Party, Party, PARTY!!

Holy SMOKIES!!  It's been a while.

I just have to say, we are LOVING summertime!!!  June was packed with birthdays in our little family.  The last three weeks of the month, we celebrated a birthday a week.

That was fun.

So, I apologize for the lack of posts, but for me...summer time is family time.

Here are the three fun cakes I made for my growing kiddos...

a Kit Kat cake, a bulldozer cake, and an ice cream cake.

I hope you're having a WONDERFUL summer!!!

How to Make an Owl Cake

Sorry I haven't posted this tutorial sooner; we've had a busy week!  We had four college students come and stay at our house for a week while they were in between semesters.  Talk about fun!  They made me feel young again, though 31 really isn't that old.  

I think it may be the five kids that make me feel old.

Oh well, I still wouldn't trade my kids for anything.  I wouldn't be showing you how to make this fun cake if it weren't for them anyway.   : )

                              

Here's what you'll need:

1 or 2 cake mixes, any flavor you'd like (I made two cake mixes because I wanted to try lots of different sizes)

Chocolate frosting

White frosting

Any color food gel or food coloring (I went with blue for my little boy)

Large chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate)

Candy Corn (I used a caramel flavored candy corn that had only two colors)

Hershey's Kisses

Using my large oven-safe Pampered Chef Batter Bowl, I poured an entire chocolate cake mix into it, after it was sprayed with baking spray, placed it onto a baking sheet, and baked it 25 degrees less than the box instructs for right around an hour.  I used a wooden skewer to test if it was done.

The other cake mix, I divided between lots of other oven-safe Pampered Chef bowls.  Do not bake the larger bowls with the smaller bowls since the baking time will be much different.  These smaller bowls can be baked at the temperature listed on the box.  Keep an eye on them, however, as baking times will vary.

Once the cakes have baked and cooled, place them on your desired serving tray or cake stand.  Frost completely with chocolate frosting.

Using a large circle tip in a pastry bag, squeeze dots (that look like Hershey's Kisses) around the base of your cake, leaving space for the front "feathers" and eyes.

With a small offset spatula, press the spatula into the dot and pull straight up.  Continue until the first row is done.

Repeat for subsequent rows.

Keep going all the way to the top.

Here's a picture of the space I left for the front "feathers" and eyes.

When the chocolate frosting is done, repeat the same process with your colored frosting, leaving a space for the eyes.

Pipe white frosting in large circles for the eyes.  Add the large chocolate chips and the candy corn for the beak.

Finish with the Hershey's Kisses for the ears.

I continued on and made more...

...many more.  Isn't that the cutest little owl family?!

We used one of the small owl cakes as my son's smash cake.  Perfect size!

Rainbow Dipped Marshmallows

My last post on my daughter's birthday party is to explain how to make Rainbow Dipped Marshmallows.

As with everything else about the birthday party, these are so simple to make.

Here's what you'll need:

Large marshmallows

White chocolate

Rainbow sprinkles

Popsicle sticks

Melt the white chocolate in a glass or ceramic bowl.  Push the Popsicle sticks into the marshmallows.  Dip them however far you'd like into the white chocolate, then immediately sprinkle with sprinkles.

Place them in a Styrofoam board with holes approximately 2-3 inches apart to allow the chocolate to cool and set.

Display them on a platter when you're ready to use them.

Or stick them into little plastic bags to use as thank you gifts.

A Rainbow Cake

This cake was so simple to make!  I love that it looks so amazing and is so easy to do.

I just started with three boxes of white cake mix.  I mixed them up according to the package directions and separated the batter into six bowls.

Add the food coloring or food gel (as in this case) to each of the bowls.

I absolutely love these AmeriColor food gels.  And these were the colors I used for this cake.

Mix the coloring into the batter and pour the batter into greased and floured 9-inch cake pans.

Bake according to the package instructions.

Allow to cool on racks.

When you're ready to assemble the cake, cut the tops off of each cake so you have a nice even cake.

I like to use this Whipped frosting.  It's easier to work with and it's stickier for longer, great for when you want to decorate with candy.

 Layer each of the cakes in the order that you'd like.  I did purple, blue, green, red, orange, and yellow, slathering frosting in between each layer.  

If you're worried that the cake will tilt and topple, you can use a few wooden skewers in the middle to hold it in place.

Then frost the entire outside of the cake with more frosting.

You don't have to worry about it looking perfect.  It'll be covered with Skittles shortly.

Arrange Skittles in any rainbow pattern that you'd like.  You can totally be creative here.

Top with candles and Rainbow Dash (for our Rainbow Dash Rainbow Party).

So, so easy, yet so, so impressive.

Rainbow Dash Rainbow Party

We just celebrated a birthday at our house.  When my daughter and I were searching for birthday ideas, we absolutely fell in love with Kelly's daughter's party over at Here Comes the Sun.  My little girl LOVES My Little Ponies and I loved all of the rainbow colors.

Once we put everything together, I may have been even more excited than my little Brynnlee.

Wonderful Kelly did the banners and printables for me.  LOVED them!!

My older daughter made these rainbow fruit kabobs while I made the rainbow dipped marshmallows.

And then there was the cake.

I loved it.

She loved it.

Her friends loved it.

It was awesome.

How's that for a teaser?  I'll be posting how to make this super fun cake later this week.

The party turned out to be perfect. Good food, fun kids, great time.

Perfect.