Take Me Out to the Ballgame - A Very Special First Birthday

My baby boy turned one, and I chose a baseball theme for his very small family party. It was really fun, because there was so much out there for baseball. And since our colors were red and blue, all the 4th of July party stuff worked too! I really enjoyed doing all the concession stand inspired food too.

Thank you to my mom who helped me with a lot of the party,  and to my mother-in-law who made the precious party hat.

Here are pics of the decor and treats:

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My Man's Birthday

Happy 32nd birthday to the love of my life!

In the past, I've always made Justin a boxed yellow cake with a jar of chocolate frosting. He was perfectly happy with that. But, this year I set out to make a homemade version of his fave. I browsed the internet for the perfect recipe and came upon this one from Bakerella. And then to find a yummy chocolate buttercream- here from Lauren's Latest.
How to make it beautiful and personalized is up to you. I used more chocolate!

First of all, if you use this cake recipe, go ahead and try the spray bottle trick she suggests. My aversion to soggy cake of any kind made me leery of doing it, and my cake was, IMO, dry. I think I also overcooked it a tad. It went from wiggly and raw to overdone in such a small amount of time. I can only blame myself for that.

The buttercream turned out so delicious. I could have eaten it by the spoonful for sure. My almost-4-year-old taste tester liked it very much. It also ended up crusting very well, so next time I'll bust out my Viva paper towels and make it look nice and smooth. 

So, after assembling my cake in two layers, I iced it generously. I then used the mini Reese's peanut butter cups that are already unwrapped, cut them in half, and arranged them on the cake. The original plan was to stick them all around the sides of the cake, but I felt they were too heavy to do that. This particular design used just a few more than one bag of them, so you could easily do two rings on top and just use one bag. (This is an 8" cake.)

You could, of course, put them in a bag and pound them with a mallet and place them on the sides for a more "rustic" look. I ended up alternating them up and down on the bottom. The 32 on top was an afterthought, but I thought it looked better than getting out my piping bag and scribbling "Happy Birthday" across my cake. That is definitely not my forte. 

So easy! After posting a quick pic on Facebook, I was surprised (or not so surprised) that a picture of a chocolate cake gets more likes and comments than two really cute babies. Lol!

Here is the finished product:

Please excuse my lack of photography skills. I'm taking a photography class this Saturday as a a birthday present from my mom and dad. Yay!

I have three upcoming cookie projects in the next two months. I'm super excited- one birthday party, one baptism, and a wedding shower... Coming soon!

A Family Baby Shower

My husband and I ran around with the same group of friends in college. Most of us live in Houston now, but now that we all have kids, it gets harder and harder to get together. So, a great excuse is a baby! 

Our close friends, Amy and Joel, are welcoming a baby girl in June, and I wanted to throw a mini baby shower to welcome her! We invited a few of our favorite little families. 

The theme was very simple- pink, pink, and more pink. Tough for all the guys that were invited! 

The decor

I made another banner for the mantle. I used these awesome glitter letters from Hobby Lobby. The background paper is cut into 4.5 inch flower shapes (accent essentials cartridge) and the white is 4.25 inch. I used double stick tape and a matching ribbon to put it all together. Pretty painless.

I borrowed the lanterns from my ma-in-law. I think they are from Party City. And I made the tissue pom poms. 

The food

For appetizers, I put together a simple veggie tray with ranch, a spinach parmesan dip from Costco, and Wholly Guacamole. With an array of chips, everyone was happy for a while. 

For our main course, I served Pioneer Woman's Dr. Pepper pulled pork with King's Hawaiian rolls (and pickles!) and Barefoot Contessa's tarragon chicken salad (minus the grapes) with mini croissants. I also had fruit salad on the side. For those picky eaters (like my child), I had a small deli tray with meat, cheese, and crackers. 

The cake!

For this cake, I used the same recipe that I used for Leah's birthday cake, but I left out the sprinkles. This recipe is a yummy lemon cake that turns out very moist. It is my new favorite!

I made a two-layer 8 inch cake and used white buttercream for a thin crumb coat. Then, I took a small circle cookie cutter and gently pressed it into the cake where I wanted my roses. This was used as a guide so my roses would be about the same size and shape all throughout my cake. 

Next, I put a small amount of soft pink coloring into my icing. I made a piping bag of this icing out of about 1/3 of the icing. Then I added more coloring and made a second bag. Then a little more coloring for the last bag. This made the ombre effect on the cake. I used a star tip to create the roses. If you try this technique, start from the bottom of the cake with the darkest icing. Each individual rose should start from the middle and work out. Wherever my crumb coat showed through, I put a small star. 

For the banner, I used cookie sticks (in the baking aisle at Michael's), ribbon, scrapbook paper, and letter stickers.

We all had a great time! 

A Low-key Cinderella Party

Princess Leah turned 3! She wanted a Cinderella cake, so I wanted to give her a Cinderella party. We decided to fore-go the big blowout birthday party this year for a few reasons. So, we just had family over for dinner, cake, and fun!

I didn't have a whole lot of time left when I decided I wanted to make a banner. I made this simple banner in about 45 minutes using my Cricut. If you can't see it, it just says, "Leah is 3!" I used 5" circles for the background, 4.5" circles for the patterned paper, and 4.5" letters. I used the Lyrical Letters cartridge for the font. It took 2 pieces of patterned 12x12 paper, 4 pieces of background paper (also used for letters), one spool of ribbon, and mini glue dots.

I ordered the balloons on Amazon in a pack and had them blown up at Kroger.  

For some simple decor, I spent a few minutes and dollars at Party City. I bought paper goods, blue and white streamers, blue tissue paper balls ( I know I can make my own, but I was short on time), and a princess crown for the birthday girl.

The food

A little off of the theme of Cinderella, we had a taco bar. It included all the fixins and soft and hard taco shells. I also included two appetizer dips (jalapeno popper dip from Pinterest and Texas Caviar), chips, rice, and beans. 

The Cake!

This was the inspiration for the party. I had many different ideas about how to make her a "Cinderella cake," but eventually saw the pumpkin coach and had to give it a try. I used a homemade funfetti cake recipe and traditional buttercream for the bottom layer. For the top layer, I just used a boxed mix, a coat of buttercream, and fondant. To shape the top layer, I bought a sphere-shaped pan from Michael's.

Since I am not a professional and don't have tons of experience, this cake was quite a labor of love. BUT the look on my precious daughter's face when she blew out her candles was worth every back-breaking second!

Panda Cake

I made this cake for a former co-worker's daughter, who also happened to be one of my former students! So, I was happy to go all out.
It was orignally supposed to be pandas with bamboo, but the birthday girl loves purple, so I got some creative license. Here is how it turned out.

Not bad for my first big cake! And, the birthday girl liked it. That's what matters. :)

Elmo Party

Although Leah's 2nd birthday party was right smack in the middle of "busy season" for teachers (State Testing Time!), I had to handmake some of the cute things at her party. Sadly, I was unable to make the fondant decor. But I bought it from 1StopParty on Etsy, and she did a great job. The cake was made by a local bakery. They added the polka dot trim. I added the fondant decor to the cake, and Leah was ecstatic.

I also did not make the invitation. But, luckily for me, my bestie is in the card making business. She made this, and it was just what I had envisioned!!
Check out her website or her Etsy shop!

front

back

And my ma-in-law, Lori, made this precious party hat. Could it be any cuter????

But, the name of my blog is Handmade by Allison, so what did I make?? I bought a Cricut cartridge and got to work on the favors and a banner. It took many nights of work to finish, but it was all worth it in the end.
(Sorry my pics of the banner are awful! You can still get the idea though.)

Experimenting with Fondant

Welcome to my new blog! I have been thinking about doing this for awhile. A way to chronicle my creations. I have been dabbling in the sugar arts during my first few months of "retirement." I wanted to learn how to make those beautiful cookies and fondant decorations that are so popular right now.
For Leah's two birthday parties, I have paid someone else (love Etsy!) to make her fondant decorations. They were oh so cute, but oh so expensive! But, I didn't care, because I didn't have time to make them. But now I do. So, with the help of YouTube, the World Wide Web, and a few friends, I have been able to figure it out as I go.

The first thing I made was the 3D bees for my BFF, Cassie's, baby shower last summer. My mom helped me immensely. I watched a video on YouTube, bought a few supplies, and got to work. Here is how they turned out.

Pretty cute, huh? Especially when the bakery I contacted wanted $5 a cupcake! I made a delicious lemon cupcake with lemon frosting, too. Total price for 2 dozen cupcakes? About $30! And I got to learn a new skill.

This summer, Cassie was planning her precious baby's 1st birthday party. The theme was bugs. Ladybugs, caterpillars, and butterflies, which was soo cute! I volunteered my new skill to help her out. In a huge leap of faith, I told her I would make 10 3D ladybugs cupcake toppers, 10 3D caterpillar toppers, 10 polka dot toppers, larger smash cake bugs, 12 2D ladybugs, and a ring of grass. A little adventurous, but I'll do anything for that girl! Here is how they turned out.

So, now I am hooked. It takes a long time and can get a little tedious, but looking at the final product is so worth it. 

** Update: Cassie got her party on Pizzazzerie! Which means my cupcakes are on Pizzazzerie! Go check out her party page!