Food & Dessert
I knew early on I wanted some similarities between Will's 1st birthday party and Maggie's. This intentional tie was not forgotten when I considered the menu for Maggie's party. I'm like my mother (in a lot of ways, but that not the point)- I believe if you're coming to my function, I'm going to feed you and feed you well. Unless you don't like my food or want to eat. Then what can I do? Maybe things will change, but for now it's how I roll.
Lunch
Grilling was an obvious choice because it’s that time of year and always yummy, so chicken legs and hot dogs were first pick. In fact, my dad made this great chicken over the 4th of July weekend that went over
really well so I asked him to duplicate it. Fruit, veggies and salad were the sides we chose because they’re yummy, healthy and people with almost any dietary restriction can eat them. We had chips & dip as well. I tried to allot time before the party to take detailed pictures of everything, but that didn’t happen. And nearly everyone we invited showed up, so between hosting and navigating a large crowd, I just didn’t get all the pics I wanted.
I really wanted to do some fruit kabobs and considered it even while grocery shopping, but these would be time consuming and I felt in the end, time would not allow. And I was probably right. So I had my brother, Rob, cut the watermelon in half, ball one side and pour the balls back into the pitted melon and slice the other half. I really like how this turned out. The rest of the fruit- pineapple, strawberries & blueberries were cut up (by Rachel) and mixed together with the pineapple stem placed for looks as well.
I found some really cute pink polka dot cups on clearance at Wal-Mart that I used for salad fixings but didn’t get a picture (you can vaguely see it in the chip & dip pic, but it’s difficult b/c the salsa). I did, however, remember to photograph most of my food labels. When planning Will’s 1st, I had an idea to name the food. I know that’s popular now— labels stating what the item actually is —but I came up with cute names. Like Jungle Fruit for the fruit salad and Safari Mix for trail mix. It’s a creative way to have fun with the food and it has become popular in my family since then. The spotted fruit backfired on me a little because the watermelon turned out to be seedless. Oh well!
I made the labels by printing the names on my computer, gluing them to the party-themed paper and attached a lollipop stick.
Ladybug plates & napkins and pink & green plastic ware. I was shocked that I ran out of plates- my mom, dad & I used other paper plates and here I thought I bought too many! Like I said, though, nearly everyone we invited showed.
The drink table
Like everything else, I wanted the drinks to tie into the theme, so pink lemonade and punch were at the top of my list. I considered homemade punch colored either pink or green, but decided tropical punch Kool-Aid would fit the bill. I used regular pink and green cups instead of the coordinating ladybug paper cups because they're less expensive and more versatile (bigger & can be used again). I also bought and labeled water bottles—I’ve been trying to recall where I found this idea and I finally remembered that I stumbled across some on
Etsy (where I have considered selling my own items awhile now) a few months ago. I knew I could do this myself and found a great tutorial
here. You can’t see the whole label on the bottles, so here’s my design file:
While grocery shopping we also picked up sweet tea to add an extra choice. I was surprised to have over a gallon of tea left but we ran out of pink lemonade and tropical punch right away! It probably didn’t help that someone made some of our Kool-Aid the day before the party, but my sister jumped in and made some cherry Kool-Aid during the party—we had to take down the labels, though. Still, I should’ve bought more….honestly thought the tea would go quicker.
The beverage dispenser needed to be elevated so I wrapped a box with pink polka dot wrapping paper and placed a little saucer underneath to catch any drippings. I like the addition of height and color.
Dessert
My favorite part. Love to make it, love to eat it. Ever since Will's 1st birthday, I have loved decorating cakes! Fortunately for me, my mom also loved (and was quite good, I might add) decorating cakes when we were little, so I didn’t have to invest in any tools. She still has pans, boards, bags & tips! All I have to buy is the cake mix and icing, which I would do anyway, at least until I try from- scratch cakes.
The cake
I knew I wanted a cake, cupcakes and a ladybug incorporated somehow. I thought of so many different ways to do it, bought and returned some things and thought some more. After looking at my first banner a few times, I knew what to do: a ladybug on top of two leaves!
First, I prepared two chocolate cake mixes according to instructions and poured them into a large cake pan (my mom’s- not sure the dimensions but larger than 9x13), baked and let cool completely. Then I cut them into leaf shapes, tinted decorating icing green and applied the first icing layer and let chill in the refrigerator. After the second coat, my mom and I added ‘leaf lines’ and kept them covered well in the refrigerator until the party. I almost didn’t do chocolate because it’s not my favorite cake flavor and I learned from one of Will’s parties that it doesn’t go over as well. However, I just felt like leaves=dirt and had to be chocolate. That’s just me. But yes, we did have a lot leftover.
I used a strawberry cake mix for the ladybug and baked it in a glass Pyrex bowl for the perfect shape- no carving necessary! I baked a cupcake for the head and attached with icing and toothpicks. After the ladybug was constructed, I had Daniel trace her on an old cake board, cut out the shape and covered it with foil. This gave me a good surface to work on and would make the bug easy to place on and remove from the leaves... this was to be Maggie’s smash cake, after all. I tinted decorator icing pink and applied two coats. The eyes and spots are Junior Mints, the antennas are black licorice and everything else is icing. I had so much fun making these- especially the ladybug!
Here’s the whole ensemble! We piped “grass” around the bottom of the leaves and the ladybug. I started to do it but my mom took over ‘cause we were down to the wire and I had some other things to tend to.
The cupcakes
Always popular, so why not have them? Plus this gave me a chance to make cupcake toppers- so fun- and cover all the main cake flavors- chocolate, strawberry & vanilla. I was going to tint the icing pink and green but the morning of the party just decided the sprinkles I had would do the trick and left the icing white. I used regular icing for the cupcakes- not decorator icing- and used a piping bag and tip to swirl on the icing- I’ll probably do this with cupcakes from now on because it looks nicer than just using a knife without much effort.
I designed the toppers to look like the invitations, door signs, water bottle labels, etc., printed them at home and used my Cricut for cutting. Then I found green and pink paper on clearance at Michael’s, cut the flower shapes on Cricut glued the two together, then glued on a lollipop stick- same ones I used for food labels.
The cookies
When I made
cake pops for
Daniel’s birthday back in May, her blog led me to another blog and to another and to another. And before I knew it, I was deep in food/dessert/cookie blogs and was amazed at what people were baking! Now, I’m not insulting their talent, but none of these bloggers were professionally trained or culinary graduates. Just moms. Like me. So I figured, if they can do it, so can I! Problem is, what am I going to do with a ton of iced cookies? They do NOT need to sit around my house. I got it- Maggie’s birthday!
I almost made cookies for Will’s first, but didn’t find a monkey cutter locally (and was not going to pay $10 for a cookie cutter after the cost of shipping!) and decorated some fire truck cookies for his second, but nothing like this. This is the major league of cookie decorating folks. My two favorite cookie artists are
Glorious Treats and
Sugarbelle. I used their recipes and tips for sugar cookies and royal icing. Their blogs are wonderfully detailed, offer great tips and very helpful tutorials, I didn’t even feel overwhelmed going into this. All the information was at my finger tips and I just went for it!
Good thing about these cookies- they store well- so I was able to complete these at home little by little the week of Maggie’s party. I decided on ladybugs, flowers and 1’s for the cookie shapes and jumped right in.
Perhaps debuting my 1st attempt at a big party was not the best idea, but they get eaten anyway, and it’s not like I was selling them to someone for a wedding. I planned to put all the cupcakes on the stand and set the cookies out on a platter; I didn’t forget about the cupcake toppers, just convinced myself they would fit and moved on. But I had to place the cookies on the stand in place of the cupcakes, so I didn’t get a pretty picture of them all laid out nicely like I wanted. And they were eaten by the end of the party- obviously- so I couldn’t photograph them at that time like I did a lot of the decorations. Anyway, I think all the designs are represented.
They’re nowhere near the quality of cookies these bloggers put out, and I can see plenty of imperfections, but I’m honestly proud of my work and happy with how they turned out on my first try. Thanks to everyone who helped me put the food together and set up the dessert table!
