the enchanted oven: Birthday

Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The Hobbit hole cake

Last Saturday my daughter had a belated birthday gathering with her group of peeps. She is a die hard lover of The Lord of the Rings series, and after putting our heads together, we came up with the idea of a hobbit hole cake.

I know, it looks like a clump of grass with a round thing a ma bob stuck to it's side. The thingy is a hobbit door.

Trust me, I did research.

I baked a cake in a heat proof bowl to create a dome shape.

I inverted it onto a cake stand, and then covered it in green Swiss meringue buttercream that I happily had stashed away in the freezer. Then I made the door out of a round cookie.

Official hobbit doors are round and green and have a gold knob in the very center.

And here is my happy birthday girl.

It almost wasn't a happy birthday party because she was horribly sick the entire week before. Sooooo glad to have her feeling more like her old self!

The girl really needs to loosen up a little :)

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Marshmallow "cake" cupcake decoration

Today is my daughter's 15th birthday!

Her request for chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting met with approval from the enchanted menfolk around here.

The best recipe I have ever found for chocolate PB is The Barefoot Contessa's which you can find here. It is deeeeelicous! The only adjustment I made was to add an additional cup of powdered sugar to the frosting so it would be a bit stiffer for piping.

I hurt my brain trying to come up with how to decorate these cupcakes. I didn't want to make them Easter themed - this is HER big day, and brownish peanut butter frosting isn't exactly a looker on it's own.

Isabelle has always LOVED marshmallows, so I wanted to somehow incorporate them into a decoration.

And then it hit me - my poor aching brain had a good idea!

Decorate a marshmallow to look like a tiny birthday cake and put it on top of the cupcake.

Muhaha!

Here is how you do it.

Poke a toothpick midway through a marshmallow. Decorate the sides like you would a cake.

The toothpick allows you to turn the marshmallow while decorating and also serves as a "pick". I had a block of floral foam sitting around, so I used it to hold the marshmallows while they dried.

Next, I broke a toothpick in two and pushed it into the top of the "cake".

Taking white icing, I covered the bottom part of the toothpick to make it look like a candle.

Then I used yellow icing on the tip to simulate a flame.

Cute, cheap, fast, and very easy to do! The designs on the sides of the marshmallows can be as simple as you want - squiggles, stripes, polkadots, or whatever floats your boat.

Once they dried, I just stuck them into the frosting on the cupcakes.

All I had to then, was add one birthday girl!

Sharing with

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Birthday cookies for Drew

My first born is turning 28!

Simply amazing, considering I am a mere 35 years of age.

*cough*

Since I am not going to be with him for his birthday, a cookie package was in order!

Of all my kids, Drew loved his birthday the most.

He referred to the entire month of March as

"BIRTHDAY SEASON".

And the day before his birthday was,

"BIRTHDAY EVE".

It was a grand time that only the Queen Mother's jubilee could outdo.

And I have to admit, that for the kid's birthdays, my motto was

GO BIG OR GO HOME.

Some of his party themes were Sesame Street, the circus, outer space (and yes, I made the solar system out of cakes, and rocket jet packs out of empty toilet paper tubes, duct tape, and foil), trains, and my personal favorite, the pirate party.

I miss those days.

I ran across this picture the other day. It is of Drew and his little brother helping me bake cookies. The days of little boys (and girl) running through the house, wanting story time, trips to the park, and theme birthday parties is long over.

But, to be perfectly honest, this is what I still see when I think of them.

Happy birthday Drew!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Birthday plate of cookie love

This birthday love was for a friend of mine. There are chocolate iced sugar cookies and mini macarons (I had a tough time making them little - got to work on this). These little macaron treasures are filled with Swiss meringue buttercream laced with a touch of almond extract and chambord - a French black raspberry liquor. To make them EXTRA special, they are topped with royal icing butterflies and flowers. In the past I have made my butterflies with white chocolate because they are much sturdier, but I was feeling brave yesterday. Only one broke, so it was a major victory. The cookie message was:

Happy 50th birthday Nancy! The party girl was resplendent last night in a tiara complete with peacock feathers - why didn't I bring my camera?

And as a side note, I am thoroughly opposed to flowers dyed funky colors like the ones I used. You will hear me rant about poinsettias sprayed with blue and purple glitter this holiday season. When I saw these babies at the store, I had a large internal battle. The color was SO PERFECT with the cookies. In the end, the turquoise colored daisies won and I loved them on the plate.

Linking with:
Sweet Little Gals
Lolly Jane Boutique
Tatertots and Jello
Sweet as Sugar
Inspiration Friday
Chic on a Shoestring
Tidy Mom
Friday's Unfolded
My Romantic Home

Miz Helen's Country Cottage
Between Naps on the Porch
Savvy Southern Style
Night Owl Crafting
The Creative Spark
A Stroll Thru Life
Sweetology 101
Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
Today's Creative Blog
Reasons to Skip Housework
Lady Bug Blessings
Stone Gable
Home Savvy A to Z
Dittle Dattle
Masterpiece Monday
The Tablescaper
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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Birthdays and babies

Lets start with the birthday. This is for my daughter's best friend's great grandma - you followed that, right?
She is called GG, which stands for great grandma. If you looked in the encyclopedia under adorable, you would see a picture of GG. She just celebrated her 87th birthday (my mom turns 87 next month also) and I have to say that generation is amazing! Strong, resiliant, great outlook on life kind of ladies.

I had a marathon session of making royal icing flowers the other day - roses in pink and yellow, and little lavender flowers with soft green dragee centers. This is great to do in front of the television because making a lot of them takes a while and is kind of mindless. Once they dry, they can be kept indefinitely in an airtight container. After they hardened, I popped them on the cookies for a three dimensional effect. Don't give me any credit for this because I have seen LOTS of other cookie decorators do this. I do love the effect, and they can be used in many different ways. So happy birthday GG, and on to babies!

Oh my, how I love babies! These are for a baby shower - a little guy named Ezra who will be making his arrival next month. Notice I used another royal icing rose on the baby carriage.

Making these cookies really brought my mind back to the baby days of my four boys. I loved their darling little blue clothes and taking them for walks in their stroller - and with five kids, I went through a number of strollers!

I spent way too much time online looking at baby clothing for inspiration for these cookies! So many adorable things out there for babies. Today is Ezra's baby shower and I hope his mom enjoys these cookies - I know I enjoyed making them!

I am linking with

Making the World Cuter

Lamb Around

The Tablescaper

Six Sisters Stuff

Show and Tell Saturday

French Country Cottage

My Romantic Home

House of Hepworths

Something Swanky

Between Naps on the Porch

Brambleberry Cottage

Somewhat Simple

Sunday, June 5, 2011

A sixteen year old's birthday cake

My fourth son Alec turned 16 this weekend. He has one thing on his mind these days - getting his drivers license. I am about to embark on my fourth adventure in teenage driving (and I wonder why I have migraines...). Somehow boys think because they have been using a riding mower for a number of years, it qualifies them as knowing how to drive on a roadway. To this I say, backyards have no pedestrians, intersections, or recklesss/aggressive/intoxicated John Deere drivers to watch out for.

Anyway, on to the cake! I made a chocolate box mix that I added my favorite secret weapon to - pudding mix. Because it was chocolate I also added instant cofee to the water that the box called for. If you haven't tried this, you must. The coffee really intensifies the flavor of the chocolate - learned this from one of my personal heroes The Barefoot Contessa. I made a standard buttercream frosting that I unfortunately don't use a real recipe for. Butter, powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, a little milk, and for flavoring I added vanillla extract and a splash of Kahlua. Now don't panic with the Kahlua. I am not promoting drinking and driving. A splash adds incredible flavor that compliments the chocolate cake and other extracts contain alcohol as well.

I did a crumb coat of the cake with the buttercream and put it in the fridge to harden up a bit.

In the meanwhile, I baked the cookie toppers. I used a race car cookie cutter and trimmed off the back so it looked more like a normal car. I cut the trees and traffic light by hand.

The cutter broke, darn it. This was my first ever attempt at making cookies on a stick, so I probably overdid it a bit. When I had the cookies on the baking sheet, I added the sticks and then pressed some extra dough over it in an attempt to make them sturdier.

I also made sure they were well baked, because the last thing I needed was a soft cookie. After they cooled, I decorated them. I like the way the colors swirl in the trees. Just randomly add the colors at the same time and swirl with a toothpick.

Time to assemble the cake. I frosted the sides with more buttercream and then colored the rest of the frosting green to resemble grass. I used gray sugar sprinkles to make a road down the center. With a star tip, I piped the grass on both sides of the road.

Now for the fun part - adding the cookies to the top. Just insert the sticks and you are done. Well, almost...

I am a mom. I couldn't help myself.

Just a few words of wisdom.

You can't see all the way around, but it says "I am watching you". Not to make you paranoid or anything. You have heard of Big Brother? Well, I am Big Mother.