Hope's 6th Birthday

For Hope's sixth birthday, we had two parties...one for her friends at the Fungym, and one at home for the family. Hope was really into Disney Fairies, so, that's what we did.

For the Fungym, I made plain butter cupcakes with homemade vanilla cool whip/pudding frosting. The kids liked it, but the adults LOVED the icing! I got the MOSt compliments on it. It is delicious...much better than the store bought cool whip icing and just as light! Hope sprinkled on some colored sugar crystals and we added fairy rings on top of each cupcake with a small candy melt leaf.

For her home/family party, we made a HUGE fairy landscape, which I decorated in homemade buttercream, tinted and sprayed with aerosol cake coloring. We put candy melt decorations and Hope put on the candy flowers. We added Disney Fairy stamps/toys and it was ready to go!

Hope's 5th Birthday

When Hope's fifth birthday rolled around, she was all into Disney Princesses, so, naturally, she had to have a Belle cake. I made just a plain sheet cake with an Ariel candle on top, but the centerpiece was the Belle cake! Made with yet again, the Pampered Chef glass mixing bowl, this doll cake was super easy to make and looked beautiful in the end!

I put it on a pink heart plastic platter from the Dollar Tree and tada! It was a hit!

Easter Time Again

Easter rolled around again and I decided to try a new concept...colored coconut! Making this happy Easter bunny sheet cake was much easier than I thought it would be. I didn't cover the whole bunny with coconut since not everyone in the family likes it, so that, along with the homemade icing, guaranteed a hit! The kids had fun watching the bunny get eaten piece by piece, too.

Hope's 4th Birthday

For Hope's fourth birthday, she was on the Dora the Explorer kick! I wasn't quite confident in my decorating abilities to actually decorate Dora's face, so I went online to see what else I could find. I found a basic concept for the "mountains" and a "bridge," and since Hope loved Diego, too, it worked out perfectly! We made the mountain cakes with the Pampered Chef large glass bowls and the bridge was made with spray-painted popcicle sticks.

Since making this cake, I've realized you can't use colored paper under it...the icing starts to melt just slightly and the butter makes grease stains. Live and learn. At least the river was pretty cool! This was before they made the aerosol spray color for cakes and cake boards. Now I use that and it works out much better!

Brooke's Baby Shower

For my sister-in-law's baby shower, I decided to go all out! We had little tea sandwiches stuffed with chicken salad and pimento cheese, cut into sweet little baby hands and feet, snacks galore, and so sweet baby face cupcakes!

The cupcakes were just your basic yellow cake, with vanilla icing tinted skintone. The pacifiers are made from melting chocolate and mint Life Savers candies. Since this, I've made these cupcakes for another baby shower and they turned out even better! Aren't they precious?!

Next, I decided to go all out and really creative with a watermelon baby carriage!

It was actually much easier than it looks and everyone was quite impressed! I added marachino cherries, grapes, and fresh cut pineapple to make a delicious fruit salad in the carriage.

Easter Time!

For Easter, we went down to the beach, so, I made some cute "bird's nest" cupcakes! Using Robin's Egg candies and jelly beans as the "eggs" I made the "nests" out of chow mein noodles, marshmallows, and chocolate. This was my first time working with melting chocolate. I don't think they turned out too bad!