May is birthday Month at our house and for some reason, I always try to out-do myself from the year before with the celebrations. My husband and I don’t really do anything for our birthdays besides a dinner out, so when it comes to my kids parties, I roll up my sleeves and rack my brain for a good party theme, crafts, and a good excuse to make things I don’t ordinarily have a reason to! Now that my oldest daughter is 8, her parties are tending to lean more towards American Girl, Salon & Spa, and ultra girly pre-teen fun but she’s usually pretty set on how she wants it to be, whereas my youngest, who is about to turn 3, still jumps on board with whatever idea mommy comes up with!
The cake is, in my mind, the absolute most important part of all the party food! I don’t consider myself much of a baker, so in the past I had always ordered a cake from the local grocery store, picked it out from one of their books or right out of their refrigerator section. When my youngest turned the big ONE however, I thought I would tempt fate and try my hand at baking my own cake, complete with pink homemade fondant, and glitter flowers!
Nobody likes the taste of fondant – its yucky, they put it on wedding cakes because it looks pretty but everyone just peels it off and eats the regular icing that’s underneath! On a mission to find something that would encourage a toddler to want to stuff it into their mouth with a big smile on their face (makes for great pictures) but still have a smooth finish like a wedding cake, I came across a super awesome recipe for MARSHMALLOW FONDANT, a yummy fondant that looks AND tastes great! Not only was it a huge hit at the party, but I’ve used this recipe ever since for all of my fondant cakes – it is simply, the best. Here’s how my very first cake turned out – a little bumpy, but all in all, super cute!
Year 2 in birthday cakes was proceeded by a full season of Cake Boss which taught me that a little modeling chocolate and Rice Crispy Treats go a long way. Year 2 was also the year of Elmo in our house, so with an entire Sesame Street themed birthday party, came an over-the-top Elmo Cake complete with homemade MODELING CHOCOLATE and a Rice Crispy Elmo! See pics below…. Elmo is modeled out of rice crispy treats, then coated with modeling chocolate and pricked 100s of times with a tooth pick to make “fur”.
This year, my cake is a surprise, but I will share it with you once we have the party and get some great pics of it! Stay tuned!
Follow the links below for the recipes:
Recipe for Marshmallow Fondant
Recipe for Modeling Chocolate (TIP: I found that this called for a little too much corn syrup which made the chocolate harder to mold – start with half the amount and work it until its easy to mold. You can always add a little more if you feel it needs it.)
This is a guest post by Emily Parman. Emily is a wife, mother, blogger, and owner of Doodlebug Boutique : “Hand-crafted hair bows, tutus, & Accessories for your little Doodlebug!”. Find more of her creations on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DoodlebugBoutique
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