Winter Onederland

Today I delivered a fairly big amount of baked goods to a former coworker's house. She had contacted me and said she had seen my cakes on Facebook and wanted to know if I could make a smash cake, 24 cookies, and 24 cupcakes for her son's first birthday.  (It is neat to think about how easily Facebook has made a way for us to get in contact with someone we haven't spoken to in a while. :)) Of course I told her I would love to.  She had picked out the theme Winter Onederland and did a winter theme which was very cute.  Our friends from church actually did the same theme for their son's first birthday as well or I would have thought about doing it for our daughter's first birthday. :)

The smash cake was a yellow cake and iced in buttercream.  I used MMF around the edges and for the number 1 on top.  I had made royal icing snowflakes to put on top but my son bumped the container that I kept the dried snowflakes in and broke my remaining ones and I didn't have time to make more. :/ So I improvised and piped on the snowflakes which was probably better for a smash cake anyways. :)

For the cookies she asked for mittens and a number 1.  Out of all the Christmas cookie cutters I had I didn't have a mitten.  I was able to find a mitten on an after-Christmas clearance rack which was excellent.  I actually had to buy a set of about 15-20 cutters to get the one mitten.  But now I have all sorts of Christmas cookie cutters for next year.  (I will have to think about whether I should do Christmas cookies for the family next year or not.  You can check out the post about that here.)  I actually made the number 1 cookie cutter because I couldn't find one in the right size without having to order one online.

The cupcakes were white almond and cookies n cream.  The cupcakes shown were just the white almond. The decorations on top were made out of royal icing.  The big snowflakes are the ones that my son broke.  Luckily I had the last cupcake topper in my hand when he hit the container.  I lost all the extras I was going to put on the cake but it all worked out. 

My Baby Girl Turns 1!

This past December my little girl turned 1.  It is such a bitter sweet thing.  She no longer is a baby but she is developing such a little personality.

 Of course I had to throw her a party but I told myself I was going to do something small and just for family so that I could enjoy the day and not feel overwhelmed.  I must not know myself very well.  I did enjoy myself but I maybe went a little overboard. 

The theme revolved around her invitation that I created on Inkscape. Of course I incorporated a little bit of chevron as well.

Instead of doing a big cake I decided to do a smash cake and then do some fun cupcakes.  The flavors I did were banana pudding, peanut butter cup, and cookie dough.

Since there was only family I decided to serve a lunch.  We had...

 

Crockpot Mac n Cheese (always a favorite in our house) 

 

PB&J Sandwiches shaped like elephants

 

A Salad bar which was originally going to be salad on a stick but I decided to save time and energy and do it this way.

A yogurt bar.  You filled your waffle bowls with yogut, mixed fruit, and granola.

 

Elephant cookies.  Which I cheated and used already prepared cookie dough and I won't do that ever again.  Or at least not use the brand I used.  They did not hold their shape very well. :/

 

Last but not least Mexican Fiesta Bites.  These were by far the party favorite.  Everyone seemed to love them.  Even my mother-in-law who has a little stricter diet.

I also made the decorations.  Here a glimpse at some of them. As well as a few other party ones. 

 Her aunt made this adorable skirt to go with the top that I made.

Little Red Wagon First Birthday

This cake was designed for a boy's first birthday.  The theme was little red wagon and the colors were blue, white, and red.  The mom wanted a cake for everyone and then also a smash cake for the birthday boy.  Here is how it turned out.