Chevrons and Ruffles

I got to make this fun Chevron-inspired cake for my cute niece Katie and her fiance David last summer. Katie picked the colors yellow and gray for her wedding with accents of teal. When I first heard this, I was a little skeptical that it would "work" for a wedding, but let me tell you, her wedding was beautiful. I can't wait to show you it! Lots more pictures at the end of this of the reception, but first I need to show some of the cake, since that is the reason we are here in the first place, right?

Katie wanted lots of ruffles and some chevron incorporated into her 3 tier cake. Her wedding dress was full of the most beautiful, soft ruffles, so the cake was a reflection of that (granted, her dress was white, not yellow, but you get the point).

Since she is another daughter of my sister, I had to incorporate a hidden mickey. I have done this on her older siblings' cakes. You can see them here or here.

I loved the teal ruffle flowers that Katie requested for an accent on the cake. It brought it all together.

What a cute couple. This is my favorite part of the reception :) People always ask if it is hard for me to see my cakes cut into and eaten. On the contrary--I'd rather see them eaten than thrown away in the trash because they weren't cut and served. I spent a lot of time baking and filling those cake! :)

Ok, as promised, here are some pictures of the rest of the reception room. Enjoy! Kudos to my awesome sister who spent hours and hours putting this all together!

I loved this part--since Katie and David spent a lot of their dating time half way across the world from each other (study abroad semester to Jerusalem, spring term doing an art history tour in Europe, internship in DC), and had to email and write a lot, the sign in table had post cards that guests could write a note on and stamp it, then my sister mailed one a day to the new couple until the cards ran out. Did I mention that they got engaged in Hyde Park in London when David flew out to see Katie for a few days? Ahh, how romantic.

Besides delicious Magelby's rolls/sandwiches for food they had a lemonade bar and a cupcake buffet. I was in heaven.

So were my girls...

Bon apetit!

Speaking of my girls, I just had to include these last two to show off my darling trio--and to show you Katie's dress too. So elegant!

It was a fun, fun day. I had a couple girls a little disappointed that they didn't catch the bouquet, but I'm relieved. I'm not ready for any one of them to get married next!

Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday Party

Argh, Mateys! X marks the spot--so glad you are here! This post is a long time in coming. My oldest two girls had a combined Jake and the Neverland Pirates Party last October. I guess pirates were the big thing last year because it seemed like everyone dressed up as a pirate this year for Halloween, including them. I was just excited to do a not-so-girly birthday party, because let's be honest--with 3 girls I'm sure we will have many, many girly parties through the years.

So first and foremost--let's talk cake. I was soooo excited to make a treasure chest cake. Ahhh--I was giddy thinking about it for months beforehand. The bottom and the lid are all cake. I stacked rectangular pieces of cake for both of them, then carved the lid piece so it had a curve. My husband saw me struggling with the lid and stepped in to help (he is much more engineering-minded than me)--he cut two equal semicircles which he had me hold against the sides of the cake, then he took a long serated knife and used those as his guide to put the knife up against as he cut, and voila! a perfect lid shape.

After covering in fondant I made indentations to resemble wood slats, then used some floral wire to scratch it up a bit to look like wood grain, then I painted some brown food coloring/vanilla extract combo onto it to add some dimension.

I found a coin chocolate mold and made a bunch of gold doubloons to put in the treasure chest and spilling out onto the brown sugar dirt.

And we must have Jake's sword on the front if it is truly going to be his treasure chest!

The other kid-friendly food was fun to do as well--Jake Jello boats, Goldfish, "Gold nuggets" (chicken nuggets), "Cannonballs" (whoppers), and Pixie Stix.

The decor was really easy for this party--we had black dashes along the sidewalk going up to our front door with a big X on it, then more on the wall, with Bucky's mast, which was so easy to make--I just took a piece of poster board and put strips of painters tape on it. No painting and no cutting required!

Backtracking a little to the invitations--I made a little invite that I printed on tan scrapbooking paper, then tore the edges (I tried burning them, but let's just say it was kind of a disaster, and I really am not old enough to play with fire, still!). Thanks to my husband, brother, and nephews, enough IBC rootbeer bottles were emptied a few weekends prior to the party during a rather exciting BYU football game, and I used those for our "letter in a bottle" invite, with a gold doubloon tied around it with the guest's name on it.

And to make things even more awesome for this party, my amazing and wonderful mother-in-law made my husband a fabulous Captain Hook costume for the party (and Halloween!), and we had Captain Hook answering the door when the guests arrived, and leading them through the whole party. Here he is with the two birthday girls "Izzy" and "Back-Eye Jessie"--the first thing when kids got there was to pick a pirate name that they got to wear around on a name tag. There were different jars to pick papers from, then we'd put it all together into one name. "Izzy" got a name too, and she was "Red-Strap Bertha." The kids all got a kick out of having an authentic pirate name.

And our littlest pirate was at the party too. She mainly hung out in Grammy's arms. Isn't she adorable?!

We had a few games for the kids to play, and after each of them they "earned" some new pirate accessory. First they played Pin the Hook on Hook, and they earned their red solo cup hooks.

Then we made them all walk the plank, and they got to earn pink Izzy bandanas for the girls or red Jake bandanas for the boys.

Then the kids got to dig for buried treasure in the sand table. Now, I must digress for a moment and say that little Black-Eyed Jessie wasn't as set on a pirate party as her older sister was. She wanted fairies, so I told her I would somehow include fairies in the party. It was perfect with the tie in of Pixie Dust that Izzy has in her pouch, so one of the things they had to find was a "moonstone" which they then turned into "Fairy Mary" downstairs by the Pixie Dust Tree to earn their Izzy Pixie Dust Pouch filled with pixie dust. My mother-in-law was a saint being Fairy Mary for us--her name is Mary after all--and how stinky, but my camera battery died right then and I didn't get any good shots of the kids getting their pouches. All they were were those little gold wedding favors bags you can get at the craft store that I tied ribbon to to make a necklace, then put a small packed of glitter inside. That satisfied my promise of fairies at the party, and my little pirate was a happy 

After that we got to sing, eat, open presents, and control the mass chaos that seems to ensue when presents are opened. Before leaving, the kids had to find their treasure chests (their party favors) which they discovered downstairs on the ship.

We had a swash-buckling good time. I'm sure next year we will be back to a frilly, girly party, but for this year they enjoyed plundering, hornswaggling, and being such cute little pirates.

Ladybugs and Daisies

What could be more perfect than ladybugs and daisies for a little girl's first birthday party. A friend of mine ordered her little princess a beautiful 2 tiered pink and red ladybug and daisy cake. She sent me a picture of one she saw online and I did my best to recreate the cake she had fallen in love with.

It was chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling--needless to say I think they are chocolate fans.

This little guy adorned a small 6" round smash cake that I made for her photoshoot. Unfortunately, Vivianne told me that her little girl was not very cooperative for the photographer and just screamed the whole time. If only she would have smashed that cake up and eaten some chocolate--that would have put a smile on her face I'm sure :) The ladybug's body was made from a piece of cake baked in the Wilton mini-ball pan and covered in red fondant.

It seemed the perfect little companion to the actual birthday cake.

This is my favorite part--the middle of the fondant daisies were little ladybugs made from red fondant and black royal icing.

A fondant/gumtex 1 adorned the top with leaves and swirly vines coming out.

Happy first birthday Navianna! I'm so glad that I could be apart of this special day.

Minnie Mouse Zebra Party--The Sequel

I loved making my daughter's Minnie Mouse/zebra cake and party a few years ago, so when my sister-in-law wanted a similar party and cake for my niece for a first birthday, I was excited to get working on the cake.  She loved the cake I had made previously, but gave me permission to do what I wanted as long as it was similar. I kept some similar elements, but revamped the design a bit, and I loved the outcome (I think I love it better than the other cake).

The head was a lot easier to do this time--I used half of the Wilton sports ball pan for the cake, which I covered in my black chocolate marshmallow fondant.

I kneaded some gumtex into a piece of the chocolate fondant, rolled it out (not too thin), and cut 2 circles out of it for the ears. I used my circle cutter to then cut a small section out of each ear so it would fit along the curve of the minnie head. The ears dried stiff overnight and I glued them onto the head with a little clear vanilla extract.

A cute bow on top helps make it Minnie instead of Mickey :)

The pink and white polka dot ruffle is just a piece of pink fondant that was cut into a circle, then the edges were rolled a little to thin them out and make a ruffle appearance. After putting it on the cake I went around the cake and helped the ruffle out a little by doing a pie crust pinch carefully along the edges.

Miss Caroline was a big fan of the chocolate fondant. She went to town on that head.

And I had to throw in this picture of the birthday girl with her peeps.  My babe is the one on the right. Aren't those kiddos pinkalicious? Love them. Caroline's outfit was beyond darling. Nicky got it from Etsy.

First birthdays are the best! Even if the birthday girl doesn't remember it, at least we have pictures to show her later on :)