A sweet little boy

I'm so excited that I'm a great aunt to a sweet little boy named Caleb. I've made many baby shower cakes and cookies in the past but there was something very special about making it for my first grandnephew!  Congratulations to my niece and nephew, may God bless your family and fill your home with love, laughter and pitter-patter of small feet!  

When I saw these adorable little blue birds I decided to use the bluebird theme when making the cake and cookies. Sweet little bluebirds for a sweet little boy!! Tweet! Tweet!

~ We celebrate the beautiful bluebird as a symbol of love, hope and happiness.- Larry Zeleny ~

I have just bought a new cookie cutter in the shape of a onesie so I used it to make these cute party favors.

I made baby blue polka dot onesies and baby bottles with blue lids to match. I made some round mini's covered with white and blue non-parils. Personal I like the mini's the best, I think they're the perfect little bite!! If you want to try making some decorated sugar cookies go here to try my favorite sugar cookie recipe.

I made a light green set of onesies, baby bottles and mini's too! With the leftover royal icing, click here for SweetBakedLove's royal icing recipe, I made tiny little blue birds to add to the fronts of the onesies. I made the tiny blue birds on waxed paper and dried them separately, then attach them to the front with a little dab of royal icing.  

I packaged the cookies in little baggie and tied them with ribbons. I also bought these really cute pastel baskets for $.50!!! What a great deal and they were the perfect container to put the cookies into.

So one day I was pinning away on Pinterest and came across the cutest little blue birdie ever. They were baby blue Jordan Almonds with royal icing piped faces. You can find the Jordan Almond Blue Birdie tutorial here on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle blog site.

By the way if you haven't checked out 

Pinterest yet you should, it's a virtual pinboard. You can share and organize all your beautiful crafts, baking and more here.

See, I told they are adorable!

So cute and so easy to make!!

Only thing left was the cake. After a lot of brain storming and after rifling through all my decorating supplies I had a 'Eureka' moment!

I had bought these little baby clothes cutters a while back and had always wanted to use them. Baby clothes + bluebirds = Clothesline Baby Shower Cake with delicate flowers and of course lots and lots of bluebirds.

Once I had made a simple sketch of the cake I was on the way to making a lot of baby clothes, bluebirds, flowers, and letters.

Baby Clothes and Daffodils...

Welcome Baby Caleb!

Foxgloves and bluebirds!

Cake decorations all done time to make a cake....

Bluebirds sitting on fence posts....

Bluebirds sitting in a bush...

When I made the gumpaste baby clothes I used a clean thin pin to pierce a hole through the top of the shirts and onesies so that once they were completely dry I could thread a clear nylon string through the pre-made holes and actually "hang" the clothes on the line.

 I hang baby clothes all around the sides of the cake which I attached with royal icing. Foxgloves and daffodils adorned the sides too!

Chocolate Cake with Oreo Cookie Swiss Meringue buttercream.

Welcome to the World!

Bluebirds galore....from the cake to the cookie and even the almonds!!   

And this was just part of the beautiful and delicious spread that was enjoyed by all at the shower.

My sister-in-law and little niece made some very delicious snacks, treats and drinks.

Here's a few of my favorite:

"Babies in blankets" - lil smokies wrapped in puff pastry. How cute, hey?

Mini croissants with a delicious crab filling.

Tortilla rolls filled with cheese, meat and veggies. These were so good:)

Fruit Kebabs!

A very delicious blue punch my niece made, it was so good. It had ice cream in it, that should explain it all :)

A great time was had by all. There were grandmother, great grandmothers, aunties, great aunties, family and friends all together to celebrate the birth of a beautiful baby boy. My niece is gonna be a wonderful momma with a very stylish baby boy. So many adorable outfits for a boy...little sweaters, matching booties, suits and more. I think everyone had a good time and as for little baby Caleb he spent most of the time peacefully sleeping completely unaware that this party was for him....

To the new mommy and daddy, enjoy your journey into parenthood and have fun!! Lots of love and best wishes for your future with your new baby boy.

And now for a blast from the past. The second cake, in my decorating history, that I attempted to make was a baby shower cake for my nephew Jonah's baby shower. I made it when cake making wasn't as popular and there weren't nearly as many gadgets and products to choose from but I still think it turned out great!! 

Well thanks for sticking with me through this long post! Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Have a great week:)

Thanks for stopping by,

Love

Pretty in Pink and Black!

Wow! I can't believe that half of April is gone already!! It's been such a busy month and a long time since my last blog but....I have a lot of new ideas, recipes and news to share. I don't know if you remember me saying earlier that I was working on something really special with a cool colour scheme well it was a cake for my sister Diane's 40th birthday party. The colour scheme was pink & black. I like this combination because you can use different shades of pink, throw in some grays, whites and it all comes together to create a sophisticated yet playful party theme. This theme works well for all ages, from sweet sixteen to 40th birthday party.


There are so many inexpensive pink and black party decorations you can buy or make. My favorite stop is the dollar store. I got candle holders, streamers, party decoration, packages and all kind of neat party supplies at the dollar store. Use your imagination to create cool party decoration or if you get stuck.......Pinterest is a great site to find all kinds of tips and ideas for decorating too!! Check it out if you haven't had a chance to yet 

Here's a couple ideas that I found on Pinterest which I used for decorating. I found a pin that show how to make Crepe Paper Rose Balls. 

                   

I bought pink paper tissues streamers and candle holders from the dollar store. Each ball take a roll of tissue paper. I made the paper rolls balls and used the inexpensive candler holders to display them. Cost was approximately $9.00 for all four, a bit time consuming but totally worth it. 

Blinged out Crepe Paper Rose Balls

My other sister Gail found a super cute pin which was a container filled with gumballs and a tag attached saying 40 blows, here's my version of it. Not only is it cute, but you also get to eat the gum balls or you can do what my sister did take it to work and sell the gumballs to co worker for a buck a piece...that's just good business sense :) Funny coincidence, that's what I thought of charging the guests when I bought all the gumballs, then the party pays for it self...haha!! Between my sister and I, we came up with some very cool party decorations and it all look FABULOUS!

I set up a candy buffet using clear apothecary jars filled with pink kisses, pink popcorn and gumballs. Who doesn't enjoy having a snack bar at hand? 

Milk vase filled with pink roses and white feather.

  

The table was decorated with a pink tablecloth, black feather boa, fake diamonds, black cutlery, pink paper plates and fresh pink flowers. 

I found these fun and cute sunglasses at the dollar store. Great idea for photo booth!

Even Sydney got in on the fun !!

Then came the best part, the dessert table!!The table was filled with delicious sweet treat with every different shade of pink and black your can imagine. There were decorated sugar cookies, chocolate tart shells filled with raspberry mousse, chocolate cupcake with pink vanilla bean frosting and of course birthday cake.

I love Paris in the Springtime.....

I love Paris in the fall...

And then the piéce de résistance. The birthday cake!! I had fun making all the sugar flower and decoration for the cake and yes I have to admit it definitely helped that one of the colours was pink! I like pink a lot :) Also that fact that my sister favorite flower is the peony helped too. I really enjoy making sugar peony, they're so much fun to make. 

Once the petals are dry, then I dust them with shimmer dust.

I got a little carried away and made way more then I needed but I just couldn't stop. When I making something so beautiful it's hard not to get carried away sometimes. I guess that's one of the main reasons way I enjoy cake decorating and making hand-crafted sugar flowers, I could sit for hours crafting little rose buds and flowers, waiting with anticipation as to how the final product will look. I usually put a favorite movie on to play in the background, something that I've seen or should I say heard a couple hundred times and go sugar petal crazy!!   

I still don't have a mold or cutters for a peony flower so I came up with my own technique to cut out the peony flower petals. I think it works great! I use a tear drop cookie cutter to cut out the petal shape then I trim the top edges with cookie cutters that have different shape and size scallop edges to make the ruffled petal shape.

 Best advice I can give which I learned from Jacqueline Butler's blog is to:

1. Study the flower your going to make

2. Figure out how it's constructed

3. Recreate the shape of the petal (whatever way you can)     

Her blog site is so helpful with sugar paste floral design. If you're interested in learning more about made sugar flowers I definitely recommend that you check her blog out. It's called The Petalsweet Blog.

And so many, many hours later I finished cutting, molding, dusting sugar flowers, pearl necklaces and all the other decorations I needed. 

 This birthday cake was a two-tier stacked cake, the bottom cake was a delicious German torte with layers and layers of vanilla shortcake, raspberry jam, apricot jam and coffee cream. The top cake was a carrot cake with a scrumptious cream cheese frosting.

Both cakes were gift boxes stacked on top of one another. Then tied with sugar paste ribbon bows, covered with gray daisies and pink peonies. Each gift box was draped with strings of pink, black and white pearls.

Almost there.....

Viola.....Diane's 40th Pink and Black Birthday Cake!!

Well I had a great time planning this birthday party for my sister. Good food, good times and great memories are the best way to celebrate any birthday. Hope your 40th was a great one Diane....Happy Birthday!

~ Happy Birthday Diane ~

~ This is one of my sister's favorite poems ~

“I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie 

burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being 

strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe 

that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow 

is another day and I believe in miracles.” Audrey Hepburn

Yay! My pink and black theme birthday cake was featured 

on Mrs.Fox's Sweets Party!! What a pleasant surprise.... 

after a long tiring day. Thanks to everyone that stopped by 

and checked out my blog. Thank you Christina and Katie for 

hosting the party:)

Thanks for stopping by