Birthday Book Party

My oldest daughter is an avid reader to say the least.  So for her 12th birthday, she had a book party.  I got lots of great ideas from Pinterest!  Here are the ones I used:

The invitation looked like an old library card.  Easy to design and print.  So many cute invitation ideas on Pinterest and Etsy.  This design was one of the simplest.

For her birthday cake, I made a 6" and 4" round chocolate cake with butter cream filling and frosting. The books are fondant with hand painted titles of her favorite books (along with titles she could write about, ex:  Sisters).  Fresh flowers were used to fill in the top of the tiers.  A plastic K fit perfectly on top.  She loved it! 

 

 

Cute and easy idea for a center piece!  I gathered around a dozen leather bound old books and stacked them.  Little nick nacks were placed on some of them. 

 A 1974 dictionary and a little bit of  modge podge and a magnet, made a great craft for the book party.  

 

 A cup of hot chocolate goes great with a good book!  The girls decorated mugs that they were able to take home.

 

 Found these cardboard book boxes at Michaels.  The girls used hot glue to decorate the top before we spray painted them.

 

 

  

 

 

The goody bags for the party were white lunch bags with the Dr. Suess saying: " The more that you read, the more things you will know.  The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."  We filled the bag with pencils, gum, candy, 'book worm' candy, chocolate books, and book labels.   

                        
                       


                       The chocolate books were a big hit at the party.  I found the idea on Pintrest.  With construction paper and two chocolate nugget candies, these yummy treats looked like a book about the birthday girl.  It read: 'Although eleven had been a very good age for Kaitlyn, she was ready to see what adventures awaited in her 12th year.  Ch. 12 Turning a New Page.  Kaitlyn was filled with excitement when the light of dawn signaled that this was the day.'





      We had several more crafts lined up, but the girls were having fun playing and giggling.  We ended the night with popcorn and the movie, "The Book Thief".   

Viva Las Vegas Wedding Cake

 

This is the cake that started it all!  I've always enjoyed baking and being in the kitchen. Once I had my daughters, this cake hobby became a way that I could be a stay at home mom and still be able to express myself through baking.   My husband was telling me for years that I needed to share my talent with others, but my confidence wasn't quite up there with his.  I always told him if anyone would ask me to do their wedding cake , then and only then, would I go public with my talent.  I thought I was pretty safe with that.  I mean, who would ask me to do a very important cake like their wedding cake!!!

In the summer of 2008, my brother-in-law eloped in Las Vegas and my in-laws had a reception at their house.  They asked me to do the cake!!!  Since then, I've been sharing my passion for baking with others. 

The couple had a Vegas themed reception and I incorporated that into the cake.  The 12" cake was a chocolate cake with Oreo cookie cream filling.  The 8" was a yellow cake with fudge filling and the 6" was a spice cake with praline filling.  Butter cream was the frosting.  I made the playing cards and poker chips out of fondant and hand painted them with edible paint.  My mother-in-law found the awesome cake topper.  It was a plastic welcome to Las Vegas sign the lit up!  Perfect!

My brother-in-law just graduated from college that spring, so for a grooms cake I made a 6" round chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling and chocolate ganache frosting.  Everything (except the tassel) was edible! 

Over the years I have honed in on my skills, built my confidence, taught classes, and have had so much fun making over 250 cakes for others.  Now my husband asks when am I going to open a store.  "Just wait, some day" is my reply.

Pink Ribbon Cake

After batteling breast cancer for several years, a daughter wanted to celebrate her Moms last day of treatment.  I made the Moms favorite cake, an 8" red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  A simple pink ribbon was piped on with colored cream cheese.  Now this is something to celebrate!

Chinese Takeout Cupcakes

I saw these cupcakes in a cupcake book and just had to try them.  My April Fools Girls Night Out Party was the perfect opportunity!  I gave them away as door prizes.

So lets talk about the Chinese takeout boxes first.  I put paper towels in the bottom of the box to elevate the cupcakes.  Each box contained three cupcakes with butter cream frosting.  The Chinese noodles are piped butter cream and I formed the meat and broccoli out of candy.  The fried rice is actually rice crispy treats with candy veggies.

The fortune cookie cupcakes were dulce de leche with caramel meringue butter cream frosting.  The cookies were made of a caramel chew that I rolled out and cut with a circle cookie cutter.  I printed out fortunes that read: "sweet treats are in your future".  Big hit of the night!

Pirouette Cookie Cake

For my husbands birthday last year I made his favorite cake.  Well one of his favorite cakes, he has a few.

 

 

 I covered a 6" chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.  To decorate it, I simply placed pirouette cookies around the sides and tied them together with ribbon.  Chocolate covered strawberries filled in the top (those are my favorite!).  Very simple and easy, yet looks so elegant. 

Go Cubs!!!

My husband is from Chicago and is a big Cubs fan.  So for his birthday we had a Chicago party including deep dish pizza and Chicago style hot dogs. 

For his cake I made a chocolate 8" square and half a medium size ball pan.  The base ball plate was easy to decorate, just shaping the square a little bit before covering it with fondant.  After covering the half round ball cake, I used several tools to make the stitching on the hat.  A covered piece of cardboard gave the rim of the hat a nice arch.  The last touch was crushed gram crackers around the plate.

Oktoberfest Beer Stein Cake

Another Oktoberfest for my husband, another opportunity to try new techniques on a cake!

 

For our Oktoberfest party this year I decided on making  Black Forest Cake (rich chocolate cake with cherry filling).   I just bought a cake decorating airbrush and wanted to experiment with it a little more.  I painted a fondant covered plastic pipe anchor for the handle of the stein and the fondant frosting with several colors (gold, yellow, and brown).  I thought that would give it a nice speckled antique look.  I hand piped our families crest and shield on the Stein (next time I would use royal icing).  I wanted the butter cream frosting on top to look frothy, so I took a torch to it.  Wasn't quite sure how that would work out, but it turned out great!