Having a daughter is so much fun for me. Planning a party that you dream as a child is awesome - reliving childhood dreams.

Would have wanted to make everything piink and go over the top for this party with matching pink carpet, pink curtains, feathers, etc...same as in the "P is for Party" blog.  Isn't that awesome. But then again I realized my daughter is onIy five (5) and that I should really wait for the big 7th birthday to have this kind of party. In the Philippines where I was born and raised, the 1st,  7th and 18th birthdays are big celebrations. But we'll see when she turns seven.

This party is a mix of pink and purple, which are both my daughter's favorite colors. Here's a picture of the party area before the guests arrived (more balloons have been placed after this picture was taken).

We had  cupcake decorating which the girls enjoyed so much. I made three dozen cupcakes (chocolate and vanilla).

The cupcake stands are Martha Stewart Line (not too sturdy I find. but if you don't have time to make one, this will do and it's much cheaper) which I decorated with pink flowers.

I also prepared the sprinkles, M&M, Skittles, Smarties, Gummy candies, edible toppers, all the good sugary stuff and placed them in separate cupcake liners for the cupcake decorating activity.

The kids also got the chance to piped the icing on their cupcakes. Isn't that cool?

Let us talk about the cake. The cake is a three tiered cake with pink and purple color as well.
The bottom tier is a four layers chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese filling,
the second tier is a two tiered vanilla cake with buttercream filling and
the top tier - the Barbie Cake is a three layers chocoate with cream cheese filling. 

All the layers were crumbcoated and coated with Swiss Italian  Meringue Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache. Honestly, it was my first time to make the Swiss Italian Meringue Buttercream. It is so delicious,  not too sweet compared to a frosting using Icing sugar. For recipe and tutorial go CakeJournal.com (go here).

The colors on the cake were airbrushed using Americolor Air Brush Colors Deep Pink and Lavander.
The five candles are the colored flames ones (she wanted five candles instead of the number five candle, very picky this customer..lol). 
The Barbie Flairies (the three dolls on the first  and second tier) are all edible which I made two weeks ago.
The Barbie Doll on the top tier cake is a real doll. The Eiffel Tower is made of gumpaste.

The kids enjoyed all the games we  prepared: Pin the pendant on Barbie's Necklace (Pin Donkey's Tail), Musical Chairs, Freeze Dance and the BARBIE Pinata. And of course, each kid went home with their loot bags and some with their decorated cupcakes.

The party would have not been successful without the help of my hubby David and a great friend Mae. She did all the cooking for me and gave my daughter  an arrangement of fruits dipped in chocolate.. Please visit her store in downtowm Fredericton - Blossoms Fruit Arrangements. Thanks again Mae.

Happy Birthday my princess Melissa! Love you so much!

My beautiful daughter Melissa turned five in December 30, 2010, however we decided to have her brithday celebration with her friends before January ends. This year will be different compared to the previous years. She is in control of who to invite, the theme, the colors and her cake design.

The colors are going to be pink and purple. It will be a Fashion Barbie Princess Party. She had the idea to decorate the house with balloons (lots of them), wall stickers and lanterns So we’re hanging pink and purple lanterns from Martha Stewart line and using pink fabric for a tablecloth.

We are going to do fun, kid-friendly activities - cupcake decorating, fruit arrangement, pinata, etc. I bought several non-edible cake toppers, edible sprinkles, made edible cake toppers (daisies and butterflies) using fondant and here's another one that I made - Paper Dress Cupcake Topper. I got the idea online. This is fun to make....maybe will have this too as an activity on her party,

And the cake! It’s white cake with strawberry jam filling and chocolate cake with cream cheese filling.. It will be a Barbie Fashion Cake - three tiered cake. A 10-in cake, 8 in cake and the Barbie cake as the top tier..

Another cool idea I found online - I am going to do a large canvas so that we can trace each of the kid’s hands with non-toxic markers, write their names and paste their photos next to each. It will be an activity for the kids to do and when it’s all done Melissa will have a sweet picture frame to hang in her room. Isn't that cute?!

I’ll post some photos after the party, so you can see the final result!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Jed loves Playhouse Disney's Special Agent Oso.

As he turns one, his Mom and Dad prepared a party for him with this theme.  I didn't think that I will be able to make this cake as we had planned to celebrate New Year's  Eve at my hubby's family in Grand Manan Island. I emailed Dencio (Jed's Dad) to order a cake from the grocery store, at least there will be a cake instead of none if I didn't show up, right?. So it was a surprise for them when I showed up with this 3D Special Agent Oso cake. The reaction of the parents and the guests were worth all the effort in making this cake.

I had planned to use rice krispy treats to make the legs, arms and head but just did not get the chance due to holiday busy schedule.  So I opted to use fondant with tylose powder instead which means I had consumed more fondant.  Good thing I was able to get them on sale at the Bulk Barn before they closed for renovation. The baking and decorating of this cake were done in one day.

This is a two tiered cake and each tier is three layers - 9 in bottom and 6 in top.  What is special about this cake? This is my first time to carve a cake this big.

Happy 1st Birthday Jed!