Benjamin Birthday Party #2

Benjamin's 2nd birthday party at the Woodland Park Zoo was a success.  We had good food, good friends and a good time.  I didn't make a cake for this birthday party I opted to do cupcakes instead for my own sanity.  I did monkeys and lions for the cupcake theme.

 Love my Martha Stewart cupcake stand

These cupcakes were really easy.  All you need is:

Chocolate Frosting for the monkeys
Vanilla Frostng tinted with orange food coloring for the lions
pull-apart twizzlers for the lions mane and the monkey smile
chocolate sprinkles for the monkey hair
runts for the lion nose
black icing pen for the lion's whisker and smile
M&M's for the ears for the monkey and lion

I also made sugar cookies to go with the animal theme and frosted them with a delicious cooking icing and tied each cookie with cute animal parade ribbon I found at the fabric store.

Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe (recipe adopted from food.com)

Ingredients

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• assorted food coloring

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.

For the party favors, I made each kid a goodie bag with a book, animal print sunglasses, animal cookies, a personalized picture frame with each kid's name and an animal decal, and a safari hat. 

I think the birthday boy had a good time.  Time to think about next year, hmmmmm.

Benjamin's Birthday Party

Benjamin's 1st birthday party was a success, who knew that birthday parties were so exhausting.  It was well worth it and I look forward to his next party, which by the way will be cupcakes only, I will post those pictures next week. 

The birthday cake I chose to make was for a cake recipe I found on food.com for a White Almond Sour Cream Cake, which I modified to make a lemon cake.  I also knew that I wanted some sort of lemon filling so I made a lemon cream filling which was delicious.  The frosting was a vanilla buttercream icing.

The theme for Benjamin's birthday party is animals/safari since his big birthday party will be at the zoo. 

I topped the cake with the animal figurines I made out of fondant, which have been new and improved.

So I decided to do a two-tiered cake with a grass trim.  I made a palm tree out of an oreo stick tree trunk with paper palm tree leaves and a watering hole on the top.Here is the finished product, I apologize for the picture the cake shifted a little in transport, but you can get the picture. 



I also made a mini-cake for Benjamin and topped it with the zebra figurine.  I didn't quite get the smash cake picture I wanted but at least he touched the cake, lol.

This was Benjamin moments later

I had a great time making this cake for Benjamin and look forward to other opportunities to make other cakes.  Hope you enjoy!

1st attempt at Benjamin's birthday cake

I have found a new interest in decorating cakes with fondant.  I have found a few good links via google that make it look way easier than it really is.  I first started by making some fondant animals for Benjamin's birthday cake since we are having a zoo/safari theme.  I definately like the lion and the elephant the giraffe is a work in progress.

I then tried to make my own fondant which wasn't too bad.  All you need is marshmallows, water and powdered sugar, but the key is to not overmix which I unfortunately did.  I have had this grandeouse idea that I was going to make a three tiered birthday cake with homemade palm trees, a watering hole and all of the fondant figures, needless to say I am way over my head.  So the picture below is a scaled back version of my first attempt at Benjamin's cake.

To be continued.....

My first Cupcake Entry

I have had many requests to start my own blog documenting my cupcake journey, so here I am.  Let me start by saying that I am in no way a professional baker, I just enjoy making food people like.  My latest conquest has been cupcakes in which I have made a few different flavors throughout the last couple months.

My first cupcake attempt was after St. Patricks and I received a recipe for a guiness stout chocolate cupcake with a irish cream buttercream frosting.  Upon receiving this recipe I knew instantly I had to make it.  I went to my local grocery store and picked up the ingredients and began creating what I might call my most delicious cupcake yet.  I of course brought them to the work the next day and they were a huge hit. 

My second cupcake attempt was a triple lemon cupcake.  This cupcake had a homemade lemon cake filled with a homemade lemon curd with a lemon buttercream frosting.  This was a tasty cupcake but definately not better than the guiness cupcake cake.  This one will definately be a work in progress while I search for the perfect lemon cake recipe.

My third cupcake attempt was a dark chocolate cupcake with a dark chocolate and peanut butter swirl buttercream frosting.  This cupcake came a very close second to the guiness cupcake.  I myself am I huge peanut butter and chocolate fan, so I was instantly sold when I saw this recipe.  These were also a big hit at work.

My latest cupcake attempt was a margarita cupcake with a lime buttercream frosting, that I made for our Cinco de Mayo potluck at work.  This was an interesting cupcake as I didn't quite know how it would turn out but surprisingly enough it was pretty tasty.  Who knew if you put a margarita in a cake mix it would turn out so good.  I will definately keep this one in my recipe collection.

These are all the cupcakes I have made so far but please feel free to leave any suggestions for flavor combinations that you might like to see made.  If you have tried one of my cupcakes please feel free to leave some comments and tell me what you liked and didn't like.