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I Love Birthdays !

So, I’ve decided I would do some posts on the birthday parties I’ve decorated for over the last 5 yrs. It’s been for my own kids but I’ve loved it so much ! I usually start a few months in advance just planning and buying things here and there so it isn’t this huge expense all at once. I love crafting and planning a party just adds a whole other level of fun and just satisfaction from something you have created.

The first party I did was a pinwheel party. I may have gone a little overboard considering it was for a 1 yr olds birthday but first kid…

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I think the hardest part of any party is coming up with a color scheme and from there I just run with it ! I ordered our cake and cupcakes from a local bakery and then added fondant pinwheels I bought from etsy on top. So, I have a fun story about the fondant pinwheels. They were to be delivered the day before the party and we had a sub mailman that day. Well for whatever reason he didn’t deliver them and our regular mailman saw the package back at the office and that it wasn’t delivered so after his shift ended he personally drove to our house to have them delivered ! Best mailman ever !! Moral of the story…become friends with your mailman.  The cookies were done by a local bakery, as well. The gift tags for the drinks I made with my cricket and to prop up the candy and cake i just took some boxes and wrapped them in wrapping paper that matched my colors.  A fun tip…when I made the punch I didn’t want to water it down with ice so I bought some popsicle molds and filled them with water and freezed it and then threw them into the punch bowl. Cold punch but not water downed. Hope each of these posts give you some inspiration for your next party !

 

Dinosaur Party

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My second cake I made was a Dinosaur cake. This one was by far the easiest cake I’ve made. I still used the same chocolate cake recipe and again made it into 2 layers. I then made chocolate cream cheese frosting and used that for in between the layers and for the outside. To make your cream cheese frosting into chocolate just simple add in your favorite unsweetened cocoa. I start off with say 1/4 cup and add more until I get enough of a chocolate flavor. And in my opinion there is no such thing as too much chocolate ! When you are decorating the cake don’t beat yourself up if you can get it perfectly smooth on the outside. I would spend forever smoothing over and over again and to be honest I like the little imperfections.  Every party all my friends are raving about how beautiful the cake looks and how delcious it tastes and to me that is satisfaction in itself. Only you realize the imperfections.
Next, I made a chocolate ganache by mixing 1 bag of chocolate chips and a few tablespoons of heavy cream. I pretty much wing this and add more heavy cream if it’s still too thick. To make the ganache pour a bag of your favorite chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl (I love enjoy life chocolate chips. by far the most chocolaty flavor and if you or anyone you know has any food allergies this is the brand to buy) and then add about 3 tablespoons of heavy cream into the bowl and heat for 30 seconds, stir and continue doing this until you get a nice smooth consistency. If your ganache is still a little thick and not falling smoothly off your whisk or fork add a little bit more heavy cream until you get the right consistency. I started off with a little ganache on the top od the  cake and spread it around and then I took a spoon and every few inches I would pour it down the side to give a drip effect on the cake.
Next take a bag of chocolate chip cookies and crumble them into chunks and spread over the entire top of the cake. To finish it off I took some of my sons toy dinosaurs and put them on top of the cake.
For the cupcakes I did chocolate cupcakes and made cream cheese frosting and colored it a dark green. I bought a container of 12 mini dinosaurs and placed them on each cake and then sprinkled chocolate sprinkles around them. Now if only every cake could be this easy to make.
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Sources: Burlap
                Green Leaves on wall
                Wooden disc
                Metal Tray (similar)

Belle Cake

I’ve decided to start making my kids birthday cakes and my first one I did was a rose cake for my daughters Belle birthday.

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My first challenge was actually finding a good chocolate cake recipe. After spending entirely too long on pinterest looking for a recipe I finally found one ! I altered the recipe only by making it into 2 9 inch layers instead of 3 8 inch layers. This is the chocolate cake recipe I used. After making my 2 layers and letting them cool completely I made cream cheese frosting and colored it yellow and used that in between the layers and used the same cream cheese for the decorating. I first did a crumb coat and put it in the fridge for about 15ish minutes to set then I used a star tip and piped roses over the entire cake. When you do the roses make sure each rose overlaps the previous one by just a little bit. Overlapping each flower will prevent you from having gaps all over your cake. Since I was using cream cheese I had to periodically put my frosting in the fridge so that my flowers would keep their form and not become warm blobs of frosting. I also made cupcakes and did 1 large rose on each cupcake. I love the way they turned out. There’s just something special about having a homemade cake.

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