Our oldest daughter turned four! Four year olds know what they want do they not? I was politely informed of a wish list for the perfect party for a four year old princess. The most important part of any birthday party, in a child’s eyes is the birthday cake. Our daughter informed me that she wanted a strawberry cake, a chocolate cake, and vanilla cake. This year, since we moved to a new city in a completely different state, I don’t have all of the great resources and contacts that I had found over all of our years in Los Angeles. I made a couple treats for her party last year, but the majority were from a wonderful creative talented baker. I started going on search for someone like her, and realized it was really hard to find…it’s kind of a hit or miss with those kind of things, kind of like restaurants, so I decided to diy everything myself, since our youngest is a little older now, and I’m not as sleep deprived as I used to be.  I’m not going to lie, I was pretty tired, but you should have seen the look on her face on the morning of her birthday. It was priceless, and it’s *that* look that made everything worth it~

I wanted to recreate a small piece of her party from last year, but differently~ in a very minimal-ethereal-whimsical-vintage-with a hint of romantic kind of way.

DIY!

3 layer cake

I wanted to fulfill daugther’s wish so, I decided to make a three layer, two tier Neapolitan cake from scratch.

strawberry cake for the bigger bottom layer is still cooling.

while I was waiting, i admired my finished smaller top tier~

Very easy, just use your favorite strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate cake recipes.

strawberry frosting for the layers, and vanilla frosting on the top you can find below (made the same for her other cuppie treats)

Red velvet cupcakes

My fave cupcakes (daughter’s too) are from a bakery called Sprinkles, which you can find in Los Angeles. Here are my impostor red velvets (circles made of fondont)

more sprinkles imposters ~~even though these aren’t really cupcakes- they are

Vanilla creme brulee with strawberry whipped topping silly

recipe below-

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2011/10/creme-brulee-cupcakes.html

quick tip~* bake the “cupcakes” for 5-7 mins then take out and stir the insides for 2-3 seconds each, then put back in and leave there until the remaining time. This will make them chewy on the outside. You should see a brownish ring on the edge.. Chewy on that golden lining, and soft on the yellow inside.

strawberry frosting- http://www.marthastewart.com/316838/sprinkles-strawberry-frosting

They are sooo chewy on the outside and moist on the inside kind of like your favorite cookie, sooo yummy. (this ended up being hubby’s fave treat from the spread)

Sugar Cookies

sugar cookies from scratch, decorated with fuschia cookie icing and tiny shimmery little heart flakes. I used these delicate hearts flecks on the cake too.

all wrapped up and ready to eat.

I made the same dough I used for my sugar cookies for the cookie making activity for daughter’s birthday party. I pre-made 2 lbs of this stuff the night before!

the recipe is super easy and very yummy~I’ve been using THIS recipe before daughter was even born~! ~It is amazing~>

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/sugar-cookies-10000001694774/index.html

*note- i use ONE cup of sugar, and while making the cookies (rolling the dough out) I spread powdered sugar on a flat surface instead of flour-too much flour makes the cookies less sweet)*

Pom poms

Made 20 pom poms, all pink and creme

here’s a tutorial on how to make them if you haven’t tried yet- yes time consuming, but really pretty easy!

http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/tissue-paper-pom-poms-how-to

Cake pops (that look like cupcakes)

Made 40 cake pops, to look like cupcakes- one of daughter’s fave treats.

Bakerella’s recipe is amazing~(quick tip~in my opinion you don’t really need the small star cutter. The cake was easier to mold with my finger tips)

http://www.bakerella.com/make-your-cupcakes-pop/

I used the same heart dust, and had many craft clothing pins, so put them on there to tie them closed~

Banner

for the backdrop of the treats table~

Supplies:

4 yards of burlap

2 rug runners (one cut into half, and the other cut into 4 equal pieces

Black and pink clothing ink

stencils

scissors

heart cookie cutter

needle/thread

cream felt

Using the first runner which was cut in half made the body of the two banners above. I wanted to the banner to have some noticeable texture, which is why I chose burlap to bring out that retro, vintage flair. I chose a font that I thought matched this theme also.  Burlap is not that expensive at all, and 4 yards of it cost only 6 dollars, score! for the second runner I made 4 bows, sewn to each end of the banners.

I made a triangle template using the back of a croissant box and made the perfect triangle that I wanted. Then, I traced the pattern many times and cut out the triangles. I frayed the edges by pulling out string here and there to expose it more and give the banner more texture. I then sewed each triangle to the rug runner. I used fabric pen, and stencils for the lettering, and for the hearts, I used one of our heart shaped cookie cutters, (same cutter that I used on the heart cookies). To add more texture to the banner, I cut out some creme hearts from felt, and sewed them on as well. With the second runner cut into four equal pieces, I tied into 4 perfect bows placed on the end of the banners. I just sipped a v on the ends to make it look more like a ribbon.

materials-

scissors/ruler

crocheting fabric (backing)

fancy floss

needle thread

stencil

black fabric ink

small kids aprons

I kept the banner idea flowing, and had an idea to make individualized banners for the kids too! I thought it would look cute if I put them on their personalized aprons they would wear while they made cookies. I used crocheting fabric for the small triangles and cute out many little triangles an inch long.  method= same as the big banner.

favor tags 

I just designed on illustrator for mac. The font is called loveable. In the background you can kind of see one of the aprons I made.

party time

sweet treats ~strawberry gummies & red licorice wheels

the spread~

I made an extra name banners one for my daughter’s cake too. I love my vintage cake stands, I use one of them on our counter top all the time. The two together worked perfectly for the party. I searched high and low for the perfect simple cake stand to bring out the cake, and found this wire one at walmart of all places! I also found the cake pop stand there too- both together= under 20 dollars.

5 hours of love baked right in

I spontaneously decided to put clothes pins on the cakepops~imo it ended up looking awesome in the end~ really did “tie” everything together, love it!

these are the looks that I’m talking about…those looks are the ones that make everything you do for you babies SO worth it.

personalized take home boxes for the treats the kids make

before the fun began~

the party favors were the first thing I decided upon and it was the easiest decision. The two toys below are our daughter’s favorite toys. She got these when she was two years old, and STILL role plays with them since she is so into sweets and kitchen play. They perfectly tie into the theme of the activity of the party, because the kiddos made/decorated cupcakes and cookies!  Making the tags was easy after thinking about it too!

time to decorate!

just a couple of the kiddo’s packaged creations. these are good enough to sell, no?

guests devoured half the cake~ (we saved the top for daughter) I love how it turned out, and it was really yummy. SO moist on the inside.

happy birthday love.