Peace, Love & Cake...a cake decorating birthday party

 My daughter is always asking if she can help with decorating cakes...she loves to make things out of fondant so when it came time for her birthday, she decided she wanted a "Cake Decorating Party"!!  These are the handmade invitations that we hand delivered to her friends.  We simply made them out of scrapbooking paper and stickers.

In keeping with the baking theme, the girls each made their own pizza.  Then we baked them to perfection!

These are marshmallow pops made with Campfire marshmallows and melted chocolate.  The Peace Pops were chocolate covered Oreos.

Since they were decoratating cakes, she decided to

forgo the traditional birthday cake and wanted a cookie cake!

 The girls made a huge mess in my kitchen but really had a lot of fun!  I had pre-baked the small cakes and showed them how to roll out fondant and stack their cakes.  I let each girl choose a color of fondant to knead and gave them rollers, cookie cutters and fondant tools!  They were very creative!  I think we have some budding cake decorators here!!

As you can see each girl had decorated their "cake platter" while their pizza baked with Sharpies...a simple favor purchased at the local Dollar General Store.

As each guest came and went, they were greeted with a special custom door sign wishing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl!

It's an Angry Birds Birthday!

 I was asked by one of my sweet friends to make some really fun Angry Birds cupcakes for her son's birthday.  I had so much fun making them and it developed into an incredibly fun and colorful birthday for him. 

I found some really cute printables that I attached to some

colored bouncy balls for a little fun.  When the party was almost over, we peeled off the faces and

threw them in the pool for the kids to play with!

 The angry bird cupcakes were displayed on a cupcake tower.  The tablescape included Angry Pellets (fruit flavored Mike and Ikes), Bird Seed (chocolate covered sunflower seeds), and Bird Food (white chocolate popcorn mixed with m&m's).

I think I had the most fun making the faces of the green pigs!  I always hate to see that grin on their face when the game says "Level Failed"!

A Happy Father's Day for Daddy

 For Father's Day this year, I decided to make my husband a little
surprise!  One of his favorite desserts is red velvet cake with cream
cheese icing....so I adapted it to cupcakes! 

We made him a "tie" banner to greet him when he came through the back door!

A Dora Adventure Birthday Party

 

The first birthday we celebrated this year was my youngest daughter...she wanted a Dora party with a "real" Dora on top of the cake!  We had her party at a local park and made it complete with a scavenger hunt (of course!). Everyone got to decorate their own backpack to carry home their treasures from the hunt!!  Sorry that there aren't more pictures of the actual hunt! I was busy leading them around to the different "treasure spots" and forgot to take pictures along the way! LOL!

Holiday Hot Cocoa Bar

 I got the idea to do make a holiday hot cocoa bar when I was about to attend a dear friend's Christmas party!  I wanted to do something helpful and festive, so this is the result.  I had all of the ingredients from making Christmas goodie gifts for my daughter's teacher so...it was easy!

Look carefully...there are mini chocolate chips inside the mix!!  A nice surprise at the bottom of each cup!

Of course...Hot cocoa would not be complete without marshmallows! We have a variety of choices: French Vanilla Snowmen, mini marshmallows and mini peppermint marshmallows (not pictured)!  A peppermint stick to stir or just to add a bit more flavor...and you have a fabulous cup of hot cocoa to sip by the fire!

A Surprise 20th Birthday Party...

A zebra tablescape set the tone for this special lady's surprise birthday party. 

I made this lime green, pink, black & white two tiered cake complete with feathers on top!

We served grilled hamburgers and of course, who doesn't love chips with their burger!

A Perfect Paisley Girl Baby Shower

One of my dearest friends was expecting her second daughter and I wanted to give her a beautiful, whimsical baby shower!  Her baby bedding was bright paisley print so I used that as the inspiration color scheme.

I did a twist on the traditional guest book...a wishing tree!

The guests simply take a card and write a wish for the baby, a piece of advice or a sweet note to the mommy and daddy.  Then hang it on the tree! 

I made these petit fours out of pound cake and covered them with thinned chocolate in the colors of the shower.  I made the paisley and flower embellishments out of fondant then painted on some edible glitter.

 I made this name banner to highlight the beverage table.  My friend took it home as an extra gift and hung it in the baby's nursery. 

Here are some fabulous cookies made by a friend using cookie tattoos!  She did a fabulous job on them and they were so tasty!!