A Girly Girl Party: The Cake

You may have already seen some photo's of Amelie's cake on my Facebook page but I thought I'd share some details as to how I got some ideas for the cake I had in mind and then some more pics of Shannon's amazing creation. 

First off I got some party cakes books from the library and came across these cute jewellery themed ones from the AWW More Cakes for Kids book. 

 

But then I googled 'make-up cakes' and came across the bottom left pic below of the make-up compact cake from KidSpot. I really liked the idea of a cake looking like a compact(I loved the idea of using edible glitter for the eye shadows!) Then I thought it would be cool to make it similar to the party invitation I made. 

Then I got a reality check and realised there would be no way I'd have the time or the skills to make a cake like this (and this was before I got giardia so it was doubly lucky!) so I asked the amazing Shannon of Tui Rose Cupcakes if she would be able to make it for me. I sent her the pics below for ideas ...

...and she came back with the most incredible, detailed and gorgeous cake I've ever seen! 

 

I have never ordered a cake before but I'm slowly learning that I can't do everything and the look on Amelie's face when she saw this cake was priceless.  Thank you again Shannon for all your time and effort into this cake- it was so much more than I expected and a true work of art!

But wait there's more...

The reason I actually got the idea for a Girly Girl make-up themed partywas after seeing this pic on pinterest of these nail polish treats - I thought they looked so cool and I knew Amelie would love them as she loves make-up and nail polish.

http://pinterest.com/pin/439593613598050060/

so I asked Shannon if she would be able to make something similar to these as well (I was going to make these myself but being sick put paid to that as well!) and look what she came up with...

 Instead of using marshmallows she used pieces of cake cut off from the make-up cake so they are really upside down cake pops! I love the detail in the icing and the cute flowers.

 
So go like Shannon's Facebook page if you would like to be inspired by more of her amazing creations or need a cake or cupcakes for a special event.

I'll be sharing more details of the party soon- some more food ideas, games and activities, and the goodie bags :)

Megan x

A love themed lunchbox (+ dinner & desert)

If you read my Facebook page you'll have seen my love themed lunchbox I made my 5 year old for Valentines Day last week (thanks again for all the comments and likes). It was a lot of fun to make- I actually like making these type of lunch boxes every now and then (like twice a year!) as they at least relieve the monotony of making the same old lunchbox everyday like I normally do! And the look on Amelie's face when she saw the lunchbox and her excitement at taking it to school was a great feeling :)

 

So here are the details of what I put in it...

* pretzels 

* grapes (actually wanted to use strawberries but couldn't find any)

* hershey's kisses

* a heart shaped ham sandwich with small cut out heart on the top layer of bread ( jam would be good too)

* heart shaped watermelon pieces- these are my new favourite thing to cut into shapes- so easy!

*a love cupcake- I made vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter icing which I coloured light pink, then added some sprinkles and a heart decoration from this packet of decorations from the supermarket (Queen Icing Figurines Little Princess). A friend told me a while ago about these great disposable piping bags and nozzles also from the supermarket so my icing looks a lot fancier than it used to (and it's so much quicker to ice a batch of cupcakes!

I also added a yoghurt and a special treat of of a calci-yum strawberry milk pop top (Amelie has never had a treat drink for school before so she was excited about this the most I think!) I had to put them in a separate lunch box with a cooler lid (along with the cupcake which didn't actually fit in the other lunchbox when you shut the lid but looks good for the photo!). The lunchbox I used for the love treats is actually an organising container from Storage Box (they're also called bait boxes and you can get them from Hammer Hardware thanks Jenni for the tip!). I use these containers all the time for snacks after seeing a friend use them- such a good idea for putting lots of little things in, and they are nice and narrow - not bulky like normal lunch boxes.

For dinner we made homemade heart pizza's which I also did last year. For the kids I bought pita breads and cut them into heart shapes (tip: I used scissors which made it a lot easier!) then they chose their toppings (from my awesome new/old tupperware server I bought off Trademe - here's the same one for sale on trade me) and then made their own pizza's which they loved doing. One day we may even make the pizza dough first -I have a great recipe from a friend who might let me share it :)

For desert I'm no culinary queen but the kids loved this idea I had- I rolled up balls of ice-cream and then rolled them in sprinkles and then put them back in the freezer until we needed them. Then I cut pineapple slices and used a big heart shaped cutter to cut out the pineapples hearts....nice and easy and very popular! The obsessive in me is sort of wishing I'd done big watermelon hearts with ice cream rolled in heart sprinkles as that would look much more Valentines Day-ish colour wise but I had to work with what I had so maybe next year!

So there you have it, some ideas for a love themed lunch and dinner- doesn't have to be Valentines Day to do it, just any day you want to celebrate a bit of love in your home!

Megan x

button biscuits

Somc crafty baking! We made these cute shortbread button biscuits the other day after seeing them on Nikole's lovely blog here. I used the shortbread recipe from the Edmonds cook book but followed Nikole's instruction for making the buttons. This Jo Seagar recipe is pretty much the same as the  Edmonds one for making shortbread if you don't have the cook book.

Some button bikkies for some crafty friends :)

I am really getting into baking now (and even cooking too much to my hubby's surprise!) so each week or two I'm going to share my baking here.  Next up is my friend Kylie's recipe for chocolate button biscuits- they are sooo good!

Have a great weekend,

Megan x