~ Cake Craze ~ Anthony's Thomas The Train 4th Birthday Cake

My friend Laura asked me to make a cake for her son Anthony's 4th Birthday Party.  Anthony is a big fan of Thomas the Train. I used the towering tiers cake stand from Wilton.  I really like this stand because you can either use it for both cakes or cupcakes or a combination of both.

I made orange cupcakes with Dulce de Leche filling {or Arequipe how is called in my country, which is a Caramel-like milk spread that is so yummy!} and buttercream icing. I made the cupcake toppers with Thomas the Train confetti cut-outs.

As for the cake it was the same recipe but I added a touch of Whisky and covered in fondant, it was served to adults only - because of the whisky of course:)

 

I will be posting the orange-caramel cake recipe soon! Thanks Laura for trusting me to make the cake for cutie Anthony.

~ Birthday Party ~ 70's Disco Fun! The grooviest event of the Year.

It was my daughter's birthday a couple of weeks ago, and we celebrated with a disco themed party.  She had been planning her party since we finished celebrating her birthday last year.  She loves disco balls and dancing, this theme was perfect for her, but intead of celebrating the 70's, we were celebrating her 7's.

Planning all the details for this party was so much fun, I love this theme.
She wanted this party to be a girls only event, Julianna's Sunday Night Disco Fever!

 We designed the Invitation to appear like a ticket to enter a night club. It had a detachable VIP pass to be given at the door to the security guy {daddy dressed up all in black with a funny wig} I will show you the pictures but I don't think "mi amor" will approve :) He actually had double duty that day, he also had a special presentation as DJ daddy. 

{Not exactly from the 70's but she insisted on wearing this rock star outfit}

  Balloon column { My mom's latest design} 

 My mom travelled to Canada to surprise my daughter on her birthday and to help with all the decor. The party craze runs in my family.  My mom did the most amazing parties for me and I just want to do the same for my daughters. 

Lots of balloons, disco balls, Records, Musical notes and dangling stars were decorating the room. 

THE CAKE

 My daughter kept telling me for her cake she wanted 7 tiers, her reasoning is that since she was going to be 7 she had to have 7 cakes... I think she is watching too much of the Cake Boss. I got her 5 tiers between cupcakes and cake, I was kind of close. 

This was my second cake and I LOVE how it turned out. I got inspired by a design I saw on the Carlo's bakery website { didn't see my first cake...you can see it here}  I worked so hard on it, making all the little fondant decorations. I stayed up until 5 am the day before the party as the first time the fondant on the cake kept cracking but I kept trying until it finally worked.  It was a lot of work but it was all worth it, as my daughter loved it!

I am actually thinking of taking some serious cake decorating classes at the Bonnie Gordon School here in Toronto.. In fact I already made my 3rd cake for my friend's son birthday last week {pics coming soon}

My daughter loved her rainbow cake and my friends were asking me how I did it. Well It was very easy, just time consuming. I separated the batter in different containers and added food colorant to each, but as I only have one pan of this size, I had to bake and wait 6 times to get all the layers, and wash and grease and flour the same pan 6 times... My husband kept telling me I was crazy ..but I didn't care :)  so my recommendation is if you attempt to do all these layers at least have two of the same size pan.

To coordinate with the party theme, the favors were tie-dye sun visors, peace sign hair ties and "Love" sparkling girls make up.

I made coordinated water bottle labels.  All the disco party printable collection {Invitations, water bottle labels, cupcake toppers and tags} will be available soon at my Etsy shop.

All the girls got their make-up and hair done!

 

We all had so much fun!

 

 

Linking up to Bird's Party Blog

~ Party Printable ~ Cinco de Mayo party circles

Que comienze la Fiesta!! In honor to all my Mexican friends, I designed these Party Circles to celebrate La fiesta del 5 de Mayo.   These can be used for cupcake toppers, napkin rings, treats and favours tags. Just cut using a 1 1/2" scalloped punch or check here for detailed instructions on how to make cupcake toppers using party circles.

Click here to download the CINCO DE MAYO party circles {cupcake toppers, Napkin rings, tags}

 Que te diviertas en la fiesta!

~ Cupcakes ~ BUNNY CUTE! Easter cupcakes for my peeps.

My daughters and I had some much fun making these cupcakes yesterday.  They turned out so cute, yummy and they were really easy to make. My daughters did most of the decorating, well actually my oldest daughter did, my little one helped, but to make a lot of mess. They sure had fun!

I got inspired by these cute cupcakes on the Betty Crocker website and couldn't resist to make some bunny cupcakes too.  I used coconut to give them a furry look and gave them some big bunny marshmallows teeth.

This is how we made them if you want to make them too:

- Cupcakes: When I'm baking with my daughters I prefer to use a cake box mix, it is just easier this way. I prefer the Betty Crocker brand and for these cupcakes I used the lemon cake mix, it tastes really good with the coconut and butter cream icing.

{I am not affiliated with Betty Crocker in any way, I just want to put it out there :) It's just my preferred brand of cake mixes}

- Butter Cream Icing: {I prefer to make the icing from scratch, Recipe below}

- Shredded coconut

- Marshmallows: mini and regular size

- M&M or smarties for bunny eyes

- Pink jellybeans for bunny nose

- Pink sugar for bunny ears

1.To make the bunny ears, cut one marshmallow crosswise and dip halves in pink sugar.

2. Frost the cupcake with butter cream and dip in shredded coconut. 

 3. Put a little bit of butter cream  under the marshmallows ears to stick them on the cupcake. Decorate with the rest of the candies for the eyes, nose and small marshmallows for bunny teeth.

 4. I had a few heart shaped candies and used them for some bunnies paws and tails, but they look cute without them too.

We had some Marshmallows peeps and made these ones too.

I put a few drops of green icing color in a Ziploc bag with a few drops of water and mixed in with coconut to make instant grass.  I colored the frosting green as well.

They are so adorable you feel so bad to eat them :)

Here is how to make BUTTER CREAM icing:

4 cups (500 grams) of icing sugar

3/4 cup (1 stick or 125ml) of butter, softened

1/3 cup (75ml) of milk

2 teaspoons (10 ml) of vanilla extract

In a bowl beat butter until fluffy, beat in sugar alternately with milk, making 3 additions of sugar and 2 of milk. Beat in vanilla.

HAPPY EASTER!

~Party Printable~ Easter Collection {Water bottle labels, Invitations, cupcake toppers and Banner} & Tutorial

My daughters and I are hosting an Easter bake Sale for charity this week.

I just finished designing the party printable collection I will use for the treats and table decor.  You can use them too if you are planning an Easter or egg hunting party this weekend..  I will post pictures of our decorated table after the event next week.

This collection includes Water bottle labels, Invitations, Banner and circle tags that can be used for cupcake toppers and treat bags.  Click on the links to download and see tutorial below. I hope you can use them, and if you do; please share your party pictures with us!

 Click here to download Happy Easter Banner

 Click here to download Party Circles {Cupcake toppers, Treats tags} 

Click here to download Water bottle labels and Invitations

Ever wonder how to affix water bottle labels?

Remove original labels from water bottles and attach new ones using double sided tape {This is the easiest way but only works if water bottles will be served at room temperature, otherwise ink will leak from the labels}

Now if you want to make them waterproof and place them in buckets with ice, an easy and economical way, rather than buying waterproof labels, is to use clear packing tape, the width of the tape is exactly the same size as the labels. Laminate both sides of the label with the clear packing tape and then use the double sided tape to affix to the bottle.  This way the ink won't leak. 

You can also just attach the label to the bottle with double sided tape and then go over with the clear tape, you will be saving one step but only the top will be waterproof, I've done it before and my bottles were fine when placed in ice, but I recommend to make a trial run and place your bottle in a bucket with ice to check if water goes through.  But just to make sure the ink won't leak with the last method, and you still want them in ice, just insert the bottles half way where the ice cubes don't touch the labels and the water will still be kept cold.

How to do cupcake toppers, treats and favors tags:

Favors tags

 {Take a look at this post to see how to make favors and treat tags using party circles}

For cupcake toppers, download and print file, cut into squares or use an scalloped or circle 1 1/2" punch and attach to 4" lollipop sticks {available at Michaels, Waltmart or Bulk Candy store} using tape or a small white circle label.  Place in the middle of cupcakes as you can see in the picture above.  

You can make napkin rings too.  Take a look at how I made these using party circles, ribbon and double sided tape.

How to make a banner using the printable file:

Download the file and print. Cut circles using a circle cutter or scissors and a steady hand :) Make two small punches at the top of each circle and thread the banner together using your favorite ribbon.