Saturday, January 14, 2012

Happy 1st Birthday Lucy-Lou!!


My sweet little Lucy turned one and oh my how I had fun putting together her party to celebrate the special occasion. I love finally getting to use pink for a birthday!!
Since we have gone crazy with the cupcake theme in her room, her birth announcement, and her clothes, I figured we better stick with it so that was my inspiration for her party.
This was her smash cake.

Shan and I made these cupcake toppers. My favorite were the pinwheels. I used this tutorial to make them. We also added them to our birthday banner. (it took two strips glued together for the big ones.)
I used the Southern Living big book of Cupcakes to decide what flavors of cupcakes to use. I narrowed it down to 7 flavors by using the 7 colors in the color scheme. They were:
Lemon Cream
White cake;
1/2 cup butter
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 large egg whites
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
Beat butter and shortening at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time beating until blended after each addition.
Combine dry ingredients, add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat low speed until blended. Add extracts.
Bake 350 degrees for approx 15 minutes.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tsp. lemon juice
4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar

I added this filling:(I used a wooden spoon to poke a hole in the center of the cupcake then poured this inside.)
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk(for 12 cupcakes)
juice from one lemon
1 tsp. lemon zest
*I found some fruit slices at Wal-mart as the toppers.
Orange Creamsicle
I used the same white cake recipe as the lemon.
Orange Cream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup cup whipping cream
1 tsp. pure orange flavoring
1/8 tsp. salt
3-4 cups powdered sugar
Filling:(for 12 cupcakes)
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
orange zest
orange juice or flavoring (I just added until I could taste the orange)
Tutti Frutti
Strawberry cake (this is Kay Dawn's recipe)
1 box white cake mix (Duncan Hines)
1 small box strawberry jello
1/2 boiling water
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup fresh mashed strawberries
Boil water in microwave. Add jello. Stir until dissolved. Add rest of ingredients. Mix few minutes on medium. Bake 350 for approx. 16 min.

Strawberry frosting
1 stick butter
16 oz. powdered sugar
1/4 cup mashed strawberries
6 ounces of cream cheese
1 tsp. of vanilla.
*For the tutti frutti part just roll the sides or cover the whole cupcake with nerds.
Mint Chocolate:
Too much chocolate cake from Allrecipes.com

  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
  • 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips(I only use 1 cup)
Mint Chocolate frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 whipping cream
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1/8 tsp. salt
3-4 cups powdered sugar
*I used the Andes Mints crumbs you can get in the baking section for the sprinkles.
Cookies and Cream
I used the same chocolate cake recipe as the mint
Cookies and Cream frosting
1/2 cup butter softened
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
15 mini oreos finely crushed
*I tried to add some purple food coloring to the already light brown frosting but it made it a very dark purple. Opps! So to try and get our fun purple into our cupcakes I dipped a mini oreo half way into some purple melts to use as the topper.
Coconut Cream
I used the same white cake recipe as above but divided the batter into two parts. For the first half I added about 1-2 tsp. coconut flavoring.
Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
½ cup (1 stick/8 Tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese,
at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (always use pure vanilla extract if possible)
1 1/2 teaspoons coconut extract (you may want to start with just 1 teaspoon of coconut extract, you can always add more, but you can't take it out!)
4 cups powdered c
onfectioners sugar
1 Tablespoon heavy cream, heavy whipping cream or milk
*I made L's out of white chocolate for these toppers.
Pink Lemonade
The other half of the white batter I added almost one full packet of the powdered pink lemonade mix (the one that makes 2 quarts of juice.) I could only find the no sugar added kind at my grocery store but I think the Country Time Lemonade would have tasted better.
Pink Lemonade frosting
2 1/2 packets of pink lemonade mix (each packet makes 2 quarts of juice)
3/4 cup softened butter
8 oz. cream cheese
2 to 3 Tbsp. whipping cream
3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar


I love love these bright colors.
I have always wanted to do a candy buffet and what better occasion especially with all these fun colors.
Thanks Shan for all your help with this. You're an amazing friend!
Shan made this wreath for the front door.   I love it!  I found the cupcake
ornaments at Wal-Mart during Christmas time.
Love the cupcake bum!! Thanks Cami for the adorable cupcake bloomers, hat and bib!
Happy Birthday my cupcake princess!!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Rubber ducky baby shower


Natalie and I made this for Jill's baby shower. I found a 3D rubber duck cake mold at Hobby Lobby which made this cake super easy to make. I do suggest following the directions exactly.
This was one of the easiest cakes I've ever made. I frosted the orange beak first, then the rest of it with yellow coconut cream frosting. And then here comes the easy part I covered it with yellow tinted coconut. Easy. For the eyes I used white chocolate, traced a circle and then added a blue M&M for the center. Once it dried I used frosting to stick it to the coconut and it was complete.
We dipped donut holes in chocolate for the bubbles (I couldn't find powdered holes anywhere, which was fine because I found a new favorite treat)
Mindi had this cute white tub which we lined with a plastic blue table cloth for the water.
*I copied this idea from online.
Mindi had this great idea to tape balloons to the ceiling to look like bubbles. It turned out really cute!

These are the yummy petit fours from Savages. I want to learn how to make these delicious things. I also love the rubber ducks they used as toppers!
We made this diaper cake as a gift and decoration.

I love how the drinks looked with the rubber ducks floating in them. Can you see the froth in the blue drink? So fun!! Thanks Pinterest for the fun idea!