Star Wars Birthday Party

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, and a Yoda fondant/gumpaste topper

Each year I scramble to pull together my children's birthday parties. I spend all this time on Pinterest getting ideas, and when it comes down to it...I just don't have the time or energy. This year I vowed to be different. I was going to plan months in advance and have a Pinterest worthy party. Well I still didn't do everything I wanted to, but it was a success none the less. 

Darth Vader and Storm Trooper Cupcakes

My Menu

Veggie Straws
Apple Straws
Pirates Booty
Hummus and Pita Chips
Fruit tray
Veggie Tray
Pizza
And
Star Wars Cupcakes

I wanted my menu to be stress free. No appetizers that needed to be kept warm or required cooking right before the party started. I tried to keep the munchies semi-healthy. We have so many birthday parties in the summer it's crazy! So our "sometimes foods" quickly turn into an "all the time food". I did serve lunch, because really no matter what time the party is it is close to some meal or another. Pizza wasn't the cheapest way to go, but it was stress free and that is priceless.  The cupcakes came out great! I just used the Williams-sonoma cookie cutters to create the fondant toppers. You may notice the coloring on the storm troopers. At first I used an editable marker to create the dark spots, and well that wasn't working at all. I ended up taking a small brush and my black food coloring to "paint" on the black.
 I also made pool noodle light sabers, and Jedi robes as the favors. The Jedi robes did require a little sewing but I only had one seam, down the arms and side. Sewing went quick because I wasn't concerned about raw edges...it's a kids party, come on. I didn't have any special entertainment or activities planned. We stayed outside and the kids had to play.

Eli modeling the DIY Jedi robe and pool noodle light saber

Another you so you can see his cute face

Frozen Buttercream Transfers

I have seen frozen buttercream transfers on Pinterest, Youtube, and a few cake decorating books I own. I've been dying to try it because it allows for detailed pictures. I printed out some superhero pictures and printed my message on the computer. I then traced everything onto wax paper, and piped on the buttercream. Generally it was very easy, but here are some of my mistakes...

1.) I forgot to invert the superhero pictures. I couldn't use superman or robin because they were backward.
2.) When I piped the buttercream on the superhero pictures the wax paper was just on my counter. I then attempted to slide the wax paper onto a cookie sheet to then stick in the freezer. Bad idea. My wax paper folded and ruined Batman :-( In retrospect I would have put the wax paper on the cookie sheet to begin with.
3.) I didn't push down the icing enough. After you pipe all the details you add a layer of white buttercream to stick everything together.Then you use an angled spatula to smooth out the white icing and push everything down. This should make everything look solid and not just piped on. I was so afraid of ruining my design that I didn't flatten everything out enough.

I didn't think the writing came out great, so I don't think I would try that again. I have read online to use kids coloring pages since they have basic lines. Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Last minute cookie cake

I was planning on making cupcakes but when Eli woke up this morning he said he really needed a cookie cake. Now usually I would have said "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit". But, birthdays are special. I let my children get whatever they want within reason. This was define doable. He requested chocolate chips and m&ms. I just used the recipe on the back of the chocolate chips. It was really good. I refuse to buy cookie cake from the store because they are alway dried out. This was moist and soft. 

4th of July Treats

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays and a great excuse to try a new cake technique. I first saw this on the Wilton YouTube channel. You must subscribe to their YouTube channel, it will change your life. No joke. 

They were really easy to make. I will definitely do this again. So, I used Wilton's flavor system and color system for the frosting. I added the clear sugar based on a pin I found on Pinterest. I also used Wilton's new colorswirl coupler. It was easy to put together but refilling the bags made a mess. In the future, I will just use new bags. I know this isn't cost effective, but the mess I made refilling the bags made everything slippery and much more difficult to decorate. 

As if I didn't have anything else to do today... I also made a teddy bear cake. Wait that was a lie. My mother in law baked the cake and I just frosted it. It is a tradition in my husbands family that every child have this cake on their first birthday. This is the cake for my little Juliet. 

I used a star tip for the white sections and the grass/fur tip for the pink. 

And there is more...banana bread pudding. While visiting my sister in law, Molly, in NYC , we went to Magnolias bakery and had banana bread pudding. OMG! Well, I found a recipe for it on Pinterest and it tastes the same!!! It is now something my family and friends request frequently. 

Zoku Quick Pop Maker

Greg and I registered for the Zoku quick pop maker when we were engaged (5 years ago). We registered for several useless gadgets that we don't use. The quick pop maker is different. We use it all the time.

Earlier this year my daughter, Juliet, was diagnosed with egg and peanut food allergies. I gave her some home made (very tasty) french toast, well Benedryl, Auvi-Q (the best epinephrine auto injector ever), and a hospital visit later we discovered no more eggs. I started to think of all the things she could no longer eat, to make sure we didn't have a repeat of those events. Ice cream. She can't have ice cream. :-( Then I remembered our quick pop maker. This was great! I can control the food that my kids are eating AND let them have a icy treat to cool them off this summer.

I bought the quick pops cookbook recently at Williams Sonoma to really start thinking outside of the box. As I experiment with the recipes I will post my review of them. Just a little FYI ...for some adult treats you can make quick pops out of your favorite wine ;-)

I would like to think that I am organized and plan ahead, but that is just not true most of the time. I always keep the quick pop maker in the freezer so it's ready to go whenever I am. I pull it out, fill with some juice and in 6 minutes I have amazing popsicles. Let me know your favorite flavor combo in the comments.


Get your zoku quick pop maker here!

Eli enjoying an organic lemonade with fresh raspberries quick pop

Cake decorating

I have a confession...I love making food that people enjoy eating. Right after my daughter was born I realized I needed a night out away from the kids. I decided to take a Wilton cake class at Michaels. I have gone through course one, two, and three. I need to get back into it and complete course four, but the summer is super busy (I'm sure you can relate).

I have started making cakes for family and friends. Some have come out better than others, but I learn from each one. One of my secrets it to use boxed cake mix. Personally I like the taste of boxed mix better than most bakery cakes. Bakery cakes tend to be drier and that's just gross. The frosting recipe that Wilton has you use in the classes contains meringue powder, this is because it allows the frosting to crust over better. However the Wilton buttercream recipe on their website that calls for 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening is AMAZING! It's the only thing I use. My daughter also has a egg allergy so this frosting is the only one she can eat.

Buttercream taste amazing but fondant I find much easier. You can create flowers way ahead of time and store them for weeks. I know many people avoid fondant covered cakes because fondant and gum paste are not the tastiest of things, but my theory is if you put a thick layer of buttercream under the fondant then you can just peel off the fondant and eat the rest.

 Royal icing is also helpful when preparing a cake ahead of time. I love that you can make a large amount of flowers and just store them. They do harden (they could break your teeth), but they look amazing and taste much better then fondant. The great thing about fondant, gumpaste, and royal icing is that you can play with the placement of the flowers. With buttercream you really have to commit to whatever you have in mind.

Homegrown Strawberry Jam

This was my first attempt at making strawberry jam without using pectin, and my first attempt at canning. In the past I have made freezer jam, but I wanted to free up space in my freezer this year. I have been taking after my grandparents and started a small stock pile in my basement...just in case of a great depression or zombie apocalypse.



  I must say the actually canning process was fairly easy and I enjoyed it! I'm looking forward to canning homemade pickles once we can harvest them :-)



The jam recipe was very simple and taste AMAZING, but it's not as thick as I would like. My husband thinks it's "really thin". Next time I would consider using pectin, but that won't stop me from eating this years batch. I found the recipe on pinterest...

Old Fashion Strawberry Jam

Follow me on Pinterest (@meg0529) I have a whole board devoted to strawberry recipes!