Austin turns 5: A Star Wars Party

My little man is now 5!...and like all of the 5 year old boys I know he wanted to have a Star Wars party...and since I like to throw the.best.party.ever....this is what we came up with.

In an attempt to come up with a color scheme that wasn't as dark as the Star Wars films and graphics can be, I found this super cute clip art we used on the evite and thank you cards. The balloons and party ware were also blue, cobalt, orange and black. Still Star Wars but definitely more festive.





And of course, in this house, a majority of the party planning revolves around the cake. Here is a picture of the R2-D2 cake I made for the party. He took MANY hours but he was much loved!



I made this 'Happy Birthday' banner out of coordinating blue, cobalt, orange and black papers. I had to add a picture of Austin posing with his cake and decor in the background as well.





And a 'Welcome to the party' door sign also with matching graphic.



Here is a picture of Austin modeling one of the Jedi cloaks I made for all his little friends at the party.



They each got to take one home. Don't them look great!



We also made each child a lightsaber out of a pool noodle. We found pool noodles at the dollar store (what a deal) and just cut them in half and wrapped the bottom in duct tape to make a handle. This was a huge hit!



Especially since we tied balloons to ziploack bags filled with sand and taped pictures of the Star Wars 'bad guys' on them. We positioned them around the yard and the kids had the best time pummeling them with their new lightsabers.



I also had the Hubby make a 'hot lava pit' in the backyard. We took our kiddie pool and filled it with a little water. Then using cinder blocks and a 2x4 , made a beam that went accross the pool. The best part was the fog machine that we put inside the pool to make it really feel like a hot lava pit. There were many epic lightsaber battles at the hot lava pit that day.



We played a few Star Wars inspired games and then broke open the pinata. I made this soccer ball pinata look like the Death Star with a little time and a lot of paint. You can't tell in the picture but it's actually sparkly.



Each child also got to take home a package of Star Wars sugar cookies. I purchased the cutters at William Sonoma and they are awesome. They included Boba Fett, Yoda, a Stormtrooper and Darth Vader. For another way to use these cutters look for my Star Wars Cupcakes post.



A good tome was had by all, especially the birthday boy...and that's what really matters, right?!

R2-D2 Birthday Cake

My little boy turned 5 earlier this month, and although I will eventually have a post which includes all of the details of his party, I think his cake deserves a post all its own. Austin requested a Star Wars party this year and what better way to do so than with a cake shaped like R2-D2.

R2-D2's body was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. His legs were molded from rice krispie treats, covered in white chocolate and then covered in fondant. All decorations made from fondant and gumpaste. He was a lot of cake and took a lot of time, but so worth it!

Springtime Chocolate Lollipops

My new favorite place to shop and hang out is Dawn's Candy and Cake in Kirkland. She not only sells everything you could ever want to make candy,cake, chocolate...but she also has a variety of classes she and her talented employees teach. If there is something you are wanting to learn they are happy to put together a class for you or a group.

That being said, I have been wanting to take Dawn's Chocolate 101 class for quite awhile. So, I got the girls together and signed us up. We set up an evening class and everyone brought snacks to share, which made it even more of a special event. This class usually runs 2-3 hours. The cost is $15 and includes 1chocolate mold of your choice (which you take home with you) and up to a pound of chocolate, after the first pound you pay per pound for what you use.

This is a great deal! They had all of the chocolate warm and ready to go when we got there. There was also a variety of colors of chocolate to use as well. Dawn and her staff did a demo for us and showed us how to use the colors to make our chocolates as detailed as we wanted and were there to help us out whenever we needed. When we were all finished the staff helps us with bags, boxes and bows for all of our chocolates. They all ended up so pretty!

Here is a picture of the spring bugs lollipops that I made that night. I wish I had taken more pictures of what everyone else had made. This was so fun! Thanks Dawn!

"Love Cake" Purse Cake

I love this cake! What girl wouldn't want this fabulous purse...real or cake?!






I learned everything I needed to know to make this cake from Kasey Lackey from the People's Cake in Seattle. Kasey is a Food Network Challenge winner and a dynamic teacher. I was very lucky to be able to take this class from her. It was educational and fun! My purse is currently sitting in my kitchen window, so if you wanted to take look just stop on by...it loves admirers!

My best Red Velvet Cake

This week I was asked to make a birthday cake for someone at my husband's work. They wanted a red velvet cake...no fondant, no decorations, nothing...just the cake. Just goes to show that when I say the red velvet cake I make is my most popular, I really am telling the truth!

Astronaut Birthday Cake

So, I was asked to do an astronaut cake for Jamal's 5th birthday. The best part about this was that his mom knew exactly what she wanted. She had a picture of an exact cake she wanted me to replicate which made the design process super easy.

Jamal's mom was so excited about his cake that she asked me to take some pictures of the cake in process. You know what that means for you? More Pictures. Yeah!

I made this cake from a chocolate/vanilla swirl pound cake and filled it with my best chocolate buttercream. It's not often that I get to carve a cake and I wanted something that would hold up well and not fall apart when I cut into, so the pound cake worked out great!

This first pic is of the stacked cakes right after I carved the body of the rocket. I am always amazed at the amount of cake that I have to carve away and then throw out.

...add buttercream

...and fondant

...Voila! An almost finished rocket!


And what rocket doesn't need an astronaut...Molding people is quite a new thing for me but am pretty pround of how this little guys head turned out.

...Now for his space suit and helmet

And here it is...I wish the picture of the completed product was better so you could see all of the details. One of the things I loved was the hand painted silver stars all over the cake board and the moon that said 'Happy Birthday Jamal'.


So, Happy Birthday Jamal! I hope it was a blast!

Stephanie's Baby Shower Cupcakes

My friend Stephanie is having a baby!...and in celebration of baby Sawyer, we were invited to share a wonderful day with the expectant mother at her baby shower. And guess what?...I brought the cupcakes.

For this party I did three different flavors of mini-cupcakes. A lemon pound cake with blue vanilla buttercream, chocolate cake with fresh raspberry buttercream and vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream. I decorated each flavor with different fondant flowers and edible pearls.

We are so excited to meet little Sawyer at the end of the month. I know she'll be even sweeter than these cupcakes. Congrats Lance and Stephanie!