Birthday Party - Part 1

Yesterday we had Sarah Graves' Birthday party and it was a good time.  I decided to break the pictures up into separate posts.  Aaron has some video, too, so we will try to get that up soon. 

I made her cake and although it took a little time, it was so yummy.  I made the frosting using the recipe that my mom used on our cakes when I was young and it tasted sooo good.  A little more work than frosting from the store, but really yummy.  I bought a pan for making cupcake shaped cakes, so that simplified things.

I made regular sized cupcakes, too.  These were decorated by using cake tattoos.  I came across them in Michael's.  They are made by Duff, the guy from Ace of Cakes on Food TV, and they are basically edible paper printed with cute designs.  You can cut them out for cupcakes or they come in a long strip that can be wrapped around a round cake.  They were an easy way to give our cupcakes cute design!

Iced sugar cookies are something that I really enjoy doing.  I always envision doing these beautiful cookies and once I start, I remember that it's harder than I think it is.  This time, I was extremely patient when I made my icing and I let it get very stiff, which made it easier to do the outline.  Then, I was very patient adding only a teaspoon of water at a time to make it thin enough to do the fill.  I think this was my prettiest looking batch, ever!  I was really proud that I managed to do her monogram on the cookies.  I figure if I start practicing now, I might be decent at them by the time she has school parties!

Aaron took care of the crepe paper and balloons.  He brought home tons of balloons! 

Jeanne' made this darling "skirt" for the high chair.  It gives our every day high chair such a fairty tale like flair.  It was the perfect throne for our princess at her party.

I kept the menu pretty simple for an afternoon party.  In addition to the cake, cupcakes, and cookies, we made these brie bites that were addictive, pigs in a puff pastry blanket, assorted cheeses and fruit. 

It was quite tasty, if I do say so myself.