DIY: Frozen Inspired Birthday Cake

Yikes, so much has been happening and this place got flat out neglected. Between computer changes, vacations, tantrums, and our new adventure into homeschooling, life has been kinda crazy.

 

Sorry about that.

 

Anyone out there anymore??

 

I have been getting many comments and messages asking if and when I will post about the cake I made for my daughter's Frozen party. Well...it's finally here!!

 

While I don't have step by step pictures, I will give links to recipes and techniques used. Hope that's good enough;)

 

First off...let me say that I am NOT a cake maker so I hope that is encouragement to anyone out there who wants to make pretty cakes (and doesn't want to shell out $50 or more for a birthday made by someone else).

 

Materials:

 

Wilton Romantic Castle Cake set

(I found mine on Craigslist for $5...score!)

 

Box cake mix or cake recipe of your choice

(I did three 8" layers)

 

Wilton buttercream icing recipe

(I doubled the recipe so that I had enough to crumb coat the cake and then frost it)

 

Wilton royal icing recipe

(tinted blue)

 

blue sugar sprinkles

 

clear crystal sprinkles

 

edible pearls

 

dowel rods

 

white chocolate melts

 

Glass hard candy recipe

(tinted blue with neon food coloring)

 

 

STEP 1: I baked the cake and leveled all the layers. I stacked them and applied a crumb coat with the buttercream. I placed it in the refrigerator.  

 

STEP 2: I made the royal icing and tinted it blue. I started on the plastic cones for the tops of the turrets. I used the petal method. I started at the base of the cone and went all the way around and then worked towards the point. I repeated the same method for the triangle piece for the center of the cake. I used a larger circle tip for them.

 

STEP 3: I used a small circle tip to outline the windows and door pieces with the same royal icing. I also topped them with the blue sprinkles and placed an edible pearl in the centers. I let all the pieces sit and dry (which doesn't take too long with royal icing).

 

STEP 4: I cut dowel rods the height of the cake (a little shorter) and melted the white chocolate melts. I dipped the rods into the melted chocolate and placed them on the bottom of the tower pieces and let them dry.

 

STEP 5: I pulled the cake out of the refrigerator and frosted it with the rest of the buttercream and put a dot border around it. I used more of the melted chocolate and dipped the bottom of the surrounding tower pieces (the ones I used around the cake) and placed them on the cake board and pressed them slightly into the side of the cake. I placed the triangle roof piece in the middle and then the three towers with the dowels into the top of the cake.

STEP 6: I dipped the cone pieces into the melted chocolate and placed them on top of the tower pieces. I then took more of the melted chocolate and drizzled it on top of the towers with a spoon to look like snow. I sprinkled some crystal sprinkles on top before it hardened and around the cake plate.

 



 

STEP 7: I made the glass hard candy and broke it into pieces and placed it around the top and base of the cake. This was the kids' favorite part of the cake! They thought it was so cool;)

 

STEP 8: My daughter had the Frozen play set from the Disney Store so I dipped the characters in the chocolate and placed them on the cake board.

 

DONE!

 

 

I hope that helped! I know my kids' birthday cakes haven't been and never will be "perfect" but I love the process of making them. And remember...your kid will think they rock no matter what;)

 

Happy Sunday!



Rapunzel Birthday Party!

This last weekend was AWESOME. My baby girl turned the big "4" and I still can't believe it.

We had a great time with friends and it was an awesome day to celebrate our princess!

I had to take advantage of our two story condo and put a long braid out the window to let our guests know where the party was!

I took two plastic tablecloths and cut them into three strips each and braided them into two long braids and then taped those braids together.

Sweets table:

I made a long braid out of some yellow yarn that I had and shaped it into an "S". I covered a piece of foam board with tissue paper and hot glued the braid onto it.

I found Rapunzel plates still in the packaging at the thrift store for $.50. I then layered them with plain pink plates.

Oreo pops and $1 pop stand:

Vanilla vanilla cupcakes in pink, yellow, and purple wrappers:

The glitter "4" candle was from Walmart and the cupcake wrappers are from Joann but I have seen them at Michael's and Walmart as well.

Handmade paper lanterns and sun bunting:

Rapunzel "hair" all over the ceiling:

Tissue paper flowers and M & Ms in candlestick serving dishes...my daughter's favorite!

I covered water bottles with pink and purple cardstock. I put some heart stickers on the tops of each lid too. Also, put out some more pascal party blowers for the kids...they were a big hit!

A while back a close friend gave me a recipe for an Italian cookie from her family. They are twisted so I thought they would be cute to go along with our theme!

All in all, we had an amazing day. My little girl was so excited about everything and that made it all worth it. I tried to just use what I had around the house already to help with my decorations. The vases for the tissue paper flowers were already on display in my living room. The gold platter for the cookies was a recent vintage find, the blue cups for the cutlery were in my cabinet, and the cake pop stand was a serving tray I've had for a while.

Her birthday parties get more and more fun each year she gets older!

I'm linked to:

Sugar and Dots

Tatertots and Jello

$1 Cake Pop Stand

I made Oreo pops for my daughter's party...and then somehow forgot that I needed a place to put them! I looked into cake pop stands online...um...no. I could have a lot more fun at Goodwill with that kind of money.

Then I priced styrofoam at the craft store.

No, again.

So, I turned to my trusty friend, foam board. It never lets me down.

Want the tute? Here we go!

FOAM BOARD POP STAND

1 piece of FOAM BOARD

(I get mine at the dollar store)

1-2 sheets of TISSUE PAPER

SMALL SCREWDRIVER

(slightly smaller in diameter than your pop sticks)

SERVING DISH (or ribbon)

STEP 1: Take a serving dish of your choice and trace the bottom of it onto foam board. Basically you want the same shape as the inner center so the foam board can sit inside the serving dish.

STEP 2: Cut out two pieces of foam board and hot glue them together.

STEP 3: Cover the board with tissue paper.

STEP 4: Either place covered board in serving dish (keep in place with a few pieces of tape on the bottom), or cover the edge with a thick ribbon and sit on the table as is.

STEP 5: Take screwdriver and poke holes where you want the pops to go. I did this right before serving so I would know how far apart to space each hole.

That's it! You could also make this thicker by adding more layers of foam. Two layers is the minimum to make the pops stand and not fall over. You could also use fabric instead of tissue paper, you might just need something sharper than a screwdriver to make the holes.

OK, time to go make more treats that stand up!

Tatertots and Jello

Rapunzel Party: Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

I decided to make cupcakes from scratch for my daughter's party this year. I have never done this before..so I read a lot online and decided to go with reliable Martha Stewart for my recipes and go with a classic vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting.

VANILLA CUPCAKES

(from Martha Stewart)

3 cups ALL PURPOSE FLOUR

1 1/2 tsp BAKING POWDER

3/4 tsp SALT

1 1/2 sticks softened UNSALTED BUTTER

1 1/2 cups SUGAR

4 large EGGS

2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT

1 1/4 cups MILK

STEP 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well. Add vanilla. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in 3 batches of flour mixture, alternating with 2 batches of milk. Raise speed to medium-high; mix until thoroughly blended, 10 to 20 seconds.

STEP 2: Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let cool in tin on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tin; let cool completely. Line tin with muffin cups; repeat process with remaining batter.

 

FLUFFY VANILLA BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

(from Martha Stewart)

I cut the original recipe in half and still had enough to frost 24 cupcakes with a #12 circle tip.

2 stick softened UNSALTED BUTTER

3 cups POWDERED SUGAR

1/4 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT

1 pinch of SALT

STEP 1: Put butter in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium; add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well, about 5 minutes total. Add vanilla and salt. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until smooth, about 1 minute more.

STEP 2: Fill icing bag with choice of decorator tip and icing and frost cupcake in a spiral motion, starting at the outer edge and working your way into the center to create a point.

(Note: If you use a larger tip than I did...you may need to make more icing to be able to frost 24 cupcakes.)

I didn't have time to make royal icing flowers for the tops...so silk flowers to the rescue! Ha! I "blinged" them up by adding little rhinestones to the centers.

 

The End

:)

I'm linked to:

Tatertots and Jello

Rapunzel Party: The Goody Bags

For the goody bags at my daughter's birthday party this weekend, I wanted to keep them fun and simple.

I found these treat bags with gold designs at the dollar store and they felt very "Rapunzel-ish" and inside of each is the following:

-Mini Rapunzel coloring book

(you can get the tutorial HERE)

-Pascal party blower

(idea and tutorial found HERE)

-play tattoos

-Rapunzel bag with pink Hershey kisses and pink Starbursts

(because my daughter's name starts with an "S")

For the mini coloring books, I printed off Rapunzel coloring pages (getting 4 images to each piece of computer paper), cut them out, and then put them between a folded piece of cardstock. Then, sew down the folded side to bind the book together. I put 8 coloring pages in each book.

The Rapunzel picture of the front of the book is from a box of valentines I found at the dollar store. I stitched it onto the front with my sewing machine.

The Rapunzel sandwich bags (for the candies) were also from the dollar store and the tattoos came in the same box as the valentines.

Each bag got tied with a "braid" that I made out of yellow yarn.

Happy Wednesday!

I'm linked to:

Tatertots and Jello

Rapunzel Party: Sun Bunting

It's birthday week here in our house! Wa-hoo! My daughter is getting SO excited for her party this weekend...and to be honest...so am I!

If you have seen Disney's Rapunzel (about 500 times like we have!) then you know there is a sun theme in the movie. I saw ideas like this online that were done with paper. When I got to the craft store, felt was cheaper than paper...so felt it was!

SUN BUNTING

1/4 yd PURPLE FELT

5 small sheets GOLD FELT (9x13 size)

1/4" GOLD RIBBON

HOT GLUE GUN

MARKER and PAPER

(NOTE: You can find felt by the yard in the fabric section and felt sheets in the craft section of Joanns)

STEP 1: Cut purple felt into triangle shapes (I made mine more curved at the points).

STEP 2: Print out sun image onto paper to make a template (I Google imaged "Rapunzel sun"). Trace onto gold felt and cut out. I also cut out the centers and trimmed down the circles.

 (I got 4 suns per small sheet of felt.)

STEP 3: Hot glue suns and centers onto purple flags. Also, hot glue a long piece of ribbon to the top edge of each flag to join them. You can make the bunting as long as you want.

I ended up getting 18 flags and 3 rows of bunting out of my materials.

PRICE:

purple felt   $.75

gold felt sheets   $1.25

ribbon   $.20

TOTAL: $2.40

I'm linked to:

Sew Much Ado

Tatertots and Jello

Tissue Paper Flowers with Tulle

Planning for my daughter's birthday party is well under way. First I saw these flowers from The Craftinomicon and loved how simple and delicate they looked. Then once I saw these flowers from Greedy For Colour, I knew I had to combine the two into simple sweet decorations for her party.

STEP 1: I cut out 4" squares of tissue paper (all these colors came in one pack from the dollar store...score!). Then I cut out three pieces of matching tulle that were about 3" square.

STEP 2: I folded all the layers accordion style, making sure the tulle side was facing in at both ends. Then I took a green pipe cleaner and twisted it around the middle of the paper.

STEP 3:  I rounded both edges with scissors and pulled each layer towards the center, starting with the tulle first.

I put the flowers into some vintage vases that I had on display in my living room and that was it! Easy table centerpieces that look ever so lovely;)

I'm linked to:

I Gotta Create!

Tatertots and Jello

Creative Me @ The Southern Institute

Sew Much Ado

Rapunzel "Hair" Party Decorations

This was the first year I wasn't going to do a theme for my daughter's birthday. I was just going to put together a bunch of desserts she loves and have a good old fashioned party.

That was until my (almost) 4 year old set me straight. She asked ever so politely if she could have a Rapunzel party, and when she said, "Please Mama? PLEASE??"...then how could I say no?

So, there will be a theme, and that theme will be Rapunzel. I have to admit...it's one of my favorite Disney movies too and planning a princess party has been pretty fun:)

In lieu of just buying every licensed product at the party store (which is crazy expensive), I wanted to make some fun decorations that were unique. One thing that you think of when you think Rapunzel is long hair...and we will have plenty of that!

I wanted to string a bunch of "hair" all over the house, but I had to think about what materials to use that would be durable and cost effective. At first I braided together yellow crepe paper...but it wasnt the right color...and my daughter ripped it.

Then it hit me...yellow plastic table clothes!

I found this perfect yellow color at Walmart in their party section for $.98, cut it into 12 long strips and then made 4 long braids out of it. I taped together the ends and covered those spots with purple ribbon that I found at Michaels for $1.

To braid each section, I took 3 strips, taped them together with clear tape at one end, taped THAT taped end to the top of a door jam (so the strips could hang down easily), braided them together, and then finally taped the end of the braid with more clear tape.

One tablecloth makes 36 feet of "hair"!

I will be showing you more of the DIYs for the party as the weeks go on:)

I'm linked to:

Sugar and Dots

Friday Fun Party @ Craftionary

Vintage Mickey and Minnie Birthday Party

My daughter's 3rd birthday was back in March and we had a vintage style Mickey and Minnie party for her. I'm going to be honest and confess that I haven't posted these pictures because I wasn't really happy with the way the party turned out. We had the party in February and I was still a mess (read the above "miscarriage" label if you care to know more) and had just gotten over a flu bug that week. Oh yeah..and I was also pregnant again...but I just didn't know it yet! Now I can look back on the pictures and be happy with it because it made my daughter happy. Sometimes we need not be our own worse "mommy critic", right?

For dessert, I made cupcakes for everyone. They are the easy way out and I love them for it:) No cutting cake and hoping there is enough for everyone!

I found the cute blue polka dot wrappers at Michael's and made little paper flowers for the tops (make sure to let everyone know not to eat them!). The ears were thin mint candies and I just used canned chocolate frosting and a large star tip to ice them. I was going to punch out little "buttons" for the front of the Mickey cupcakes...but didn't have time.

I just ordered some pizza for lunch and this was our "dessert" table:

I drew the Mickey and Minnie myself and put out my daughter's favorite sweet treats: licorice, M & M's and Hershey Kisses.

The cake for her to blow out her candles with was just something simple I whipped up. I baked half a cake mix in a bowl and then flipped it over and iced it. The "ears" are two rice cakes (also iced) and pressed into the cake with toothpicks. Then I just added the silk flower for an embellishment.

I made a Mickey tray for the candy but gluing two small black paper plates to one large one creating a Mickey silhouette. I bought the red and silver Hershey kisses after Valentine's day and picked out all the red, yellow, and blue M & M's from regular bags. (BTW: There are a LOT more green and orange ones compared to these colors. A weird fact that I now know...)

Oh, and the "cake stand" was a round cylinder Tupperware container that I covered with some blue and white polka dot material to look like Minnie's skirt.

For decorations I got some coordinating latex balloons, grouped them together, and taped some Mickey and Minnie pictures to the strings.

I used black paper plates, blue polka dot napkins, and red cups for lunch. On the red cups, I cut out white circles (from sticker paper) and made "buttons" for the front to make them look like Mickey's pants.

I also printed out some personalized labels for the water and juice boxes for the kids.

For my daughter's party outfit, I made her a little dress out of the same material that I used on the cake stand and pulled the red bows off the shoes she wore with her Minnie costume.

Lastly, my party favor bags were super simple. They consisted of handmade coloring books (seriously the BEST favor idea I have ever seen that I found at Prudent Baby), crayons, and little boxes of candy. I found the candy at Walmart during Valentine's Day.

For the coloring books I started with these books I found in the $1 section at Target. Let me tell you, I was SO excited to find an all vintage Mickey coloring book right before my daughter's party! It was meant to be:)

I tore out the pages and trimmed the edges (to get rid of the copyright stamps at the bottom).

Then I made a folded flap for the side out of card stock and used a zigzag stitch to sew them together. I didn't take the time to put covers on them...but I actually liked them that way.

For the crayons, I bought a large box of crayons and divided them up into different groups. I made the little bags by sewing together a little pouch made of wax paper. It was just a nice twist on a traditional crayon box. I then put all the items in fun polka dot party bags that I had found on clearance at Target.

So...that was our fantastic vintage Mickey and Minnie party! I'm glad I finally shared it on here. My daughter STILL talks about it...so I know she was happy that day and that's all that matters.

Plus, now she is already planning her Tinkerbell party for next spring...yikes!

Mickey and Minnie Cupcakes

Long time no blog, huh? Last week was really emotional for me (it would have been my 20th week of pregnancy) and I think just all the emotions and stress caught up with me because I got a really nasty cold and flu thing that is finally breaking after 4 days of being inside like a hermit.

Side note: You know you are appreciated when your husband keeps asking more and more if you are starting to feel better. That's man code for "Are you ready to take back all the crappy stuff you do around here so I don't have to do it anymore?" He has done such a great job with cooking, cleaning, and taking care of our daughter. I may fib a little on my recovery just to still be able to stay in bed until noon!

But, I am feeling much better and it's a good thing cause I have a birthday party to throw in 3 days!

I made the cupcakes for my daughter's vintage Mickey and Minnie birthday. I did all cupcakes for her birthday last year and it really worked out great. I prefer it to one large cake.

I found these really cute wrappers at Michaels and thought they would be perfect. I also made little flowers out of white posterboard and painted the centers yellow for the Minnie cupcakes.

I used a butter cake mix (I didn't want anything darker because I wanted the cupcake liners to stay as bright as possible after baking) and I swirled chocolate frosting on top with the largest star tip I could find. I love swirling frosting like this...but it takes a lot of frosting.

Finally, I found large packs of round thin mints at the dollar store and they worked perfectly for the "ears". I am also going to put two little white circle stickers on the fronts of the Mickey ones for the "buttons" and the rest of the Minnie ones will get their flowers as well.

I looked and looked (and looked some more) for ideas online and I loved the way black frosting looked...but the more I thought about it...they just didn't look appealing to eat. I know these are going to taste great and not artificial and at the end of the day...they have to taste great, right?

I also got my daughter's mini cake done today...but more on that later.

One thing I learned about myself today? I hate decorating food. I mean I really hate it. I can cook or bake anything and make it taste amazing...but having it look amazing is another story. These cupcakes are about as talented as I get. One big reason I hate decorating? It's messy...and I don't like to get messy. I think I washed icing off my hands about five times for every five cupcakes I decorated.

Oh...and once all the messy decorating is done...I have messy dishes and that's something I really don't like.

Halfway through making my daughter's cake each year I wonder, "why didn't I just buy one?"...but I get a lot more satisfaction out of making it. My mom always made our cakes growing up and I remember thinking she was so cool:) My daughter saw the cupcakes and she thinks I'm pretty cool now too...so it's worth it:) Plus it's a lot more economical since I got 20 cupcakes and one small cake made for just $6.

I can't wait to share the rest with you...but it's time for a Cold PM pill and bed:)

I'm linked to:

Tatertots and Jello