jell-O topped with whipped cream and sprinkles!  YUM!

The kids had some time to eat.

Then they had some time to play together.  

Then we gathered them all up for a group shot before we split them up into four groups.   Each group would circle around to all four different stations.

One group got to decorate cookies with food-safe markers.

Another group got to decorate their aprons with fabric markers.  

A third group got to paint with watercolors.  My husband taped painters tape in the shape of the first initial of each kid's name onto cardstock.  They painted on the cardstock and then we removed the tape to reveal a white letter.  (If we were to do this again, we would have chosen different paper or different tape.  The tape didn't want to come off easily...oh well...)

We dried them on the line.  Look at all of that fun color!

The last group got to do an art-themed obstacle course.  SUPER fun!

THEN - it was time for CUPCAKES!!!    Josie loved listening to her friends sing Happy Birthday.

She got to open her presents while her friends looked on and  played some more.  

All in all it was a fabulous day!  The weather was perfect and the turn-out was humbling.  I had so many helpers along the way and am so appreciative of each and every one of them for helping make Josie's day a super special one.   I couldn't have done it without you!!!

Happy [early] Birthday, Josie!!  We love you so!

Mother's Day From My "Cake Kid"

Mother's Day is such a fun day for me.  I know that I'll get to sleep in.  I know that my husband will make breakfast.  And this year, Josie had a surprise for me.  She went to our local grocery store and decorated a cake for me.  The cutest little 4-inch cake I ever saw.  Lots and lots of frosting and colors - just the way Josie likes it!

Here's a picture of the most beautiful cake I've ever seen!

She picked out that red heart ring just for me!  She was so excited that she could be my "Cake Kid".  You know, Cake Mama's kid who also decorates cakes!  She was so proud of her creation!

And I loved it!

Happy Mother's Day indeed!

Cake Pops

This has been a cake pop kind of month.  First, Kari ordered some blue and pink cake pops to celebrate her two adorable kids' birthdays earlier this month.  I don't have a picture of the blue, but Kristi (who's featured on this post below) took a picture and sent one over for me.  The pink cake pops were strawberry flavored and the blue ones (looked the same except blue) were yellow cake flavored.  

Kristi liked her cake pop so much she ordered some for her graduation party.  I was asked to make half of them white and the other half purple.  The white ones were white cake and the purple ones were chocolate cake.

Kristi snapped another picture for me with the group all together.  Love it!!

Cake pops are one of the most time-consuming things I make.  But my clients sure appreciate the ease of serving them.  Aren't they cute and festive?!!!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, NEW Fish

Sue called and requested a Cake Mama Cake for a baby shower she was co-hosting.  The theme was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, NEW Fish.  What a cute idea, eh?    I immediately went to my new obsession, Pinterest, and got some great ideas for the occasion.  And here's what I made.  

This is a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Whenever I do a carrot cake, I LOVE the basketweave on the sides because, come on...who DOESN'T love cream cheese frosting?!!!

The little decorations are made out of gum paste and fondant and I used an edible food marker to color in the details.

I hope the shower was super fun!

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!