Alice in Wonderland Birthday Celebration

We did an Alice in Wonderland inspired birthday celebration, it was such a fun party to plan. I made a scroll birthday invitation that we rolled up and tied with a ribbon and a tag for the name.

I had decided to buy some artificial turf from my local hardware store for a table runner, it was such a fun detail.

Some fun table details.  Every girl had their own pretty tea cup to drink out of.

A mini tea set, a terrarium with a little deer and the Mad Hatter, so fun.

The Cheshire Cat had to be on the table too. These figures are from Disney that I happened to stumble across.

I made bubble gum flavoured marshmallows, they were super yummy. Below the marshmallows are a childhood treat I had, called Sue Bars, and a lemon cake in the background.

Some tea cup sugar cookies (recipe found here) decorated with royal icing (recipe from Sweet Sugar Belle). I used an edible maker to write on some the cookies, so fun. I made my icing a bit too runny, so some of the cookies didn't quite turn out as I had envisioned but they were still tasty nonetheless.

I made cake pops and had left over candy melts, so I grabbed a box of Oreo cookies and dipped them in there and then into the sprinkles. These were a hit, I don't think I had a single one left over.

From left to right at macaroons, mushroom shaped meringues and chocolate cupcakes. The meringue recipe I found on Sweet Treats blog and I am quite happy how they turned out. They were a little delicate so I broke a few of them but they were also a hit. The chocolate cupcake recipe was from Butter Baked Goods and inside was a surprise, a bit of Nutella and then topped with cream cheese icing.

The girls all got to decorate a foam glitter crown that is worn as a hair band. We used buttons, feathers, glittery pom poms and gems to decorate these adorable little crowns.

And finally the cake. I made a white cake from Butter Baked Goods. I used cream cheese icing from Martha Stewart and used just pink and cream, simple but pretty.

A Robot Birthday Celebration

Celebration a 4 year old's birthday party with everything robot. Now, when I look back at what I did, I feel that there were not enough decorations…I will have to remember that for next year's party.

Some airplane sugar cookies (recipe found here) decorated with royal icing (receip from Sweet Sugar Belle). I tried a flooding technique this time around and was pretty impressed with how it all went. I can see how decorating cookies can become addictive.

It seems that no birthday is complete in my house without cake pops. I use my all time favourite recipe for these, lemon poppy seed sour cream cake.  I then used the Wilton candy melts, swirled it on with a bamboo skewer and topped it off with some decorative balls. Yum.

And finally the cake. I made a white cake from Butter Baked Goods and coloured half the batch orange. I alternated the white and orange batters for a fun cake piece once cut.  I used cream cheese icing from Martha Stewart and made a few colours. I got a little carried away with the grey pipping but I guess that is what can happen when you make too much icing. 

The robot (transformer) is standing on oreo cookie crumbs.

And finally, the goodie bag. I don't really like the typical goodie bags very much so I try to create something that is different. I think I succeeded, robot rice krispies. 

Paper Airplane Birthday

It was my son's 3rd birthday party and he loves airplanes, so it was fitting that we would have a paper airplane party.  I made a paper airplane birthday invitation from a template and then modified to to meet my needs. Our little guests loved receiving these airplanes, so much fun.

It seems that no birthday is complete in my house without cake pops. I use my all time favourite recipe for these, lemon poppy seed sour cream cake. Maybe one day I will use a different receipe…maybe.  I then used the Wilton candy melts (do no overheat, it makes for a challenge to coat the cake pops).

I got the Butter Baked Goods recipe book for mother's day this year, it has so many wonderful recipes in it and is beautifully photographed (photographer's blog found here) as well. I decided to make the Nutella chocolate cupcakes and they were yummy. The cake was more like a brownie to me and then filled with a little bit of Nutella, what a great combination. I topped the mini cupcakes off with cream cheese icing and a few blue sugar.

And how could I not serve marshmallows at the party? I made vanilla and blackberry ones, they were a great hit. This recipe can be found in Butter Baked Goods recipe book as well. You can also find it here.

Some airplane sugar cookies (recipe found here) decorated with royal icing. I tried a flooding technique this time around.  I was pretty happy with it minus the poor piping job…better luck next time….I hope.

The table with covered with little paper airplanes that I printed out and then used a circle punch. It was so simple but I thought looked great on the table.

And finally, the cake. I know I said before that making cakes was not my thing but after reading the Butter Baked Goods, I thought I would give it a try again I was inspired.  The cake was great, I made the vanilla cake recipe. Then I discovered the 1M piping tip, it made my life so much easier when it came to icing the cake and cupcakes. A few chocolate sprinkles, some Oreo cookie crumbs (under the airplane), paper bunting, a toy airplane and we are done. 

a fairy garden party

It was my daughter's 4th birthday so we had a fairy garden party with a special guest...Tinkerbell.  You can see more of Tinkerbell here.  It as so much fun to decorate for this party. We scattered flowers on the table with a few leaves here and there, very whimsical I thought.

I had asked my Mom to keep an eye out for one of those glass domes on a pedistal and here it is filled with cupcakes and butterflies. I made coconut cupcakes (recipe found here) and I think I have found a new favourite, it was so yummy. Then topped with some cream cheese icing.

Some flower and leaf shaped cookies (recipe found here) decorated with royal icing. These by far are my favourite go to sugar recipe.

And it seems I can not do a birthday without cake pops. I used a poppy seed sour cream cake for the cakes and then covered them with Wilton candy melts and green royal icing swirls...how cute are these?

I had seen this idea on Pinterest (not sure if I love Pinterest or strongly dislike it) and thought it was a fun idea. You take Wilton candy melts and dip the cup into it then dip the cup into coloured sugar. You can find the tutorial I used here. On these cups I also added some washi tape and a sticker to make these plain cups a bit more interesting.  Now add a paper straw and you are done.

All the little fairies got a braided headband made out of tulle. I wove a flower into it so it looked more fairy like.  I used 9 pieces of tulle (white and purple sparkle mixed) to make the headband. There was a tail (can't see it in the photo) that is about 12-15" long and I added a pink ribbon and bow as well.

I felt that the boys needed something different so I made them a Peter Pan hat.  I used this tutorial, it was very simple to make. 

If you look closely, you can see that the fork has been decorated too...yes, I got carried away with my glue gun. I bought clear forks, tied a ribbon around it and then glued some flowers on top of the ribbon. I loved how it looked and I will do a variation of this next time too.  The paper plates were plain white and I gathered some crepe paper (rolls that you easily find at a local dollar store) and then glued it to the back of the plate...simple but whimsical.

And finally the cake. I try to not make a cake and do cupcakes instead but my daughter really wanted a cake, so I made her one. Cake decorating is really not my thing, it's a skill that I have not fine tuned but having said that I am quite happy with how the cake turned out. There was 2 layers of cake, one green and the other purple, and cream cheese icing and raspberry jam in the middle.

choo choo, it's a train party

We celebrated my son's second birthday today, we had so much fun.  We did a train theme, he loves trains and if he has more than two little trains in his hands, he is one happy camper.

The train we used for decorating the table. In the background are cookies shaped like train tracks.

I used some chalkboard fabric and drew with a chalk pen (love those pens, they are fantastic). I bought some bowls from Ikea (seasonal ones) to use as the various cabooses of the train filled with mainly crackers. Lots of cookies, cakes and snacks filled the table too.  We had matching paper straws (one of my new favourite things) and clear drinking cups that had some washi tape to match all our other decorations (sorry, no photo - forgot).

My parties seem to never to be complete without some sort of cake pop. I used my all time favourite recipe, lemon poppy seed sour cream cake for them. Covered them with chocolate candy melts by Wilton and then some sprinkles for the finishing touch.

The birthday mini cupcakes, again using the same recipe as the cake pops (because it made so much). I made the picks using a Martha Stewart punch, water colour pencil crayons and some cardstock that I had on hand. I was quite happy the way they turned out.

And finally a personalized cookie for each of our small guests. They were a bit of work, but well worth the effort I thought.

fairy princess birthday

Our little girl turned three last week and she wanted a fairy princess birthday party. No princess is complete without a crown, so I made her one.  I used peltex, cotton fabrics (Riley Blake, Designer: The Quilted Fish, Category: Sugar & Spice except the green fabric which I do not know the designer of) , buttons and Swarovski crystals. The crown has a ribbon at the back which is tied for the perfect fit, now and down the road.

This number 3 is made of Swarovski crystals.  I made it as a pin so that I could remove it and make a new number next year or something else.

The birthday cupcake. I originally saw the idea for pink lemonade cupcakes here and thought it was a great idea.  The recipe can be found here. I decorated mine a little differently as I was unable to find the jelly toppers but the kids did not seem to mind.

No party seems to be complete these days without cake pops.  I used one of my favourite recipes for them, lemon poppy seed sour cream cake.  I used Wilton white candy melts with pink coloured sugar. They were a hit.

Some refreshing pink lemonade along with paper straws which I found at Etsy. They have an amazing selection of colours and you pick the colours that you want...perfect.  I even purchased some more straws in advance for another birthday party.

I covered the table with "gems" for that bit of sparkle. In the background are some princess crown cookies. The recipe I used for the cookies is one of the best I've used in a quite some time for shaped cookies.  The dough, once chilled, is great to work with and does not crumble a lot.  You can find the recipe here. The cookie cutters are from Wilton and I used royal icing to decorate along with white nonpareils. I think they turned out great.

We also managed to get a refrigerator box and made a castle out of it for the kids to play in. A few windows, a door, a bit of paint and there you have it. You could easily skip painting the box, it will still have the same impact on the kids.

And as a final touch, all the kids got a fairy princess wand to take home.  You can see how I made them here.

As a side note, if you decide to make the high heel shaped cookies in the cookie cutter set be aware that the heel is narrow and I had trouble at times getting the cookie dough out nicely...my pinky wasn't quite small enough but other than that they are such a fun shape.

Cake pops

It was one of those cake pop kind of days, well it was a good excuse to decorate a few cake pops.  I had a few cake pops (lemon poppy seed) still in my freezer so it was very quick and easy.  I think I decorated 12 cake pops in half an hour, not bad.

I used Wilton Lavender Colored Sugar over top of Wilton White Candy Melts.

These cake pops are on 6" lollipop sticks, also from Wilton.The yummy finished product.