The Phantom Moon

Pig Invasion

On Sunday, we had a Pig Invasion Party for my BB's 6th birthday party.  My daughter is obsessed with these little Green Piggies (a la Angry Birds) and now has a total of 14 green stuffed pigs.  She's given them all special names, each has a special place in her room and they are her "brothers and sisters" (she's a crack up). 

For her Pig Invasion cake, I made a yellow cake with creamy buttercream icing that was covered in fondant and pigs galore.  Everything (with the exception of the cake boards) was completely edible, from the giant moon rock craters to the wood, ice / glass and stone planks.  All of the figurines were painstakingly made in fondant and had to meet my boss's (aka the birthday girl) approval.

The cake design is loosely based on some of the levels from Angry Birds Space which was both fun and a challenge to bring to life in cake.  I incorporated her 11 Green Pigs, 1 BB Pig (to her specifications since it's her of course) and 4 random pigs.

This is BB Pig (above) with "King Pickles", her favorite of the bunch.  And what kind of party would it be without a birthday cake, presents and desserts galore?  In total she had 5 presents, birthday cake with 6 candles, donuts, ice cream, cookies, eclairs, lollipops and soft pretzels.

I have to say, this set up was my hubby's idea and I wish I had gotten a better shot of it.  He placed the pigs on a riser of sorts made out of the mini wooden planks I'd made out of fondant.  And of course, more yummy desserts were sprinkled around them!  I'm surprised those pigs didn't eat any of the sweets before the party started but I'm sure it had to do with the fact that everyone was eyeballin' them during the party. 

The TNT boxes were some of my favorites!  Unlike the planks, these aren't solid and were built piece by piece which I think gives them a bit more charm.  Boom baby!  And since I couldn't find any mini letter cutters that would work I had to individually cut each out with my trusty exacto blade and I'm so thankfully none of the letters were curved or I would have been toast.

If you look closely, you'll see some of the mini edible glitter stars that I found online and stuck to the cake.  I had to add each one by one and I swear, by the time I was adding the stars it was at least 3am (the night before the party) and I was going cross eye'd, but at least they came out well!

And look, mint chocolate chip ice cream in a waffle cone!  Not my baby's favorite flavor but since I was doing the work I figured I had earned the right to add something I liked, ya know?

Here she is in all her cakey spacey piggy glory.  I absolutely loved how it came out and BB was so happy as well which makes all of those late nights working on mini fondant pigs, planks and sweeties worth it.  Happy 6th Birthday, love!

Turning 5 with Hello Kitty

BB loves Hello Kitty.  She loves cats in general and there's something about this cute white kitty with an adorable red bow in her hair that has captivated my little girl.  So for her 5th birthday we decided to make her first official party a Hello Kitty themed one.  It also happens to be the first big party that we've had at our new house so it was a bit nerve wracking for sure.  The birthday girl was super excited and helped place her balloons around the house on the morning of her party, still in her pj's of course! 

The day before I spent a few hours making her special birthday cake.  I took my direction from the amazing Raspberri Cupcakes' Purple Ombre Sprinkles Cake.  Instead of the Purple Ombre coloring for the actual cake, I chose to use a rainbow theme which I pulled from her Happy Birthday banner and some of her other HK decorations (I'll show you the inside shortly ...).

I thought it would be cute to add a little felt pennant to the cake so little Hello Kitty wasn't all alone on top of the delicious 10 layer sprinkles cake.  I hand sewed the felt pieces together using some red and white twine and I think it complimented the cake perfectly.

If you're thinking of making a sprinkles cake as well I'd totally recommend it but I must warn you, our kitchen was full or sprinkles when all was said and done!  I even found sprinkles in the stove the next day, lol.  But it was completely worth it and I would make another one this weekend if I had the time :)

I also decided to switch things up a bit and cut out some rainbow colored felt circles and stitched them together to make decorations for the main party room as well as scattered throughout the house.  They came out just right and even had a bonus feature of casting the prettiest lights on the ceiling.

I also borrowed some of BB's Hello Kitty toys and decorated our mantel with them, along with some mini mushrooms I painted and another set of hand sewn rainbow color pennants that were originally supposed to decorate the table but looked even better on the mantel along with her toys.

After eating 'til our bellies were dangerously full, it was cake time!  BB was such a trooper and let us sing Happy Birthday to her (it's always been banned from bday parties in the past since she's never liked it and for whatever reason, has always made her sad) and blew out her candle all by herself.  Hubby and I couldn't have been any prouder of our big girl!

Then it was time to slice into the cake and everyone gasped when they saw the colorful layers!  It was awesome and just what I was hoping for to say the least!  Everyone loved the cake and you can bet that I packed up plenty of leftovers for everyone to take home and enjoy again the next day.

And here is my very own "cheese" shot as I was handing out these beauties.  Can you tell I was proud of myself, lol?

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!  I'm so glad you enjoyed your party and I can't wait to celebrate with you again next year ... xoxoxoxoxo

Almost 5

My daughter walked into my room the other day and told me, "You know, Mommy, I'm not your baby anymore.  I'm your big girl now!".  I told my hubby that I almost told her she should go ahead, take my heart out of my chest and crush it with her tiny little hands while she was at it because that's exactly what it felt like, lol.  Instead I informed her that she would always be my baby and ignored the "nah-ah's" that followed.  

And why was she breaking my heart first thing in the morning?  This is the month my sweet child turns 5.  Well, she thinks she actually turned 5 on Sunday which was the day of her birthday party and not her actual birthday (the only way she'd agree to a party was if she was turning 5 that day so she agreed to turn 5 on Sunday, then again on her actual bday later this week).

I still feel like it was just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant with her and now I have a feisty (almost) 5 year old having conversations with me and cracking me up daily.  Plus, she leaves cute little soft sculptures randomly around the house which I love.

This is also the reason I've been absent from here for the last week or so as I was trying to get ready for her party plus all the other five million that occur in this month (my sister, brother, cousin and I all have our first borns' bdays this month, crazy right?).  Sorry about that!  I'll blog and post pictures about it shortly but in the meantime I need a nap or two to recoup from the partying, 10 layer cake baking, and Hello Kitty parting ... and I think someone else could use a little nap too ...

I'm already jealous of the snoozing going on ...