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Jack’s Party: Food, Treats & a Wrap Up

Posted by Nat on Mar 30, 2012 | 1 comment

For our final installment of Jack’s party, we’ll talk food, treats and I’ll give my thoughts on throwing a “real” party. 🙂

So let’s start by saying that I am not a party-food creator.  I have serious personal issues making a bunch of pretty food that is only going to be chewed up and digested.  Yes, it must taste good, but that’s sort of where my sense of obligation ends.  Presentation of food is not my strong suit.

Given the number of people we had attending, we ordred giant pizzas.  That was our “main course.”  They came shortly after the scavenger hunt ended.  We also had some snack packs of goldfish crackers and snack mix available for empty tummies.

I also made fruit kabobs.  I went to Costco, bought a bunch of fruit, and skewered it up the day before.  One tray was all the same, with a little bit of everything.   When I got tired of making those I made another tray that had a bit more variety so people could pick and choose.  What I love about these is that you don’t need utensils. I’m all about the finger food.   Also, Costco had 12-packs of old-school soda- I couldn’t resist.  Everyone seemed to like them, too!  The kids had juice boxes, and we also had water available, and some Izze drinks, too- love those.

 For cake, Jack was sooo easy.  I didn’t really give him a choice on the cake vs. cupcake front.  We were having cupcakes.  But when I asked him what kind of cake, he said (in his adorably funny voice), “Ummmm, I fink… I waaaaant.. chalk-a-LOT!”  Done.  “What kind of frosting?”  “Ummm, I fink…..  white.” Done and done.

 I followed most of what I described in my mini-cupcake post.  This time I tried Trader Joe’s cake mix and I have to say I will not be using it again.  They didn’t taste bad… they just didn’t taste that great. I saw lots of cupcakes with the frosting licked off and just a bite or two of cake.  Bummer.  Back to Duncan Hines I go!

 I made candy-pops just because.  Yup.  Just because.  They were SO. EASY. TO. MAKE.  For reals.  Check it out:

• Buy a mold (or two to make it faster), candy melts, and sticks (mine were 6″).  Sprinkles worked very well for these, too.  I got it all at Michael’s.
• Melt candy melts and put in a pastry bag or a ziploc bag will do just fine- cut off the tip.  You may need to let it cool a bit as (duh) you did just melt it over the stove.
• While it cools, put sprinkles in the bottom of each mold.  Make sure the bottom is covered well- not too much, not too little.
• Fill the molds with the melted candy, smooth them over with the back of a spoon.  Doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth.
• Place the sticks and put them in the fridge or freezer until solid.
• *Important:  check the sticks a few minutes after you put them in the fridge or freezer- sometimes they come up a bit, and once the candy starts to solidify (ooo- I just said solidify) you can push them back in and they’ll stick better.
• Pop them out and store.  Put on a cute tray to serve, or wrap them up in little bags for take-home treats.

Lastly, each kid got to take a little treat bag of M&M’s home.  I got the ribbon at Dollar Tree, and the bags are from Shop Sweet Lulu.  I LOVE these little bags.  They are so stinkin’ happy.  🙂

 I got all of my trays at WalMart for ONE DOLLAR EACH.  Go now!  They are cheap but they are colorful and perfect for whatever.  And I don’t care about what happens to them because they were only…. a DOLLAR.

And now… the wrap up. Will I do this again?  Maybe.  I think if I do another party like this it will be next year for a different child, that way everyone gets a super-special party once every three years or so.  March is a huge birthday month for us- 10 people in my family/extended family have birthdays, so we have a lot going on.  But it was so fun to have happy, cheery decor and everyone seemed to like it a lot.

I have the utmost respect for anyone who can do this for every child’s birthday, especially if they have more than one child.  I’m also thankful that Anna doesn’t seem to expect the exact same party for her birthday, and we will keep it much more simple (I hope).

I will be back later today to create a “Jack’s Party” page and get everything properly linked up so you can go between posts easily.  Thanks for reading!

Here’s one last shot of the birthday boy…

And again, many thanks to Tonya for sending me so many photos, including this one of my  husband and my daughter, Em.   These posts would not have been the same without her photos.  You’re wonderful, Tonya!

A Birthday Party for My Sweet Boy

Posted by Nat on Mar 27, 2012 | 7 comments

My son, Jack, is 3.

Pardon me while I pause and soak that in…

What is it about 3?  I was just saying to my mom that it seems like 3 is a big birthday.  With both my oldest, and now Jack, they seem to flip a switch and all of a sudden they are their own person with their own quirks.  Jack is blooming into his own little self, and it’s fascinating to watch.  He is a super sweet little boy, and is also becoming more OF a boy each day.

So let me start this series by just saying (and perhaps emphasizing) this:

I am usually not a party person.

When I say that, I mean that I do not usually get into the perfection aspect of parties that you can easily get swept into.  I think it’s totally fine for people to throw a Pinterest-worthy party, as evidenced by the fact that this one *might* (or might not) qualify as semi-Pinterest worthy.  Up until now, though, I never thought I’d even want to venture forth and try one.  Now that I am not getting paid to do the work I love (being home with my kids), I thought it would be fun to put some effort into a party and see if it feels “worth it” in the end.  Today I’m just going to give you some highlights, and then in upcoming posts I’m going to give you all the deets on where I got my ideas (hellllo- Pinterest {okay maybe some were just my own}), what I liked/didn’t like in the end, etc.

I need to send a big thank you to my friend and fellow blogger, Tonya of Create-Celebrate-Explore.   Tonya is an amazing woman, and she takes amazing pictures.  She so nicely sent me many of the photos she took at the party.  If you see a picture that says, “Thank you, Tonya” on it, she took it and I cannot take credit.  I did just get a new camera, but at this party I had not received it yet, so PicMonkey (something I also found through Tonya) is helping me out, too.

Onto the photos.  These are just highlights- more to come!

Invitations were from Shutterfly.

Birthday Balloon Wreath

(this will be a family tradition for us now)

Streamers- these were really fun to make!  More on them soon…

We had a Scavenger Hunt for the kids- it was super cute.

Cupcakes are always easiest, and…

Candy pops, to boot!

Lastly, balloons.  Ah, how my little boy loves balloons!

See you tomorrow when I’ll start spilling sources, how-tos, and more!

Mini Cupcake Baking Tips

Posted by Nat on Feb 14, 2012 | 1 comment

To all of my lovely readers:  thank you for visiting my blog as often as you do!  Would you help me out?  I’m working really hard on my blog and I’d love you to help if you have a few seconds.  If you like what you read, if you find it interesting or useful, please pass it along.  You could leave a comment below (be sure you’ve clicked on the post title if you’re on my “home” page), you could pin a photo to Pinterest (there’s a “Pin it” button at the bottom of this post), or you could share a link via Facebook.  Anything helps.  If you’re not a blogger yourself you may not know that the world of blogging revolves around sharing and comments- they are sort of the currency of the blog world.  Thanks so much!  And now, back to the post at hand….

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I was busy making mini-cupcakes for the kids to take to school, thus the lack of posting yesterday.  I’m capitalizing on the fact that one teacher just said to bring something, and I did not specifically hear the words, “healthy snack,” so I’m bringing mini-cupcakes.  That way, if it was supposed to be healthy, it’s just a mini-cupcake rather than a full-size one, and the teachers can eat them if they want to hide them from the kids- I don’t mind.  Ha!

While I love eating mini-cupcakes (or 7 or 8), I loathe the batter process.  All those tiny cups that have to be filled “just so,” the washing of the pans….  Today I discovered a new trick that I’ll share with you to hopefully make it go faster and neater for you, too.   I’ll also share some other tricks of my cupcake trade.  They aren’t revolutionary or anything, but if you’re a new cupcake-making person, hopefully they will help.

As I said, my issue with the process was getting the batter into the cups.  I didn’t want to waste a pastry bag, but… pouring the batter from a measuring cup into those little tiny cups was also too messy.  Spoons don’t work well- the batter falls off the spoon and doesn’t always go where you want it to.  Yesterday was my “a-ha” moment.

Here’s what you do:

Make your batter.

Also (not pictured) prep your mini-cupcake pans.  Either line them with paper or spray them with a non-stick baking spray.  Or if you’re REALLY good, smear butter all over them- I’m a spray person these days.

Line a 4-cup measure with a gallon food storage bag, preferably one with two layers of zips.  You may have to use something else if your measuring cup is too wide.  My cups are the “OXO” brand and it fit perfectly.

Pour in your batter.  (Are you impressed?  I took the photo with my LEFT hand while pouring with my RIGHT.) 

 Zip up your bag.

 Turn your bag and smooth all the batter away from one of the bottom corners.  Snip the corner of the bag.  Make it small- you can always make it bigger.

 Mine was actually a smidge too big, and it was probably about an inch wide, so next time I’ll make it 1/2 inch and see if that helps.

 Carefully move your bag over your pans and start squeezing!  The batter comes out fast unless it’s a thick cake batter, but you’ll get a rhythm going and pretty soon all of your pans will be full.  Love it!

 Here’s that red one up close:

 This made the process of mini-cupcakes sooo much easier.  And here are my finished products:

Now some other tips:

• To frost cupcakes, regular or small, the fastest way… I always use a pastry bag with a #16 Wilton tip (or some other star tip).  It is so much faster to use the pastry bag, and it really doesn’t take that much practice to make them “pretty.”  All frosting is pretty, really.  If you find yourself reading this and thinking, “No way.  There’s no way I can do that…”   If my girl scout troop leader could simultaneously teach 8-12 girls scouts, all sixth graders, to decorate cakes, then you can try it.  Just try it once.  You’ll thank me.  I frosted about 50 mini-cupcakes in 15 minutes yesterday.  Boo-yah.

• If you’re displaying your cupcakes and it’s possible, frost them AFTER you position them.  For example, I’m taking these cupcakes into school today.  I frosted them after I placed them in their containers.  The less you have to move something after it’s been frosted, the less likely it is to get messed up.  This is impossible with a cupcake stand, but with platters it works great.

• For the best tasting cupcakes on little time, I use a box mix of cake but I always make fresh frosting from scratch.  If you think about how long canned frosting sits on a shelf waiting to be used…. it’s really just shortening with sugar.  Bleh.   Buttercream or whip cream frosting is yummy and preservative-free.  My favorite is buttercream, and I love this recipe– it’s super easy.   For some reason dry ingredients sitting around doesn’t bug me as much as frosting on the shelf.  Just me.

I used that red silicone heart tray for the first time today.  For me, the jury is still out.  I was expecting them to just fall out of the silicone, but they didn’t.   Anyone love them and have any tips?

Do you have any cupcake tricks?  Please share!  I also wrote a post about making a hat cake- you can read it here.

Hat Cake! …A Tutorial?

Posted by missmusic1976 on Jun 30, 2010 | Comments Off on Hat Cake! …A Tutorial?

This might be a tutorial.  I’m not sure.  You tell me.   And WARNING:  lots of pictures and looooong post ahead!

A few months ago Michael’s family started planning his grandmother’s (GG’s) 90th birthday celebration.  90!  I should be so lucky….  Anyway, we had just come off our birthday season with the kids and I felt like I had my cake-making chops back in order.  When I was in college and living in Dallas I really got into making fun, fancy cakes, and then one bad wedding experience turned me off of them for quite a looooong time.  But I kept all of my cake stuff knowing that someday I’d have kids and such.  Thank goodness for that- some cake stuff is not cheap!

I’ll throw in my tips that I’ve learned.  Much of what I have learned is through trial and error, and also the best Girl Scout Leader in the world, Mrs. Kelly.  She was awesome (no uniforms!) on many levels.  She got us all together with cake kits for a day of cake making and I was hooked.

I think the best thing to do when you want to make a cake that is anything other than 2 round layers and some frosting is to have a plan.  I was reminded of this when I started thinking about GG’s cake. I decided to make her a hat cake- she loves hats and has a bazillion of them.  I had a relative plan in my head, and I figured out the pan situation ahead of time, but that was where my plan ended, which came back to bite me in the rear later.

I went to Michael’s Craft Store to get a few things. I came back with this cake mix, which I wasn’t expecting to find:

If you aren’t aware, that’s Duff, the Ace of Cakes.  Apparently he has his own line of stuff- and boy is it expensive.  But the mix wasn’t too bad price-wise and I was too curious.   Let me just say:  YUM.  Delish.  So soft, so moist, and just like making a Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker cake (add eggs, oil & water and you’re good to go).  (Personally I don’t care for Pillsbury mixes- too light and crumbly when I make them.)  The cake was just dense enough to hold up to any kind of construction, and it was just plain yummy.   My philosophy with cakes is that the cake itself doesn’t *have* to be from scratch, but the frosting should.  I don’t have issues with using pre-mixed dry ingredients, but I do have issues with scooping frosting out of a can that’s been sitting on a shelf for Lord-knows-how-long.

Back to the tutorial…  I love parchment paper!  I use it as often as possible because it guarantees things will come out nice and clean.  For the base of the cake I used two 10-inch cake rounds.  I traced the pan on parchment and cut it out.  Then I spray the pan with baking spray, set the parchment paper on the bottom, and spray again.  One thing I like is that it comes out clean and there isn’t white gunk all over the bottom of the cake.

Top left:  this is the little dome I used to make the top of the hat.  It’s a Wilton pan used to make baseballs and such.  It comes with a ring to set it in so it bakes flat and doesn’t fall over.  Smart, eh?

*Trick!*  Top right:  After baking, I carefully invert the cakes onto the cooling rack after they’ve been out for 10 minutes or so.  Problem:  they are upside down.  To handle them now would be certain death to the cake, though- they’d fall apart.  So, I place another cooling rack on them upside down (bottom left), and gently flip them all over inside the rack .  Voila!  Cakes are uprighted and cooling their heels (bottom right).  I leave the parchment paper on the bottom- keeps the crumbs on the cake and my counter a bit less messy for the moment.

Another tip:  don’t try to do a cake all in one day.  Especially if you have a lot of decorating to do.  It’s not worth the stress.   To keep my cakes fresh I let them cool completely.  Then I lay out two long pieces of foil in a cross (left).  It’s hard to see in the photo, but then I do the same again with plastic wrap.  Then I place one layer on the cross.  Wrap it up in the plastic wrap, and then the foil, making sure you keep it totally air tight.  I like to fold the last piece over and make a little fold.  It makes me feel better (right).  Then you can make them a day or two ahead and they will not be stale by the time everyone bites into them.

Some of my favorite tools- a really long, serrated knife for leveling (it’s HUGE!) and a cute cake tester.  I never bake anything longer than 20 minutes before checking on it.  We don’t have a brand new oven, and it’s not reliable for temperature, so I check all things often.  Cake testers help when you’re not quite sure- chocolate cake is especially deceptive because it just smells good and is so dark.

Top left:  if you’re going to have any sort of tiers you might want to get cardboard rounds.  They don’t show because you cover them up with frosting, and they make slicing and serving the cake a lot easier.  I had a bunch of 10-inch rounds, so I just cut one down for the little dome for the top of the hat.  Top right:  Frosting!  I love this recipe– the whipping cream really makes a huge difference.  Bottom left:  I used this cake stand, and to just give myself peace of mind I put a dollop of frosting on the platform to assure myself the cake would not fall off if tipped.  Bottom right:  first layer up!

I have seen many cakes topple over because they were not leveled.  Most cakes, unless baked in special pans with special stuff, naturally dome at the top.  You have to flatten them  to make sure everything stays nice and level- enter… THE KNIFE!  What I love about leveling:  you get to TASTE …the …CAKE.  Yum and HOORAY!  Bottom right:  You can see the construction of the actual hat.  Notice the little piece of cardboard under there.

So here’s where things got dicey and the pictures sort of fade to black.  I also bought this stencil that Wilton makes.  I had visions of making her cake say “Happy Bday” without having to pipe the words out myself.  Given the shape of the cake, though, I realized I’d have to cut the words from the stencil.  No problem.  Then I realized I’d have to cut the letters apart so they could follow the curve of the cake.  No problem.  Then I tried using the letters with a pearl dust.  I followed directions- spraying the letters with cooking spray to prevent them from sticking.   Yeah…..not so much.

This is where my plan sort of fell apart.  The original letters didn’t work, and I had rose pearl dust everywhere.  I had to smear the whole top of the hat to sort of blend in the dust, but it ended up looking pretty.  I tried to write the message with little pearls that I also bought, but hated the way it looked.

Fast forward a few hours, and below is what I ended up with.  I had to break out the piping tips and write it myself- but it turned out great.  It was still missing something, though.  Good thing I bought flowers!

I decided to use the white and pink flowers, given that I ended up not using yellow on the cake at all.  Left:  flowers in the vase (see my little Jack watching- so cute!)  Center & Right: Thankfully the flowers came with straws to hold them up, so I just cut them a smidge longer than the stems so that I could stick them in the cake and not have too much flower touch the cake itself.

The finished product!  I think it turned out wonderful!  I wasn’t sure about it until I put the flowers in.