Lily's Girly-Girl Party

When I asked Lily what kind of birthday party she wanted to have, she was all over the place like a four year old should be. Here's a sampling of what she would say exclaim when I would ask her what she'd like to do: Princess! Fairies! Whales! Radishes! (dead serious, you guys) Dance! Nail Polish! Fancy Nancy! Phew. I tried to prod her in certain directions, but we weren't getting anywhere. Then it hit me one night as I was laying in bed bouncing ideas around my brain. Why not throw a girly-girl party?! Bingo. A girly-girl party would surley fit most of Lily's desires under its umbrella.....all except maybe the whales. I pitched the idea to Lily and she loved it, so we ran with it! The party came together with ease and Lily and I had fun making it all happen. 

On a completely unrelated note (but somewhat related), I've decided that we're going to throw a friend party for our kids every other year, starting when they turn four. I know lots of other families do this and I think it's so smart. Gives us moms a nice break to let the creative juices fill back up and your bank account gets a break too! Here are some pictures from Lily's first official friend party, if you'd like to take a look.

This giant balloon (36 in diameter) greeted the guests when they arrived. Lily and I fell hard for this balloon when we walked in the party supply store. We had to have it!

I dug through my craft supplies to make these banners and they came together in about an hour. Lily helped me punch out the circles with our round punch for the happy birthday banner. I used a black sharpie to do the all caps lettering and then I strung it up with some pink ribbon. For the Lily banner I used black cardstock that I cut into the flag like shape, strung them on some hemp twine, then I used a piece of white chalk to do the girly cursive lettering. The Lily banner ended up being one of my favorite elements of the party. Black, when used right can have a cool impact.

We flanked the banners with some balloons from Zurchers (party supply store in Orem, UT if you're local). Nice and simple.

Randy grabbed a mediocre grocery store bouquet of flowers the morning of the party and it totally pulled the food table together. Flowers are the icing on the cake, so to speak....even if they are mediocre.

For the food I made some simple ham and cheese roll sandwiches (with a fancy toothpick, our subtle nod to the Fancy Nancy books), raspberry lemonade, and some kid friendly fruit and veg.

White cupcakes w/ strawberry buttercream frosting per Lily's request. I piped that icing on the cupcakes half-hazardly and that is just the way I like it. It took me all of 10 minutes.

I pulled out all my pink bowls and cake stands for the table. I rolled out a piece of black and white wrapping paper for a little interest and a foundation. Want to hear something weird? Pink is my least favorite color, but I LOVE and am always drawn to it on dishes and serving pieces.

The girls ate their food on a blanket picnic style. They all LOVED this. Scouts honor, not one of those glasses of raspberry lemonade got tipped over.

I adore this picture of Lily. So happy. So excited. 

The girls painted wooden jewelry box purses that you can find at Michael's. You don't see it, but I made each of the little girls wear a white garbage sack to protect their clothes. We let the boxes dry while we opened presents. After presents we came back and "bedazzled" (this was a stretch for me) the boxes with some sticky gems and some glitter.

In true Lily fashion, she chose sunglasses and lip gloss for the party favors. We got the lip gloss in a pack at Michael's and the sunglasses in a pack at Zurcher's. Both the lip gloss and the sunglass pack were super inexpensive. I think the lip gloss pack was around four dollars and the pack of 12 sunglasses was around 10 bucks. The striped bag is from Zurcher's as well. We sealed the bag with some pink washi tape from my own stash.

The end!

Thanks for letting me share this really long post about Lily's fourth birthday. It was a pleasure to put together and Lily had so much fun, which makes me the happiest mom in the world. However, I did learn a few things that I will do for parties to come, like being aware of where the products I'm buying are made. This is a hard feat since it seems as though everything is made in China. Next time I'll put more effort in to finding favors and supplies that are made in the states or local. I also loved having a helper at the party and I will definitely do this again. It was especially helpful when we painted the girls nails! Thanks to my girl, Abby, for helping me out the day of the party and making it that much more fun. If you have any questions about the party, leave a comment and I'll respond in the comments. Thanks for stopping by today!

all images by Briana, last image from my instagram, follow me at breezy_may

German Chocolate Cupcakes

Same amazing chocolate cupcake, different frosting! Everyone went back for seconds!

Coconut-Pecan Frosting:

In a saucepan add:

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup granulated sugar

3 egg yolks

1 stick butter

Stir constantly over medium heat until thickened, about 20 minutes. Once thickened, take off the heat and add:

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cup shredded coconut

1 cup pecans, chopped

Let cool and then frost. Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes.

Images by Kar

Chocolate Cupcake W/ Caramel Buttercream

So, we have mentioned before that one of our favorite places for cakes, cupcakes and cookies is The Chocolate. Well, my most favorite cupcake to order when I go there is a chocolate cupcake with caramel buttercream frosting. What's the old saying, "Imitation is the purest form of flattery?" That's what I've attempted to do here. Because seriously, why mess with something that in my opinion has already reached perfection?! I took a classic texas sheet cake recipe, tweaked it and made cupcakes. They turned out even better than I expected and so easy! I made the buttercream using the same ratios I use for most of my butter based frostings and added a generous dose of high quality caramel flavoring. The 411 on caramel flavoring is that I had to order it on line. Unfortunately, you can't by this stuff at the grocery store. Some specialty food stores may carry it but I couldn't find it where I live. I whipped the butter to incorporate lots of air and make it fluffy before adding the powdered sugar. The finished result was a moist and tender chocolate cupcake with a silky smooth caramel frosting! Give them a try! You will not be let down!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

For the cake:

2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

1 1/2 sticks of butter

2 squares unsweetened Baker's chocolate

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large mixing bowl combine: flour, sugar and salt. Set aside. In a glass bowl or liquid measuring cup microwave water, butter and chocolate for 2 minutes then stir. Making sure chocolate is completely melted. Add this mixture to the flour mixture and mix well. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour into 2 cupcake paper lined muffin tins. Makes 24 cupcakes. Then into the oven for 15-18 minutes. Cool in tins for 15 minutes, then transfer cupcakes to cooling racks.

For caramel buttercream:

2 sticks butter, softened

5 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons caramel flavoring (may differ depending on the brand you use and how concentrated it is)

Whip butter for about 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating after each cup. Add caramel flavoring 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each. Frost and ENJOY!

images by Kar

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

So, these little dreams came to me as I was trying to decide what kind of cupcakes to make for a party later on in the evening. I knew I wanted to use Italian meringue or seven minute frosting for the topping. I just didn’t know what kind of cupcake to put underneath it. Then it dawned on me, HELLO! Make white cupcakes, fill them with lemon curd, frost them with Italian meringue and then torch the top! And this is how the Lemon Meringue Cupcake came to fruition. The tart and silky lemon curd is a perfect paring with the spongey white cake and marshmallowy smooth frosting.

For the lemon curd:

3 Lemons

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 stick butter, room temp

1/8 tsp salt

4 large eggs, room temp

Zest lemons and then squeeze lemons to get roughly 1/2 cup juice. In mixing bowl, mix sugar and zest together. Then add butter and beat until well combined. Add eggs 1 at a time. Beating after each addition. Then add lime juice and salt.

Pour mixture into saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. About 10-15 minutes. Store in clean container and in the fridge to cool.

For cupcakes:

1 Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker white cake mix. Follow directions on box and also add 1/4 cup sour cream. Baking times on box apply. Let cool on wire rack.

For Seven minute frosting:

In small saucepan heat 1-2 inches of water just to simmering.

Combine in a large stainless steel bowl:

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large egg whites, room temp

6 Tbs cold water

1 1/2 Tbs light corn syrup

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Pinch of salt

Put bowl over top of water in saucepan. Making sure simmering water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. And beat constantly, using electric beaters until mixture thickens to stiff peaks. Remove from heat and add 1 tsp vanilla.

To assemble Cupcakes:

Spoon cooled lemon curd into a pastry bag with bismark filler tip. Or use any other plain narrow opening tip you may have. And press gently down into the center of each cupcake, then squeeze some of the lemon curd into each. Frost top of each cupcake with a generous amount of the seven minute frosting and then use a kitchen torch to slightly burn the tops. If you don’t have a kitchen torch, turn your oven broiler on high and put the oven rack 1 from the top. Put the cupcakes on a cookie sheet and into the oven. Do not leave them. Watch closely so the frosting doesn’t melt. Take them out a soon as you start seeing slight golden.

Lemon curd recipe- Scottsdale Culinary Institute

Seven Minute Frosting recipe- America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

images by Kar

Banana Cupcakes With Neufchatel Buttercream

I was online this morning comparing different banana cake recipes. The thing that struck me as odd is people saying they use the same recipe interchangeably for banana bread or banana cake. In my opinion, as meager as it may be, there needs to be a difference people! Banana bread is heavy, dense and moist, while banana cake should be tender, light, fluffy and moist. So, after a lot of ingredient comparing, I found a promising recipe that just needed to be tweaked a bit to get the desired results. They were simple to make, baked up beautifully and exactly what I was hoping for! TENDER! LIGHT! FLUFFY! MOIST!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together until light and fluffy:

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Add and mix in:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour or 2 2/3 cups cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Fold in:

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (roughly 3 medium bananas)

Line 2 regular muffin tins with cupcake papers and fill each 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 20 minutes. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Neufchatel Buttercream

Our Momma has been using Neufchatel cheese in place of cream cheese in frosting for a long time now. It has a very similar flavor to cream cheese but not quite as tart, a little creamier and smoother. Plus, it’s a 1/3 less fat, can be found in most grocery stores right alongside the cream cheese and is the same price.

Whip together:

8 oz Neufchatel Cheese

1 stick butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

Add 1 cup at a time, mixing between each addition:

5 cups powdered sugar

Add milk a little at a time, if needed to get to spreading consistency.

Original Banana Cake recipe found at allrecipes.com. Modified by Kar

Neufchatel Buttercream recipe by Momma and Kar

images by Kar