Little Miss C turns 2

Miss C turned 2 in March.

As much as I begged her for a princess party, she wanted a "Toy Tory" birthday. Now, there are some really elaborate Toy Story birthday cakes out there, but like I posted before, we just do immediate family. I'll save the bigger stuff for the bigger parties. I thought these were still really cute, and easy to hand out.

You'll need:

• Cupcakes, baked from your favorite recipe
• White frosting, store-bought or from your favorite recipe
• Neon green food coloring
• Mint-flavored chewable candies (found packaged in rolls)
• Green apple sour belts
• Green apple sour straws, cut into 2" pieces
• Black decorator gel icing
• Kitchen shears, or a small leaf shaped fondant cutter

Instructions:

1. First, mix up a batch of alien green icing by adding few drops of neon green food coloring to your favorite white icing.

2. Prepare your aliens' ears. Cut ears, shaped like teardrops, from green apple belts. A pair of kitchen shears works well, or use a small leaf shaped fondant cutter. You will need 2 ears for each cupcake.

3. Frost cupcakes and insert a 2" sour straw antenna. Press your ears into the sides of the cupcake.

4. Line up three mint-flavored, chewable candies as eyes, and dot with black gel icing for pupils.

5. Give your aliens an awed expression by drawing on a circle for a mouth with black gel icing.

I found these beauties from: Disney's Family website.

Little Miss E's First Birthday

My husband and I really try to restrain ourselves from going 'over the top' all out on our kids' birthdays when they are so tiny. Instead of throwing a huge party with lots of guests and activities, we put together a small immediate family gathering to celebrate their little life.

Since I'm not planning huge parties, I put all my creativity into the food for our family.

Here is her birthday bouquet!

I had so much fun putting it together! I researched different videos of people making them and came up with what worked for me.

First, bake your cupcakes a day or more before. Then, wrap them individually in plastic wrap and freeze them.

1. I bought a terra cotta pot, and spray painted it silver (surprisingly quick and easy). I did this the day before as well. I hot glued a pink wired ribbon around the pot to accent.

2. I put a green styrofoam ball inside the pot (I wish I got a bigger one that would just sit on top, but I stuffed the bottom with newspaper to bring it up high enough).

3. I left the plastic ON the styrofoam ball, as some reviewers were concerned about the transferring of the particles from the styrofoam to the food. I also covered the ball with purple tissue paper, which turned out to look nicer after people started plucking the cupcakes out.
4. I pierced the frozen cupcakes with wooden skewer, and inserted into the styrofoam ball (which is sitting on/in the pot), starting at the bottom and arranging them along the edge of the pot all the way around, then starting another row above it, placing the cupcakes in between the ones below it.
5. Ice the cupcakes! I used homemade buttercream icing and a Wilton Number 1 tip, started at the centre of the cupcake and rotated around until it covered the whole cupcake.
6. I piped some icing in the cracks afterwards to fill the gaps between cupcakes. (purple dabs in picture)
7. I topped the cupcakes with edible pearls and some edible glitter.
8. I went to my local florist (grocery store), and asked for one of those card stick holders for bouquets. I made a card stock "Happy Birthday" sign, and stuck it in the bouquet.

**Next time I would refrigerate the bouquet, making the icing hard, and better for travel. There would be ample time for the icing to soften before eating it. **


I wasn't planning on writing out my process, so I do not have step by step pictures or video... maybe next time!

Happy baking!