Kendall's Birthday Party

So yesterday, we had our families over to celebrate Kendall's first birthday. The weather was gorgeous, so I sent a message to everyone, telling them to bring their law chairs and we would have the party outside. And what a perfect day it turned out to be!  Here are some photos of the day.

I made a double layer carrot cake - I happened to find an amazing recipe online and clearly it was a hit because there wasn't one crumb left over from that cake!

 I decided to do a medium sized cupcake for Kendall. I was originally going to do one of those giant cupcakes, but seriously, they are GIANT. As in, bigger than my double layer cake. No one year old needs something that big. So I found another set that had three molds for medium sized cupcakes and it was perfect!

 This picture cracks me up - looks like she is in the middle of telling a great story!

Opening presents with daddy.

 The girl got a camera!

 And some snazzy new shoes.

 The dog never hurts for attention, seriously.

Time for the birthday girl to get her cake!

She was more adventurous with her cake than her older brother was with his.

 Didn't take much convincing for her to dive right in.

All gone, and alllll over!

I didn't intend for her to eat virtually the whole thing, but hey, you only turn one once, right? It just made for some lovely diapers later in the evening. ;)

We also had an impromptu water fight break out!

 After everyone had gone home, we put together the new bike trailer and took it out for a two mile ride. Kendall loved it!

Decisions, Decisions!

Well folks, the cake has been decided. We met with Aimee, of Amaru Confections (here) last night to do some cake tasting. What fun! I wish I could show up to every appointment and have a plate of cake samples just waiting for me! All the flavors were delicious. Below is a picture of what our cake will be based on. The frosting will be ivory, the little dots will be navy, and the little pearl-looking things along the border of each layer will be peri. I think it will look fabulous.

And it should TASTE fabulous, too! We went with different flavors for each layer. And this is no boring cake, I tell ya! Hopefully, something for everyone.

The bottom layer will be coconut cake with raspberry filling. Raspberry, you say? That doesn't go with coconut! Oh yes, my friend, yes it does. And it goes quite well. The lady said she usually does a key lime flavored filling with the coconut, but she just so happened to have some raspberry filling, which we sampled with the coconut cake sample..........delish! Not a combination most would think of - but you will like it, I promise!

The second layer will be strawberries and champagne cake with strawberry filling. This cake sample was to die for. Absolutely amazing.

The top layer will be red velvet cake with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Yum!

The frosting will be buttercream. We decided to not go with the fondant - I have done extensive research on fondant, and have not had the best reviews. Sure, it looks amazing and makes the cake look really smooth, but it tastes horrible and most people "peel" it off, leaving cake with no frosting. And who doesn't like buttercream frosting?!

So there it is - the cake. Only $300, to boot!

And More Cake.....

I'm having too much fun looking at cake ideas.

I love the setup of this cake. I'm not wild about the flowers, but I think this cake would look beautiful as ivory, with navy ribbon on the bottom, instead of brown. I love the table set up, too.


I think this cake would also look good with an ivory cake, peri ribbon, and navy flowers.


Again, an ivory cake with navy ribbon.


Ivory cake, with navy ribbon, and then ivory and peri for the twisted ribbon at the base of each layer.


This cake is cool looking - I would love to see it in ivory, with navy beads, and then peri ribbons at the base of each layer.

I guess I'm just going to have to print off pictures and take them to some local vendors and see what they can do for me. I'm sure any vendor can make whatever cake I want....it's just a matter of pricing! Isn't it all?!

Let's Eat Cake

There are so many ideas for wedding cakes. I don't even know where to start. http://www.marshcakes.com/index.html has some amazing looking cakes with so many flavors! It's so hard to choose!

Cake

This last weekend, we had the January/February/March birthday celebration with my family. I was in charge of one of the cakes. I know my mom loves chocolate and raspberry, so I went searching for a great recipe. This is a chocolate cake, which has a layer in the middle consisting of cream cheese/sugar/vanilla, chocolate chips, and raspberries. We added a little bit of the cream cheese mix for the frosting, and Eric adding some raspberries on top for color. It turned out delish!!! I was so proud of myself!